42 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
were made and all showed injury to the 
interest of the fruit grower as well as 
the bee-keeper. 
Mr. Porcher—I am not in favor of 
spraying the bloom. I only cited an in¬ 
stance because it was unusual. I was 
forced to spray on account of the purple 
mite. 
Mr. Hart—Scientists now agree upon 
that matter. You can spray one side of 
a tree when in bloom and leave the other 
side unsprayed, and the side which is 
sprayed will produce no crop and the 
other side will produce fruit. 
The dieback was immediately follow¬ 
ing the freeze of 1895, and these trees 
were set in 1885, budded trees on sour 
stock. Mr. Porcher stated that if he 
were in my locality he would probably 
do as I do in regard to the matter of 
scale. He may have the idea in his head 
that I have not had experience anywhere 
else, but I think I may safely say that I 
have studied this matter on all classes of 
orange lands and I may as safely say that 
my environments or my particular land 
have very little to do with it. 
Mr. Butler—There is one important 
point never brought out in regard to sul¬ 
phate. I have produced dieback; can do 
it any time on my soil. Even where we 
have none I have produced dieback by 
sulphate of ammonia. 
Mr. Porcher—Mine are old trees and 
they are on shell hammock land. It is 
what we term dangerous land. You 
have to be always watchful about shell 
hammock. I don’t think I recall seeing 
any red rust on Mr. Hart’s trees recently 
and I wish to emphasize the fact that we 
have in Mr. Hart one of our most care¬ 
ful and observant men. 
Mr. Gaitskill—I have shell hammock 
land and there was a time when I did 
have dieback. Young trees died down 
to the ground and I quit cultivating and 
using organic fertilizer and I cured the 
dieback. Chickens roosted in the trees 
and caused the dieback, and I believe 
the cure of dieback is in stopping the use 
of organic substances. I cured that tree 
with sulphate of potash and nothing else. 
Mr. Phelps—I believe that if we use 
sulphate of ammonia alone, a small per 
cent, would do no harm, but I don’t be¬ 
lieve nitrate of soda is anything but a 
forcer. I don’t believe in its use. I 
have tested it this year on celery. I 
have put on five pounds every ten days 
until I reached sixty pounds. Along¬ 
side of it I have put a fertilizer composed 
of phosphoric acid from bone, sulphate 
of ammonia and potash, and I cannot 
see at the end of a few months any effect 
from the nitrate of soda except that it 
tastes very salt. I believe that you can 
produce disease with sulphate of ammo¬ 
nia if you use it alone. But, where my 
poultry house had been I have always 
used sulphate of ammonia to counteract 
the effect of nitrogen. 
Dr. Kerr—Mr. Hart, as my friend on 
the left justly states, has a grove that is 
unique. I have never been at the place, 
but I have been along the shore, and he 
speaks about his oranges being damp 
for so long a time. I have been along 
the coast when I thought everything 
was wet, and I presume that has a great 
deal to do with the keeping of his or¬ 
anges. Now, on high pine land we don’t 
require to have boards under the feet of 
our horses when we plow. 
Mr. Hart—You would have to dig 
down twelve feet to get to water in my 
grove, Doctor. 
I want to call attention to the disease 
of blight. Years ago at Orlando I think 
