30 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
tivate to conserve moisture and to pro¬ 
mote chemical and biological activity. 
Our view point has changed greatly 
with increased knowledge, yet it is a 
fact that we do not.do all we might 
in this direction. We do not stir the 
soil during rainless periods as frequent¬ 
ly as we should, or we do not do it at 
the time we should and allow valuable 
moisture to escape. It must be borne 
in mind that it is often quite as impor¬ 
tant to do a thing at the right time as 
it is to do it at all. 
Great stress has been rightly laid 
on the vegetable matter content or our 
soils. And so important is this mate¬ 
rial that in a large measure we take it 
as an index of the fertility of the soil. 
Under cultivation humus is worn out 
of the soil, but in spite of this, under 
proper management, the amount in a 
piece of cultivated land should actual¬ 
ly increase. In many types of Florida 
soils, humus is woefully deficient, and 
it is furthermore true that soils are 
cultivated with the expectation of sat¬ 
isfactory returns that are little more 
than chemical pure sand. Are we do¬ 
ing all we should in this direction? 
Are we growing cover crops to help 
maintain the fertility of our soils? 
There are some crops which we may 
cultivate successfully on soils deficient 
in humus but the large number of crops 
we produce cannot be successfully and 
economically produced except on soils 
rich in humus. Many of us are not 
doing as well as we know. 
Go with me to some of the richest 
horticultural regions in the world and 
let us examine the soils. We will be 
impressed at once by the fact that 
these lands are rich in lime. And how 
much lime is there in the average 
Florida soil? True, here and there 
the lime content is sufficient, but in 
the majority of Florida soils there is 
none at all, or only a trace. Have we 
not known in this society ever since its 
beginning that lime in plenty in the soil 
would help us to produce more and 
better crops? Yes, we have known 
this, for the value of lime runs like a 
well defined thread through the warp 
of every report we have issued. From 
our first report published in 1892, let 
me quote the words of a member who 
is here tonight and who has long been 
noted for the production of fine fruit: 
“The shells (referring to the material 
from shell mounds) when burned to 
lime make an excellent application to 
apply to groves when there is a good 
supply of humus in the ground.” We 
know, too, that by the use of ground 
lime stone we may have all the good 
effects of lime without any of the ill 
effects that attend the use of some 
forms. Yet in spite of our knowledge 
of the benefits to be derived from its 
use, there are thousands of acres of 
cultivated soil in Florida, woefully de¬ 
ficient in lime, to which none has ever 
been applied. Here again our knowl¬ 
edge has outrun our practice. 
The old practice in applying commer¬ 
cial fertilizer to our soils was to make 
one or two or perhaps three heavy ap¬ 
plications each year. But it has been 
proven that by following this practice, 
fertilizer is wasted, because it leaches 
from the soil or gets out of reach of 
