FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
25 
be proven to be a fallacy; and our be¬ 
liefs of tomorrow may likewise on the 
following day be shown to be incorrect. 
Let me cite a single illustration. Dur¬ 
ing the early history of our Society, we 
found earnest and eloquent advocates 
of the use of ground rock phosphates as 
a fertilizer for citrus trees. These ad¬ 
vocates have either been converted to 
the use of soluble phosphates, or have 
been silenced. Ground rock is no longer 
being actively advocated by any one. 
Now comes Prof. H. J. Patterson, Di¬ 
rector of the Maryland Experiment 
Station. He used nine different chemi¬ 
cal fertilizers as sources of phosphoric 
‘acid—all that are ordinarily found on 
the markets. Included in this list are ac¬ 
id phosphate, dissolved bone black, 
bone black, raw bone meal, and Florida 
soft phosphate. The plots were laid off in 
the regular form which is usual for such 
work, the same chemical being applied 
year after year since 1895 to each plot, 
making eleven years of continuous use 
of the same chemical on each particular 
plot. Now comes the most startling 
part, his conclusions. Two of them are 
of special interest to us. The third of 
his conclusions is that,—“Insoluble 
phosphates produce a slightly higher 
total average yield than soluble phos¬ 
phates, and at about one-half the cost.’’ 
The sixth of his conclusions is that,— 
“Florida soft phosphate produced the 
best yield of corn.” Let us not, how¬ 
ever, conclude that the use of insoluble 
phosphates is the best for us. In these 
experiments annual plants alone were 
used, and the soil upon which the fer¬ 
tilizer was applied was clayey, and for 
the most part contained considerable 
humus. The conditions therefore, are 
not exactly the same as ours; but these 
experiments do show us the necessity 
for careful scientific work, even on sub¬ 
jects that we regard as closed questions. 
Wheeler and Adams of the Rhode Is¬ 
land Experiment Station, working un¬ 
der different conditions, find that 
ground rock (or floats) is the best form 
of phosphates for squash and better 
than any of the soluble or treated phos¬ 
phates for corn. 
COMBATING DISEASES AND INSECTS. 
The question of combating insects 
and of controlling diseases is as old as 
the fertilizer question, and both are old¬ 
er than our Society. We have publish¬ 
ed valuable contributions on both of 
these subjects annually. Whatever we 
have attempted has been carried to a 
full and creditable consummation. Every 
year we have advanced slowly but sure¬ 
ly. Sometimes our speakers have been 
a little too far ahead of the average, but 
the foremost have usually been abreast 
with the leaders. One of the leaders 
has not had a spraying machine in his 
grove for years. Last year there was a 
large exodus from the camp of sprayers 
to the camp of those who use the natur¬ 
al enemies for combating scale insects. 
We must look upon use of the spraying 
iD'aiterials for controlling, insects and 
fungus enemies as temporary expedi¬ 
ents, which for the most part under our 
present knowledge are unavoidable. In 
certain cases it is absolutely necessary 
to spray in order that we may avert 
certain failure, but we are gradually 
learning how to keep our groves and 
vegetable fields from getting into such 
distressing conditions. 
The natural method of combating 
scale insects is meeting with most flat¬ 
tering success, and can be economical¬ 
ly applied. It is far cheaper to keep a 
