88 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



CHAPTEE X. 



HOW TO FERTILIZE. 



This is a subject of great importance, and one that it 

 behooves every farmer and fruit grower to study closely. 

 It is the corner-stone of his prosperity, the back-bone of 

 his wealth. 



There are many commercial fertilizers in the market of 

 approved value, and it is well to use them in conjunction 

 with home-made manures when one has the means to do 

 so ; but scarcely one in ten of the embryo Florida orange 

 growers is able to procure these, and so his chief depend- 

 ence is on the home-made compost heap. This is by no 

 means a despicable resource, as we shall presently see ; in 

 fact there is no excuse for any man in Florida who owns a 

 horse and cart for not having an abundance of valuable 

 fertilizer for his trees, at merely the expenditure of time, 

 the light labor of collecting trash, and hauling it home. 



The man who has not the means to purchase the needed 

 food for his trees, and yet has no great heaps constantly 

 preparing for such, is simply a lazy man, and not such as 

 will ever work his way to better times, even in Florida. 



We do not need to discuss the question of applying 

 commercial fertilizers, as each manufacturer publishes his 

 particular directions, and these should be followed in each 

 case. 



In forming a compost heap the farmer should bear in 

 mind the particular purpose to which it is to be applied, 

 since neither all trees nor all crops take kindly to the same 

 kind of food. There is as much difference, comparatively, 

 in the food of the different members of the vegetable king- 

 dom as there is in that of the animal. A horse will not 



