FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
173 
all sorts of mixtures, to have such ab¬ 
normal soil conditions as to cause a 
most abnormal fertilizer to give excel¬ 
lent results; and it is equally true that 
poor soil management and unfavorable 
climatic conditions can bar success des¬ 
pite the best of fertilizer. 
While we freely recognize that our 
best commercial formulas came from 
grove experimentation, like all good 
things, they are the few from the many. 
By far the greater number of mixtures 
made to meet special conditions are 
unbalanced and wasteful, and the “spe¬ 
cial conditions” which materialize are 
nearly always different from those an¬ 
ticipated. 
Very often a grower helps us by his 
experiments to the detriment of his own 
bank account when the work of years 
is averaged up; but such a grower is 
first of all a student of plant life and 
counts money well invested when by 
its expenditure additional information 
has been gained. 
A HARMLESS AMUSEMENT 
If the novice can afford both the time 
and the money to test out the many 
facts he can learn far more easily from 
books and from people and enjoys doing 
so, it is, of course, a harmless and in¬ 
teresting amusement; but he is gen¬ 
erally looking for financial profit and 
he certainly will come far nearer find¬ 
ing it if he adheres to established form¬ 
ulas. 
VALUE OF GOOD AVERAGE 
This has been recognized by many, 
for a large number of the finest and 
most profitable groves in the state have 
never had anything in the way of plant 
food but standard commercial formu¬ 
las. 
A good fertilizer is one, that will 
produce good crops under varying con¬ 
ditions. We cannot foresee the weath¬ 
er, so the best average means the great¬ 
est general success. 
A good system of fertilization is one 
that can be followed year after year, 
giving to the trees a constantly increas¬ 
ing bearing surface and heavy yields of 
fancy fruit. 
I say good fertilization will do this,' 
but with the understanding that other 
influences are reasonably favorable. As 
mentioned before, fertilizer, though a 
very important factor, can be out¬ 
weighed by soil management and cli¬ 
matic conditions, to say nothing of in¬ 
sect and disease troubles. 
SOIL ACIDITY 
It is only in late years that we have 
given soil conditions any particular at¬ 
tention. Soil activities are very intri¬ 
cate and our time today is too limited' 
even to touch upon them outside one 
ph ase of the action of fertilizer materi¬ 
als which predominates in the general 
interest at the present time; that is, 
tendency to soil acidity. 
This tendency is greatly magnified. 
Sulphate of ammonia and sulphate of 
potash have the greatest acid tendency 
of all chemical sources of plant food, 
yet ten cents worth of lime, counting 
lime worth four dollars per ton laid 
down at your home station, will satisfy 
