FLORIDA S^^TATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
39 
it may go to an excess of bloom, and 
if a drought comes on, it may make 
more foliage than bloom. An exces¬ 
sive crop is usually caused by some 
shock, disease or starvation. 
Mr. Hume—I do not believe that 
anything done at the time of bloom has 
much effect. I am inclined to believe 
that shock is caused to the tree by 
cold, drought or some such climatic 
condition. As far as Mr. Wilson’s plan 
of watering is concerned, I think he 
should have started watering long be¬ 
fore he did, and done it about twice a 
week. I think his labor was all wasted. 
I think to get a good crop of fruit to 
hold on the tree, you should begin 
back a long time previous to the time 
that the bloom comes on. 
Mr. Hollingsworth—I experimented 
on the watering question this year for 
the first time. We had a rain nine 
weeks ago that caused the bloom to 
come out in just a few days. Certain 
parts of my grove were in full bloom 
and then we had nine weeks drought, 
and the trees were going to cast their 
bloom. I took a coal oil barrel, and 
excavated around each tree in a circle 
some six or eight feet. We designated 
six tangerine trees that were heavy 
in bloom. I gave three barrels of wa¬ 
ter to them as rapidly as it would soak 
down and then filled the excavation up 
with dry dirt so as to hold the mois¬ 
ture. Those trees have set a very good 
crop of fruit. I have the nucleus of an 
old grove of about forty-five trees that 
are about forty-five years old. They 
have had foot rot, die back, etc. (let me 
remark in passing that a neighbor of 
mine said his grove was of no use until 
the foot rot got into it) but still bear¬ 
ing very heavily. I watered a few of 
these trees at the same time we ex¬ 
perimented with the younger stock and 
find the same holds good in both cases. 
Through the middle of tlii's grove is a 
ridge, and on the slope of this ridge I 
had put out about a hundred sweet 
seedlings some six years ago. This 
drought overtook these seedlings. 
They shed their leaves in the tops two- 
thirds of the way down and directly after 
the rain, within a week, they put on a 
bloom. We had watered the trees in 
the middle of the first drought, and 
when the rain came, they were so vig¬ 
orous they reacted again. The second 
drought caused them to cast that 
bloom, and then about ten or fifteen 
days ago they put out a right good 
bloom, which set the second time on 
the same limb. That is a freak I can¬ 
not explain. They have shed oft* their 
J^loom and formed oranges about the 
size of peas and we believe they are go¬ 
ing to stick. 
Dr. Richardson—I have been much 
interested in the discussion, and I am 
particularly interested in the talk of 
Mr. Hollingsworth. I am inclined to 
think from his talk that the thinking 
he has been doing has made corns on 
his brains as much as hard work has 
made them on his hands. 
An eminent physiologist, when ask¬ 
ed what time he would begin treatment 
of a childl to make it a healthy, well de¬ 
veloped human being said he would go 
back one or two generations before the 
child was born. I think that applies 
to orange trees as well. It has been 
argued that the injury which the 
trees have received has been the 
the cause of excessive bloom. It has 
also been intimated that shooting into 
a tree or doing anything to bring 
