42 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
rus roots in Florida, I have not been able 
to find them on any of the trees showing 
frenching that I have examined. I am 
of the opinion that we must look for 
other causes for frenching as it occurs in 
Florida. 
Mr. Sadler: Does it have’any appear¬ 
ance of the scab? 
Mr. Floyd: There is no similarity. 
Mr. Sadler: What effect does phos¬ 
phoric acid have on the fruit? 
Mr. Floyd : 1 do not know. I have not 
worked along that particular line. 
Dr. Julian: As to the amount of phos¬ 
phoric acid in the soil. At a certain Ex¬ 
periment Station, a soil expert made an 
estimate of the amount of phosphoric acid 
contained in an acre of soil, nine feet 
down; that is, the first nine feet, the feed¬ 
ing area of the roots of plant life; and in 
one acre he made his calculation that 
there were 240-odd tons of phosphoric 
acid in that soil. That was considered 
pretty fair soil, too. 
Mr. Temple: Don’t look so accusing¬ 
ly at me; I couldn’t help it. (Laughter.) 
Dr. Julian: What I mean was that it 
would be very difficult to add an amount 
that might cause it to become excessive. 
Where there is an amount like that in the 
soil, a ton or two to the acre would have 
very little effect on the plants or trees. 
Mr. Hunter : Will you detail what you 
mean as pedigreed nursery stock? 
Mr. Floyd: That is looking into the 
future. When you buy a horse, if you 
want him for racing, you look into his 
ancestry, who they were and what repu¬ 
tation they had for speed. Why shouldn’t 
you demand pedigree in your nursery 
stock? Your buds should have come 
from trees that bear well. But, as I have 
said, this is probably looking into the fu¬ 
ture. 
Mr. Hollingsworth: I think Prof. 
Floyd is right. We must have our buds 
from bearing tree.s; something we know 
about. The same rules that apply in ani¬ 
mal breeding should apply in plant breed¬ 
ing. I think the sooner this is under¬ 
stood, the better it will be. 
Dr. Julian: I suppose you should know 
the record of every tree in your grove. 
C. H. Thompson 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen'. 
This is rather a large subject that has 
been handed out, and I took advantage 
of the opportunity of being chairman to 
get in touch with all the members of the 
Committee and was assured by two or 
three of them that they would prepare a 
paper on the subject, so I did not pre¬ 
pare any paper. 
There are quite a number of things that 
may influence the care of a grove. We 
will take it for granted that you have the 
grove already planted. In the first place 
I would like to say just one word in con¬ 
nection with the preparation of the 
ground for planting. It is rather a sad 
sight, as you go through the State, to 
see people so eager to get their grove 
planted that they do not clear their 
ground first. They plant right in among 
the trees and expect later to clear the 
ground. The proper course is to abso¬ 
lutely clean the ground out. Grub it out 
and put it in thorough till; get in good 
shape for the permanent home of the 
orange tree. 
