104 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OP THE 
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about by our Agricultural Experiment Station or by some 
public-spirited citizen of means. 
That is, by making comparative tests in the grove for a 
number of years in succession of different formulas. 
When we have decided upon the best formula and the best 
sources from which to obtain the needed constituents we can 
go to the manufacturers and ask them to compete for our 
patronage. We shall need no elaborate law to protect us. 
Will not the method of fertilizing and cultivating our 
groves go as far, ultimately, in deciding the question of profit 
in orange growing as the method of marketing ? 
Fertilizers and Fertilizing Materials. 
Prepared and read by E. O Painter, of DeLand, Volusia county, at 
the special request of the Society. 
The question of proper fertilization is one of great impor¬ 
tance to the orange grower and truck raiser of Florida, for in 
no state of the Union is there more need of it. There is but 
a very small area within our borders but that requires artificial 
fertilizing of some kind or other, it therefore behooves the 
farmer and fruit grower to study well this question of fertili¬ 
zation so that he can apply his manures in a manner that will 
give him an abundant crop and at the same time have none, if 
any, to go to waste. It has not been many years since com¬ 
mercial fertilizers were unknown to the majority of the tillers, 
of the soil. 
They had no need to study agricultural chemistry for they 
had but to prepare the land, plant the seed and an abundant 
crop could be harvested without the application of artificial 
fertilizers in any way. This practice has, as you all know,, 
impoverished the most fertile fields and where once the 
vegetable life would spring up and reach out its branches 
and hold out its leaves to be kissed by the sun and be 
washed by the dews and rain from heaven, now refuse to 
grow unless properly fed by the hand of man. A continu¬ 
ous draught, so to speak, has been made on the bank of 
plant food and unless liberal deposits are returned it will 
not be long before bankruptcy and starvation will not only 
