47 



pine lands, and manures applied, containing all the elements of vege- 

 table life used by the roots. 



Some of the commercial manures are valuable when used in com- 

 bination with other things, but none of them contain in right propor- 

 tions all the elements needed for the orange. The writer has used and 

 >een used a large variety of these fertilizers, and some benefit has been 

 derived from most of them. From others no advantage has been dis- 

 coverable. A good.article of ground bone, where the oils and phos- 

 phoric acid have not been too generally expelled by burning; Peruvian 

 ^uauo, and potash, both the nitrate and sulphate, are very good when 

 Combined with muck. These are especially valuable when early vegeta- 

 bles are to be grown among the orange trees, as they highly stimulate 

 the soil and hasten forward both the vegetables and orange trees. 



Laud plaster should be especially mentioned as beneficial to our 

 Mindy soil, as it not only furnishes an important element to the soil, 

 but, in the absence of clay in most of our soil, furnishes a valuable 

 ubsorber and retainer of the volatile manures so easily expelled by our 

 Abundance of sunshine. The writer thinks he has seen another advan- 

 tage in the use of land plaster in the check which the sulphur, 

 Contained in the plaster, has upon some of the insects which damage 

 the trees. 



Green crops turned under are highly beneficial to -young trees. 

 Rye, oats, and barley sown in the Fall and turned under in the Spring 

 :ind followed by one or two crops of cow peas during the Summer help 

 forward a grove of trees wonderfully. It is still better if this be 

 accompanied by a liberal dressing of wood-ashes. One ton to the acre 

 is not too much. 



Manures from the stables, cow-pens, hennery and pig-sty, indeed 

 from every place where waste is deposited, should first be deodorized 

 by the liberal use of land plaster or sulphate rtf iron copperas 

 <ii solved in water and composted with muck, and be carfully saved 

 and utilized. As they are highly stimulating they should be com- 

 posted with three or four times the quantity of muck, and frequently 

 turned before using. 



But of all the manures, that which is cheapest and most abundant 

 is the muck to be found in our rivers, creeks, lakes and ponds. A 



