128 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
riiy. I have tried soft phosphate with no result whatever, and, 
of course, I did not continue it. Some of my neighbors living 
on better lands are cowpenning their groves. One man has 
a large flock of goats. He is cow-penning with goats. They 
are getting splendid crops of oranges while I am not. I 
have a few trees near a stable where I had mamure piled 
up year after year, and the trees are blooming every spring 
and look as though they were just starting out lor a hun¬ 
dred years. I have not got a cow tied to every tree. If 
I had I might get good results. I am satisfied that all the 
patent medicines for trees are altogether unequal to the 
task of giving us a good crop of fruit and trees that will 
last one hundred years I believe they are stimulants, and 
for a short time give good results. The trees want more 
humus; they want more plant food, and it seems to me that 
there is nothing better than the vegetation grown by the 
ground and milled by the cow. All these other things may 
be good as aids but we must fall back on stable manure. 
There is nothing we can carry to the ground that has as 
many ingredients as stable manure. If some gentleman will 
tell me what to put on my grove, I will listen to him, and 
will be glad to hear his opinion. 
O. P. Rooks —I have been very much interested in the 
remarks of the last speaker. I believe that succ< ss in fruit 
growing and in agriculture depends upon animal manure, 
and in all those sections where the most success is had in 
keeping up and improving lands, it is from that source. The 
gentleman asks for information as to how to make his trees 
bear. Two years ago I constructed a portable cow pen 
about eight by ten feet, with a gate leading into that pen. 
I took my cow at night and put her into that pen. I put 
the pen between the trees, and lor from two to three weeks 
I kept the cow in that pen. I started at the beginning of 
a row and went through the grove with the pen. The re¬ 
sults were marvelous. The biggest crop of oranges that 
were ever seen in that neighborhood were produced from 
those trees. That is the result of the cow-penuing process. 
The oranges were as good as any in the neighborhood, and 
I got fair prices. I have used chemical fertilizers until I 
am almost “broke.” I shall use the cow pens in future. 
T. K. Godbey —I wish to relate how I raise my oranges. 
I am a practical man. I am my own tree doctor. I think 
I know what the matter is with a tree when it looks badly. 
I have here specimen oranges which I wish to present to 
the society. The trees on which they were grown are thir¬ 
teen years of age. They never had a spoonful of chemical 
fertilizers. They have been raised entirely on stable manure, 
