FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ; 
53 
ing and chemical changes continually go¬ 
ing on in the soil combine with and use 
up the bases of the soil, particularly cal¬ 
cium, the active element in lime, and thus 
form numerous neutral salts, most of 
which leach more or less rapidly out of 
the soil. There eventually arrives a time 
(depending upon the amount of lime 
originally in the soil, the rapidity of the 
formation of organic acids, and amounts 
of commercial fertilizers used), when all 
free or active bases are used up or washed 
out of the soil, and then there exists a 
non-basic, or to all intents and purposes, 
an acid soil. 
But very few soils are actively acid as 
ordinary soil conditions do not long per¬ 
mit of the presence of an actively free 
acid. This being the case, we must find 
virtues in lime other than the mere neu¬ 
tralizing of active acids by which it makes 
our soils more fertile. And we must also 
determine if our soils in this state are ren¬ 
dered more fertile by the presence of 
lime. Natural evidence of this latter ques¬ 
tion is found in the fact that hammock 
growth—an abundance of hardwood trees 
of many varieties, accompanied by a lux¬ 
uriant undergrowth—is no doubt the 
original growth on the calcareous soils, 
and this is later exchanged for the pines 
as the soil becomes acid through the loss 
of its lime carbonate, and concurrent with 
this loss, the pineland advances upon the 
hammock. 
Practical evidence of the benefit of lime 
is well brought out by a letter I received 
last month from a prominent grower in 
the state, part of which reads as follows: 
“You asked me to let you know what 
experience I had had with the use of lime 
and ashes on our orange groves, as well 
as results obtained. We have only used 
ground rock lime one season—the sea¬ 
son of 1913—and as yet have not been 
able to determine results. We have been 
using hardwood ashes for a number of 
years with very beneficial results. We 
have had applied anywhere from 1,000 
pounds to a ton per acre, and have thought 
that where we used a little application of 
hardwood ashes it assisted in the early ma¬ 
turing of the fruit. Some three years ago, 
through the mistake of our superintend¬ 
ent, he applied nearly forty tons of wood 
ashes on less than six acres of grapefruit 
trees. These trees for a number of years 
had been neglected before the property 
came into our possession, and when we got 
control of it we attempted to force the 
trees forward with ammoniated fertilizers, 
and in the course of three or four years 
we found that the roots were in a dis¬ 
eased condition, the feeding roots were 
sloughing off and turning black. This ap¬ 
plication of practically seven tons per acre 
corrected this root trouble within one sea¬ 
son, put the trees in a healthy condition, 
and they produced one of the finest crops 
of grapefruit we have ever seen, so far as 
the texture of the skin is concerned. The 
writer pointed out this block of trees to 
you when you visited the grove a few 
days ago, and you can judge for yourself 
as to whether or not there is any evidence 
in the appearance of the trees as to an 
overdose of lime or ashes.” 
Let me assure you this block of trees 
was as fine as any man could ask for. The 
