FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
45 
C. M. Griffing 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
On this Committee we had such an ar¬ 
ray of citrus fruit growing talent that I 
did not feel it worth while for me to pre¬ 
pare a report, but thought I might 
touch on a few points not covered. 
One thought is the great diversity of 
soil and climatic conditions that we have 
to meet in Florida. One of those has al¬ 
ready been referred to. In some locali¬ 
ties other than around Winter Haven 
there is real soil, but I don’t know that 
they are showing any better results in 
the grove, and possibly the bank account 
is no larger. 
There are at least seven different soil 
conditions to consider, and we find good, 
profitable groves on each. 
First : the high, sandy pine land so 
largely used in Polk and Lake counties, 
where, owing to altitude, air drainage, 
and lake protection, they are practically 
immune from frost risk. While the soil 
is light and practically all fertility has to 
be supplied, the grower has the advan¬ 
tage of being able to give the tree exactly 
the food it needs, resulting in the produc¬ 
tion of magnificent fruit both as to quali¬ 
ty and appearance. 
A short time past I was driving over 
the sand hills south and east from Bartow 
with a gentleman from Bartow, a notice 
of South Florida, who remarked that 
thirty or thirty-five years ago such lands 
were not considered of any value, while 
now they are selling at from $40.00 to 
$100.00 per acre, and are producing the 
goods to prove their value. If you doubt 
it, go to Winter Haven, Frost Proof, 
Avon Park and other sections where simi¬ 
lar conditions exist and see for yourself. 
On this class of land, cultivation is easy, 
soil is nice to work, can be tilled flat or 
level, grass and noxious weeds are easi¬ 
ly controlled, so much so that as I see it, 
clean culture is carried to the extreme. 
Many times have I, in passing through 
some groves, felt a pity for the soil ex¬ 
pected to carry the burden of a grove la¬ 
den with fruit, the same feeling of pity 
that one feels for a poor, half-fed horse 
dragging a heavy load through a sandy 
street. You feel sorry for the animal. 
With proper food, well balanced with for¬ 
age and grain, the old horse would get 
slick and fat, able and willing to bear 
its burdens, while with only a little grain 
and doped up feed stuffs it would not 
be possible. Likewise with the soil—it 
needed something besides chemical dope, 
called commercial fertilizer. Such groves 
need humus crops, velvet beans, iron peas, 
beggar weed or other leguminous crops. 
It takes some nerve to plant velvet beans 
in a grove and means some work keeping 
them out of the trees, but it pays in nitro¬ 
gen gathered and stored in the land alone, 
to say nothing of the humus which acts 
like a sponge, holding moisture and plant 
food, in the fertilizer you apply, in sus¬ 
pense near the surface where the feed 
roots of the trees can reach it. I was in¬ 
terested and pleased with Mr. Skinner’s 
remarks about the use of velvet beans in 
the grove. The testimony of one of his 
experience is valuable, and carries weight 
with is. 
My observations lead me to believe that, 
for the young grove, shallow, thorough 
cultivation near the trees, with legumi- 
