FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
123 
ing allows the growth of foreign weeds 
and grasses which take up more moisture, 
and make more work than the wire grass 
if the ground is left undisturbed. In 1877 
I set out some trees in hammock land, and 
as I was very anxious that they do well, 
during the next spring I grubbed a circle 
around the trees and beyond the ends of 
the roots. During the second year I went 
back to grub a larger circle and found 
that I was cutting large roots that had 
grown beyond where I had grubbed the 
year before. I saw that those roots did 
not need any loosening of the ground, so 
I did no more grubbing. 
We gave our young trees about one 
pound of fertilizer to each tree, three 
times a year during the first three years. 
During the fourth year the amount to 
each tree was increased to three pounds, 
and applied three times during that year. 
We think now it would have been better 
if we had given two pounds to each tree 
at each application during the third year 
instead of only one pound, though the 
trees grew well and looked healthy. In 
the spring of the fourth year, we noticed 
some purple scale getting on the trees, 
which was the reason for increasing the 
amount of fertilizer so markedly at that 
time. We have found that a little addi¬ 
tional fertilizer generally rids the trees 
of purple scale, but an over dose may 
cause die-back. We have no die-back in 
our groves at present. 
