lOO 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
want to say that the value of both the 
beggarweed and velvet bean was especial¬ 
ly pointed out in a previous paper. 
Mr. Hart.—I just want to say that ac¬ 
cording to my knowledge of things, it is 
easy to make land rich by growing velvet 
beans or beggarweed, though I would not 
advise the former in orange groves. 
Beggarweed is a profitable crop when 
the trees are small but when they get 
larger and shade the ground it will make 
little growth. In previous years the poli¬ 
cy of growing velvet beans for orange 
trees has been discussed; the beggarweed 
I indorse fully wherever it may grow, 
whether in orange groves or any where 
else, but we have to use commercial fer¬ 
tilizers with it to properly balance the 
ration. I do not believe we can get the 
nitrogen we want from beggarweed or 
velvet beans, after the orange trees inter¬ 
lock their limbs. 
Mr. Hubbard.—At the risk of repeat¬ 
ing what may already be known by 
the members, I will relate the experience 
of Mr. Butler in the raising of beggar¬ 
weed for nitrogen. He had good trees 
but no fruit. He had an analysis of the 
soil made and also for lOO boxes of orang¬ 
es to the acre. The top foot of soil con¬ 
tained about enough ammonia for one 
to two crops, phosphoric acid for 3 crops 
and potash for only i 1-2 crops. He 
then began to use commercial fertilizers. 
He studied this question and decided 
to use beggarweed to gather nitrogen 
for the reason that it did not 
produce any soldier bugs to work on the 
fruit, the consequence was that after 
three or four years using only phosphoric 
acid and potash he gathered so much ni¬ 
trogen that he had to take a mower and 
mow down the beggar weed to prevent 
die back taking his trees. 
