96 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
FERTILIZERS AND IRRIGATION. 
BY F. D. WAITE. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
My report on Fertilizers and Irrigation 
will not take up much time, but I trust 
we shall have a full discussion as to the 
merits of chemical fertilizers. In my 
mind there is nothing that is so necessary 
as the right kind of fertilizers, when, and 
how they should be applied, in order to 
grow the very best fruit and vegetables. 
Thinking it necessary that I should 
give to this Society something new along 
these lines, I reviewed my file of this so¬ 
ciety’s reports for the past twelve years, 
and after I had finished, it seemed that the 
ground had been completely covered, and 
that it would be a waste of time to re¬ 
hash them all. Not that they are not 
valuable for they are, and I recommend 
that the members of this Society that have 
not a complete list of these books, apply 
to the Secretary for copies of as many as 
he can furnish, commencing way back in 
1893, when Major Healy and others were 
discussing the merits of muck and stable 
manure (being a complete fertilizer for 
orange trees) up to the present time when 
the question arises, whether we shall (tr 
get the best results) experiment with our 
individual soils, using pure chemicals, or 
purchase ready mixed fertilizers of stand¬ 
ard formulas from reputable manufac¬ 
turers. 
Some well known growers have recent¬ 
ly remarked that ten and fifteen years 
ago when blood and bone was used with 
a balanced ration of potash, we experienc¬ 
ed less trouble with our groves, and new 
diseases were not developing as rapidly as 
they are today, and the question arises; 
Are we pursuing the right course? 
Some tell us we should not use acid phos¬ 
phate, that it contains so much free acid, 
that our soils will become poisoned. Yet 
our State Chemist tells us that availa¬ 
ble phosphoric acid is just as good from 
one source as another, and that when we 
buy the so-called dissolved bone black it is 
just as liable to be acid phosphate color¬ 
ed with lamp black, and we pay about 
seven dollars extra for the coloring. 
Prof. Rose also says that efforts have been 
made by agricultural chemists to distin¬ 
guish them, so far without results. 
As the situation exists to-day, we may 
buy a complete fertilizer which has on its 
tag, dissolved bone or dissolved bone black 
as its source of phosphoric acid. All our 
State chemist can do is to determine by 
samples sent him the true analysis as to 
its content, of ammonia, phosphoric acid, 
and potash. 
The manufacturers that wj deal with 
may be honest, and believe that which 
they sell us is the true article, as they 
have a guarantee from the dealers that 
sold them, and have no way themselves 
of telling one from the other. Some as¬ 
sert that the supply of bone does not equal 
the demand, then we had better buy acid 
phosphate and save seven dollars per ton, 
or buy steamed and raw ground bone, if 
we are afraid of filling our soils with 
acid. 
I have recently corresponded with deal¬ 
ers who handle nitrate of potash and basic 
slag. With these two chemicals we can 
secure a fertilizer well balanced and abso¬ 
lutely free of all acids, and the slag con¬ 
tains 50 per cent, of lime. 
