FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
not grow. It does not do so well on dry- 
soil. 
Mr. Frink.—I would like to supple¬ 
ment what Dr. Walker has just said on 
the subject of camphor, I have recently 
had letters from two different gentlemen 
connected with the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, who stated that re¬ 
cent experiments in producing camphor 
gum have been extremely successful and 
they seem to think it highly feasible to 
produce camphor gum here on a profitable 
commercial scale. As a result of those ex¬ 
periments I have recently had inquiries for 
trees in lots of five to twenty thousand. 
From these letters and inquiries I think 
within a comparatively short time cam¬ 
phor production will become quite an ex¬ 
tensive industry here. 
9. Have any of the members of the 
society seen the nitro culture that is being 
introduced by the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, and with what suc¬ 
cess? 
Mr. Hubbard.—I would like to ask the 
gentlemen from the State Experiment 
Station what success they have had with 
Alfalfa and nitro culture. 
Dr. Bessey.—In behalf of the depart¬ 
ment I would ask that a distinction be 
made between nitro culture and nitrogen 
gathering bacteria. 
Mr. Hubbard—Either one of them. 
Mr. Henderson.—I did not know there 
were two kinds, I want to know if their 
use is satisfactory to the department of 
agriculture. 
Mr. Hubbard.—Prof. Connor said that 
they were experimenting with alfalfa at 
Lake City and I wished to know if they 
151 
could give us any report that would be of 
advantage in growing alfalfa. 
Mr. Merriam.—I have had some exper¬ 
ience with nitro culture, some of it is 
very good. There has been a great deal 
of discussion about this commercial nitro 
culture and some of the experiment sta¬ 
tions claim that it is not as good as that 
sent out by the government. I tried some 
last spring on beans and English peas and 
it was a success on my peas, I tried it 
very fully putting it on the seeds and in 
connection with this I used fertilizer with¬ 
out any nitrogen and right along side 
of it I put in some that contained five 
percent, nitrogen, but the phosphoric acid 
and potash, with the nitro culture made 
better peas than the fertilizer. I do not 
know why it was hut I did not get very 
. good results. I used this on some beans 
but the cold killed the beans so I could not 
tell about them. I could not see any dif¬ 
ference on cow peas at all, one was as 
good as the other. I presume that the 
reason was that the ground was already 
well inoculated. I understand that it is 
necessary to have the nitro culture fresh 
as it will not keep very long in the shape 
the department puts it up. 
Mr. Ellis.—Mr. President, I have used 
the commerci^^ nitro culture on both cow 
peas and velvet beans and I planted one 
half with and one half without the nitro 
culture and we could discover no differ¬ 
ence at all. The nitro culture was bought 
from a good reliable firm who claimed 
that it was fresh. The bacteria seemed 
to develop all right in the jars, butH 
could see no difference in the crops at all. 
Mr. Henderson.—I tried peas similar 
to Mr. Merriam with a commercial nitro- 
culture but could see no difference. 
