FLORIDA HORTICULTURISTS. 



NOTES COMPARED AT A FRUIT MEETING. 



AT THE spring meeting of the Florida 

 State Horticultural Society many good 

 things were brought out, of which we have 

 room for but a few : 

 Baron Von Luttichau considered the White Diamond 

 grape the most promising new variety. In many years 

 success with European varieties, he has found that Chas- 

 selas, Chasselas Luttichau and Blue Madaline all ripen 

 early before the summer rains begin. Black Hamburgs 

 are fine, but ripen about ten days too late and are 

 hurt by rains. He has raised bunches weighing three 

 pounds. He girdles the vine for extraordinary results. 

 The only successful stocks for foreign varieties are 

 Taylor and Lindley. Wild vines are also good to graft 

 upon. Scuppernong fails after a short time. Niagara 

 does well on Taylor roots, yielding eight to ten pounds 

 per vine. He puts no fertilizer in holes in planting. 

 Recommends bone meal for fertilizer for bearing vines 

 and advises caution in using ammoniated fertilizers. 

 Does not favor deep planting. Uses no compost or 

 stable manure, but a pound of bone to the vine applied 

 by dropping into holes made near the roots with an 

 iron bar. 



Mr. Bielby believes in fertilizing on the surface. 

 His finest trees were set in 1883 and have had but fif- 

 teen pounds high grade fertilizer. In orange tree cul- 

 ture Mr. Bielby thinks the time to cease cultivating de- 

 pends somewhat upon the distance the roots are from 

 water. From five to ten years they may be left un- 

 cultivated. Girdling the fig caused it to produce more ; 

 sixty-two pints of fruit were put up from one tree thus 

 treated. White Genoa and Purple Brunswick are varie- 

 ties recommended for high pine land. White Mar- 

 seilles also has proven successful. 



In the kaki (or persimmon) discussion, much confidence 

 was expressed in this fruit for profitable shipments, 

 but the badly mixed nomenclature was complained of. 

 Dr. Hawks recommended the underground cleft graft 

 as superior to any method above ground, and advised 

 using wax. Growers plant the wild seed, and bud on the 

 seedlings the next June. Buds should be cut for June 

 working with but little wood in the bud. Major Rooks 

 said they must be transplanted in December to have 

 the best success ; and said he had found a borer that 

 worked in the roots, which eats the inside out, leaving 

 only a shell. The limb girdler has troubled him con- 

 siderably. He burns the fallen limbs to destroy the 

 eggs. James Mott favors getting the different varie- 

 ties together and re-naming them. The Imperial, 

 from California, drops its fruit when a young tree, but 

 not when older. Some think it best to take all wood 



out of bud. Mr. Bielby kills the borers with carbolic 

 acid, diluted and forced into the holes with an oil-can. 

 Mr. Mead buds as soon as the sap rises, or late in the 

 fall, and uses no wood in bud. 



Mr. Bielby, in his remarks on fertilizers for orange 

 groves, said opinions differ very widely on the proper 

 kinds to be used. He still believed in mineral fertili- 

 zers, as sulphate of potash, bone phosphate and sul- 

 phate of ammonia. He applied all on the surface. He 

 would use everything available, including stable man- 

 ure and even muck, but thought " sawgrass muck " not 

 very profitable hauling. He thought the secret of the 

 results with muck was in what additions they made to 

 the composts of other fertilizers. Tobacco stems gave 

 good results in his neighborhood. Groves fed on 

 tankage (blood and bone) looked well ; when ted on 

 bone meal they looked still better. Stable manure used 

 fresh on the surface is very beneficial. Ammonia from 

 fish produced the best growth. He strongly advocated 

 the use of raw phosphate rock. It is slow at first, but 

 its effects last for years. He believes in fertilizing this 

 year for years to come, not the " hand to mouth " 

 method for this year only, and thinks lime on land where 

 grass grows would be valuable, and that sulphate 

 of potash is preferable to the ammoniated potash, be- 

 cause of the chlorine in the latter. Had used kainite 

 with good results, applying as much as ten pounds to 

 the tree. Pine soils require a complete fertilizer, as they 

 are deficient in all the food elements. Mr. Williams, in 

 treating the Indian River hammock soil, had burned 

 nothing in clearing, but worked it all into the soil, as a 

 result shipping fine crops for several years without the 

 use of fertilizers. He knew of an orchard on which raw 

 muck had been used, which grew worse, till finally, 

 after three years of feeble growth, it died. Adjoin- 

 ing groves were still vigorous. Mr. Healey stated that 

 he had twenty-four acres fertilized with "sawgrass 

 muck," on which he raised from 50 to 100 bushels corn 

 per acre and hundreds of crates of cabbage. At Kis- 

 simmee cane is raised, on land thus treated, as large as 

 his arm. It must contain much original fertility. It 

 was thought by some that muck makes pine land more 

 subject to drouth. It was shown in the discussion that 

 there are many grades of muck, and the results dcr 

 pend upon its nature and conditions. It was gener- 

 ally conceded that it is valuable as an absorbent. 



It was stated that the disease known as orange 

 blight was the most serious obstacle to orange culture 

 in several sections of Florida. Its symptoms are the 

 withering of the tree and a gradual dying of the 

 branches, beginning at the top and finally involving the 



