FERTILIZING. 97 



ply of fertility in the soil to make the blossoms set 

 the fruit, and so the tree makes the easier effort to 

 form wood instead of fruit. After growth has been 

 for a while suspended, by drought or poverty of 

 soil, I have brought trees into blooming and bear- 

 ing during midsummer by a liberal application of 

 soluble manure. I have seen a grove that had pre- 

 viously borne only a few scattering oranges brought 

 into liberal bearing by the application of a good 

 dressing of manure in November. 



Once more before leaving this subject : While 

 commercial manures, properly combined and suffi- 

 ciently concentrated, are a great convenience, owing 

 to the ease with which they are distributed, the 

 temptation to adulterate with something worthless, 

 and sometimes something injurious to the orange, 

 is so great that there is much uncertainty as to their 

 real value. I have occasionally used manures of 

 the same brand and from the same establishment 

 which differed so greatly in their real value that 

 while I have found one lot entirely satisfactory, 

 another lot has proven quite worthless. The intel- 

 ligent orange-grower can proceed with much more 

 certainty if he can make his own manures. For 

 this purpose no country can furnish better facilities 

 than Florida. In addition to the abundance of 

 material for mulching, already mentioned, there is 

 such a vast quantity of muck, leaves, and grass 

 from forests and marshes that with a few cattle or 

 horses a large amount of valuable manure can be 



