IN THE EVERGLADES 43 



our crops are very valuable, it would b; fallacy to run the risk, 

 on account of saving a few dollars, of omitting one or more of 

 these valuable ingredients. However, in case we are fully aware 

 that our soil contains great quantities of any one of these ingredi- 

 ents, as for instance we know that ammonia is overabundant in 

 Everglade muck land, we can dispense with this most expensive 

 part. 



Foremost among the advantages to be enumerated to the credit 

 of commercial fertilizers is that, being in a concentrated form, 

 they are much more easily handled and applied, and it therefore 

 costs much less to produce a crop and the grower can grow a 

 much larger acreage ; moreover, since we are aware of their con- 

 tents we are enabled to feed just the right proportion of the three 

 necessary elements. This knowledge also allows us to figure to a 

 nicety just how much a ton of fertilizer is worth in the market, as 

 we know the exact value of each of the component parts. It so 

 happens that the element that appears to be the most plentiful in 

 the average fertilizer is also the most expensive and the hardest 

 to keep when we have it. I refer to nitrogen, this element being so 

 volatile that it will leave any substance it happens to have become 

 a part of much more readily than any of the other ingredients 

 enumerated. It will, if in an available form, mix readily with 

 water, or if a component part of a combustible bulk, will escape 

 into the air at once in case of fire, or even if it should come in 

 contact with extreme heat. Thus, a great portion will leach out 

 of the soil should it be subjected to a long heavy rain, or will 

 escape into^the air from a fermenting compost heap, should the 

 latter become exceedingly hot. It will, however, unite readily with 

 dry earth, hence it is advisable to place a layer of dry pulverized 

 muck or earth over fermenting compost heaps for protection. 

 Phosphate and potash, on the other hand, will be retained in the 

 soil to a much greater degree, and being minerals are not 

 combustible. 



We have in this State great mines of phosphate rock which are 

 mined and placed on the market after having been ground and' 

 made available by dissolving with sulphuric acid. This form is 



