FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
81 
bles around with a pick. It can’t be 
plowed. What would be the use of put¬ 
ting acid phosphate on that; or had I bet¬ 
ter use something else to get my phos¬ 
phoric acid? 
Mrs. Prange: I cannot imagine a soil 
with so much iron in it. I am sure you 
would find nothing more available than 
phosphoric acid. I think that would come 
more within the line of some scientist. 
Mr. Hume, I think you had better take 
that. 
Mr. Hume: Mr. Skinner, I will ask 
you to answer that question. (Laughter.) 
Mr. Skinner: I don’t want to touch 
it. (Laughter). 
After the freeze of ’94-95, one of the 
largest manufacturers of fertilizer in 
this country located in New Orleans, 
came to Florida to close up all his ac¬ 
counts. Among some of the accounts, 
was mine. I settled mine with him and 
helped him settle a good many others. 
He was a big man, a fine man, and he 
said, “Skinner, I want to leave you one 
piece of advice to spread among the grow¬ 
ers of Florida, and that is this; the grow¬ 
ers of Florida are using altogether too 
much potash.” 
There is absolutely no need of it. Fer¬ 
tilizer people are glad to sell it to you, 
if you want it, of course. The German 
propaganda was pushing it all the time, to 
increase their trade. 
Along the same line, one of the leading 
fertilizer manufacturers of our state was 
being tried out by the German potash 
agent in New York in regard to potash 
conditions in this country. Among other 
things he told this agent he did not think 
the Americans would use, after the war, 
half as much potash as they had been 
using before as they had been finding out 
they had been using too much and the 
potash had been going to waste. 
This potash seems to get away, or 
move about, in a very peculiar manner. 
Our friend over there has it manufac¬ 
tured by nature in saw palmetto roots, 
and one funny thing about the palmetto 
roots (he spoke of it, too) is that when 
you burn palmetto roots green, you get a 
high percentage of potash; let them dry 
two or three months and you get nothing. 
Where does it go to ? 
Mr. Hume: Any further discussion ? 
There is another thing about that saw 
palmetto root. Most of our Florida soils 
have a trace of potash. You must re¬ 
member those palmetto roots have been 
tracing that trace for a long time; we 
don’t know how long they may have been 
after it, but from my observation on the 
growth of palmettos, I think some of these 
old roots around in Florida, saw Colum¬ 
bus. I don’t think we appreciate the 
fact that it is a very slow-growing plant 
and the roots are very long. 
Of course, when we refer to the potash 
in saw palmetto, we refer to the ash 
as being rich in potash. But bear in 
mind that the ash obtained is a very 
small part of the plant, and you sift that 
down and you will find a very small 
amount of potash from a very large root. 
When this is put back on the soil, it may 
be that trace we were talking about. 
There is Prof. Rolfs now. Prof. Rolfs, 
you have missed this; I congratulate you. 
(Laughter). 
