FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
115 
It is also important that samples be 
drawn from such a number of bags as 
will properly represent any given lot of 
fertilizer. If there is a §mall number, all 
should be sampled; and if there are many 
bags, samples should be drawn from not 
less than 10-20% of those present. Great 
care must also be taken in properly mix¬ 
ing the samples after they are drawn, so 
that a uniform, composite sample can be 
secured for analysis. If I were merely 
to draw a sample of fertilizer with my 
hand from the tops of bags in a shipment 
and were to send it to your state chemist 
for analysis, the chances are that he 
would report that the analysis did not 
agree with the guaranty. Imagine for 
a moment that each of you is a manufac¬ 
turer and I the purchaser. You will ap¬ 
preciate the position in which you would 
find yourselves, if I used such an analysis 
as a basis for non-payment of the goods 
and as a means of having the goods con¬ 
fiscated. It must be obvious that such a 
situation as this would add to your over¬ 
head costs in the manufacture of ferti¬ 
lizers and to the prices which you would 
have to charge me for them; or the alter¬ 
native would be that you would be driven 
from business in this State. 
My conception of a fertilizer inspection 
is that it should be conducted in such a 
way, and the law should be so drawn, that 
it affords protection to the purchaser and 
at the same time protects the honest man¬ 
ufacturer from injustice, imposition and 
the perpetration of fraud on the part of 
any dishonest purchaser; in other words, 
the inspector of fertilizers should be 
backed by a just law and should stand as 
an absolutely neutral party, seeing to it 
that absolute justice is done to both pro¬ 
ducer and consumer. No other plan is as 
good for either the purchaser or the man¬ 
ufacturer. 
DISCUSSION 
I 
\ 
Question: Mr. Chairman, the speaker 
has already remarked that too much lime 
may be injurious to citrus fruits. Now I 
wish to ask if too much iron, too much 
magnesia or too much of other materials 
would be injurious, and at what point the 
limit should be set? 
Answer: In regard to iron there may 
be a situation where, on account of large 
amounts of moisture and organic matter, 
an oxide of iron may be formed which, in 
certain combinations, may possibly be in¬ 
jurious to plants. We know, for exam¬ 
ple, that in some of the peat and muck 
soils of Holland and England, protosul¬ 
phate of iron has been found in such 
quantities as to be destructive to vegeta¬ 
tion. There are instances on record 
where soils contained so much magnesia 
as to be injurious or almost sterile; but 
this is doubtless inconceivable in the case 
of Florida soils, since most of them con¬ 
tain very little magnesia, so little, in fact, 
that I suspect some magnesia may be ben¬ 
eficial for some crops under certain cir¬ 
cumstances. It is true that excessive 
amounts of certain plant foods may be 
injurious; but I do not think we have rea¬ 
son to fear the use of too much, especially 
in view of the present high prices, which 
have unfortunately placed too great a 
curb upon their purchase. 
Plants differ very widely in their sus¬ 
ceptibility to injury by excessive amounts 
of certain salts of iron, magnesia, and 
10 
