CHAPTER 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 grow- 

 ers is able to procure these, and so his chief dependence is on 

 the home-made compost heap. 



This is by no means a despicable resource, as we shall 

 presently see ; in fact, there is ho excuse for any man in Florida 

 who owns a horse and cart, for not having an abundance of valu- 

 able 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 prepar- 

 ing 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 commer- 

 cial fertilizers, as each manufacturer publishes his particular 

 directions, and these should be followed in each case. 



For ourself, among many good fertilizers (Mapes & Stock- 

 bridges, for instance), we regard that already referred to in a 

 previous chapter, " Gould's Fertilizer and Insect Exterminator," 

 as pre-eminent for the orange grower, inasmnch as it is manu- 

 factured in Jacksonville, and thus can be, and is sold cheaper, 

 because there is no freight to pay from the north ; but also 

 because it does drive away and kill the insect enemies of the 

 tree, while also ministering to the appetite of its hungry little 

 rootlets. 



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