92 
•FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
his enthusiasm, as well as his bills, just a 
little. Any one who does not feel compe¬ 
tent, after listening to the ever ready rep¬ 
resentatives of the numerous fertilizing 
concerns, to make the proper selection has 
only to refer to the state bulletin, furnish¬ 
ed free, and he will find out all about it in 
the tables that have been published and 
republished from time immemorial, until 
they are, to some ‘of us perhaps, more 
familiar than the writings brought down 
from Moses. 
This committee cannot and will not 
V 
undertake to lay down any rules of fer¬ 
tilization, believing that every intelligent 
grower, after a study of his soil and a 
consideration of his stocks, can make a 
proper selection for his own individual 
wants. It may be well, however, to say 
that the committee believes it is a well 
established fact that to^ fertilize abundant¬ 
ly, and to fertilize frequently with the 
right kind of fertilizer and at the right 
time is essential to successful and profita¬ 
ble production. Fertilizers containing a 
high percentage of ammonia during the 
wood and foliage growing seasons of 
Spring and Summer, and fertilizers hav¬ 
ing a high percentage of potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid during the fruit maturing 
seasons of Fall and Winter, are requisite 
to the fruitfulness of all kinds of trees and 
plants. 
Some very successful growers cling to 
the plan of applying fertilizers only twice 
a year, but a large preponderance of evi¬ 
dence is in favor of not less than three ap¬ 
plications. By a judicious rotation and 
alternation of the ready-make mixtures 
offered by the various fertilizer concerns. 
nearly all necessary requirements can be 
met. Sometimes, however, there are con¬ 
ditions arising from environment, soil, 
stocks, previous neglect, starvation or 
overfeeding etc., that may require special 
formulas, and in such cases the combined 
experience of the grower and chemical 
knowledge of the manufacturer are neces¬ 
sary to produce the best results. 
Irrigation. 
The matter of irrigation is not a new 
one in Florida, and was practiced by many 
progressive growers prior to the dis¬ 
astrous freezes of ten years ago. 
With modern, up-to-date improve¬ 
ments in pumps and power, we can now 
irrigate successfully and economically. 
Notwithstanding what has been done and 
is now being done, irrigation is still large¬ 
ly in the experimental stage. Exactly 
what effect irrigation will have on insect 
plagues is not yet known to a certainty, 
but it is believed that it will be beneficial. 
The over-cautious, or hesitating grower 
reasons that there are in Florida only six 
or eight weeks in the Spring when irriga¬ 
tion is at all necessary, overlooking, or 
disregarding the fact that sometimes one 
or two rains during this period saves his 
crop. In the arid regions of the West in¬ 
telligent irrigation has removed all un¬ 
certainty and the grower knows he can 
always year after year have uniform re¬ 
sults. Plant growth and fruitfulness are 
so dependent on a proper supply of mois¬ 
ture that no one can question the useful¬ 
ness of irrigation, and the only question 
in the whole matter is—will it pay? We 
believe it will. 
