FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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element of plant food that you cannot analyze, that is neces¬ 
sary to the tree and fruit. I do not object to the use of com¬ 
mercial fertilizers; I advise the use of them, but not exclu¬ 
sively. 
I have some of the very best fruit trees in the state, and I 
have used very little commercial fertilizer—maybe not as much 
as I should have used—but I am confident my trees are the 
better for the use of the fertilizer that came from the stables, 
and to my mind the man who talks about throwing away sta¬ 
ble manure, talks about throwing away his money. Per unit, 
there is no plant food so expensive as ammonia, and your sta w 
ble manure produces ammonia in very large quantities, and 
the man who throws it away or burns it, as 1 said before, 
throws away money. 
I am a believer in muck. I believe that it furnishes a plant 
food that you cannot purchase in commercial fertilizer. After 
your grove has been burnt out by the continued use of com¬ 
mercial fertilizer, give it a coat of muck, and you will find that 
it will produce a decided improvement. It is an experiment 
you will be well paid for. 
The man who depends exclusively on commercial featilizers, 
who makes up his mind nothing else will do, will get left. The 
man who has plenty of stable manure and uses it freely will 
improve his land and his grove, and will always be in luck. 
Mr. Moore —I think the last gentleman on the floor is cor¬ 
rect. We must have a mixture. I want to say one little thing 
about soft phosphate: I have had ten years’ experience on 
Florida pine lands. I tried soft phosphate (and I have not 
any to sell) and it is as good or better than other materials 
from which we get phosphoric acid. I put it on orange trees 
exclusively. Mr. Greenleaf has spoken about the value of soft 
phosphate for shell hammock land; this is about as good land 
as we have in Florida, and the soft phosphate should have 
earned a good recommendation there if anywhere, but it gives 
very satisiactory results with me on pine land. I had a tree 
standing very near a stable, and a neighbor said to me “That 
tree will die.” I told him I did not see why, and he replied 
that the stable manure would kill it, and that he was sur¬ 
prised that I did not know it, being as smart as I was. I wish 
all my trees would die like that one. It is growing beautifully. 
I have applied stable manure and muck several years with 
success. 
L. Montgomery —I use a great deal of stable manure. I 
keep more stock than most people in Florida. I keep fifteen 
head of horses. I use stable manure, and think it better than 
anything else in the fertilizing line. My manner of applying 
