Report of Standing Committee on Fertilizers 
and Irrigation. 
BY PROF. E. R. FLINT. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I take it that it is the province of this 
committee^ to present any progress that 
has been made during the year, in regard 
to fertilization and irrigation, in so far 
as it is of interest to the horticulturist, 
particularly of the State of Florida. 
While I cannot announce anv start¬ 
ling discoveries for the year in the mat¬ 
ter of fertilization, nevertheless there is 
undoubtedly a constant and steady ac¬ 
cumulation of experience and experimen¬ 
tal data which ’is gradually leading to the 
point of making plant fertilization more 
nearly an exact science than it has been, 
or perhaps it would be nearer the truth 
to say, to a point where we begin to real¬ 
ize that, as it varies so with every varying 
condition, it never can be an exact sci¬ 
ence. 
In regard to practical results and pro¬ 
gress in our own State, the Florida Ex¬ 
periment Station has just published the 
results of an extensive experiment on the 
fertilization of the pineapple and has 
reached some interesting and valuable re¬ 
sults, which are to be presented in another 
paper. Fertilizer experiments are also in 
progress on the orange, cotton and pota¬ 
toes. 
If we review the work done by the var¬ 
ious experiment Stations on fertilization, 
for the past year, it seems to me that we 
must be lead to the belief that not only 
every State, but every county, every 
farm and indeed every portion of that 
farm requires more or less special or in¬ 
dividual treatment to get the best results. 
A universal formula for any particular 
crop is not possible. Such a formula may 
serve as a basis, but no intelligent plant 
grower should rest content with this, but 
should constantly seek to so modify it 
that it will best meet his own individual 
conditions, and the more intelligently and 
conscientiously he does this, the more 
economically and profitably he will be able 
to fertilize his land. It is for this reason 
that Stations and Agricultural papers are 
always advocating home mixing, and 
that fertilizer dealers are advertising, 
more and more, the various plant food 
ingredients rather than mixed fertilizers. 
A mixed fertilizer will always find some 
sale because there are many that will not 
take the trouble to do their own mixing, 
and I would not in any way imply that 
they are not of value, as every reputable 
dealer aims to supply what is needed and 
in the best form, as it is in the results ob¬ 
tained that he gets his best advertising, 
and I think we have no reason to com¬ 
plain of the dealers in our own State. 
I believe, in the past that we have be¬ 
come accustomed to place too much reli- 
