FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
73 
end of the three days the Columbia Co. 
soil was moistened to a height of 8 3-8 in., 
and the S. C. clay soil 10 7-8 in. In each 
case the tube was weighed with the dry 
soil, and again at the expiration of the 
three days. The pineapple soil retained 
8.9 grams of water, the Columbia Co. 
soil 23.4 grams, and the S. C. clay. 27.2 
grams or a little more than three times 
as much as the pineapple soil. This indi¬ 
cates very clearly the difference in cap¬ 
illary action. In the pineapple soils the 
grains are large and as a consequence 
many of the spaces between them are too 
large for capillary spaces. 
To illustrate in another way, if you 
could put these grains of sand together 
into the form of a lamp wick, you would 
still have a very jx)or medium for lifting 
oil, but if the wick be made of fine par¬ 
ticles of asbestos, which is also a mineral, 
the oil is raised without difficulty and a 
good flame is the result. 
.SOME REMEDIES SUGGESTED. 
Then is it possible to 4 o anything to 
prevent this great loss of plant food ? 
Certainly it is not possible and perhaps 
not desirable to convert the sandy soils 
into clay soils, nor even to mix with the 
sand a small percentage of clay. 
I will mention a few ways that have 
suggested themselves to me. 
(i) By increasing the amount of or¬ 
ganic matter in the soil. 
It is a well established fact that organic 
matter acts as a sponge to hold moisture, 
and in holding water it will hold plant 
food. This was well illustrated in the 
experiment with the soil. 150 grams of 
an air dry’muck soil retained over 100 
grams of water, and go.g per cent, of 
the sulphate of ammonia. Whereas the 
same weight of the pineapple soil retain¬ 
ed only 30 grams of water and 5.77 per 
cent, of the sulphate of ammonia. Old 
pineapple plants and other organic matter 
might be allowed to decay on the fields in¬ 
stead of being burnt. In some cases it 
might be possible to increase the organic 
matter by spreading seaweed and muck 
soil over the fields. Other ways will doubt¬ 
less suggest themselves to those interest¬ 
ed. Of course the pineapple grower can¬ 
not resort to cover crops such as velvet 
beans, cow peas, beggar weed etc., as can 
the man who grows ordinary field crops. 
(2) By the use of wind breaks. 
Currents of dry hot air passing over 
the fields cause the surface moisture to 
evaporate rapidly, thus to a certain de¬ 
gree breaking the chain of capillary mois¬ 
ture. 
(3) By the addition of lime to the soil. 
Lime coagulates the soluble nitrogen¬ 
ous matter of manures and fertilizers, and 
this coagulated nitrogenous matter tends 
to make the soil more retentive of mois¬ 
ture; moreover lime, before it is carried 
very far down would probably begin to 
bind the grains of sand together and thus 
form a layer somewhat impervious to 
the downward movement of the water. 
In the use of lime, however, care must 
]ye exercised that it be not applied in such 
a way as to cause the loss of ammonia 
from other materials, 
(4) By using materials which become 
slowly available. 
For such a crop as pineapples where 
the plants remain in the ground from year 
to year, there would seem little reason for 
using quickly available materials except 
say for the first 18 months to get the 
plants started, even had we a soil that 
was capable of absorbing and holding the 
plant food. 
