122 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
planting is a safe time to fertilize, and 
it has the further advantage of being 
done and out of the way. 
FERTILIZERS. 
I have yet to know of a fair test at 
Hastings between ready-mixed and 
home-mixed fertilizer in which the latter 
was not superior. The largest yields 
have been on home mixtures. When 
one considers that, pound for pound of 
actual plant food contained, a fancy 
brand like Mapes costs from a quarter 
to a half more than the stuff in acid 
phosphate, cotton seed meal, blood and 
bone, potash and nitrate of soda, the 
question arises whether an unbranded 
dollar’s worth would not give as good 
results and build up the soil faster. It 
seems to do so at Hastings. 
The fertilizer used generally runs 
about the following proportions per 
acre: 700 pounds bright cotton seed 
meal; 700 pounds acid phosphate; 300 
pounds high grade sulphate of potash. 
I mix in a large, low box divided into 
two compartments. The ingredients, 
about half a ton, are placed in layers in 
the proper proportions in one side, then 
shovelled over; put through an inclined 
screen having quarter-inch meshes, into 
the other side; then screened back again 
and sacked. It is well mixed, free from 
lumps, at a cost of fifty cents per ton. 
A curtain round the back of the screen 
restrains the flying dust very decently. 
I made some careful experiments this 
year, which are as valuable as one set 
of experiments ever are. Each plot ex¬ 
cept the Mapes and the heavy mixture 
was intended to contain proportional 
amounts of plant food. The blood and 
bone patch received 150 pounds nitrate 
of soda by mistake. The Mapes patch 
exceeded the normal patch in cost by 
about $4. 
The list is arranged in the order of 
yield of large potatoes per acre. 
Patch 1—Mapes; 62 1-2 bushels 
large, 50 bushels small; total market¬ 
able, 112 1-2. 
Patch 2—Nitrogen as sulphate of am¬ 
monia; 67 1-2 bushels large, 30 bushels 
small; total marketable, 97 1-2. 
Patch 3—Nitrogen as castor pomace; 
77 1-2 bushels large, 32 1-2 bushels 
small; total marketable, no. 
Patch 4—Normal mixture and dose; 
77 1-2 bushels large, 47 1-2 bushels 
small; total marketable, 125. 
Patch 5—Potash as muriate; 85 bush¬ 
els large, 45 bushels small; total market¬ 
able, 130. 
Patch 6—Phosphate as slag meal; 
87 1-2 bushels large, 45 bushels small; 
total marketable, 132 1-2. 
Patch 7—Nitrogen as nitrate of soda 
in two doses after plants were up; 105 
bushels large, 32 1-2 bushels small; total 
marketable, 137 1-2. 
Patch 8—Nitrogen and part phos¬ 
phate as blood and bone; 107 1-2 bushels 
large, 37 1-2 bushels small; total mar¬ 
ketable. 145. 
Patch 9—Heavy dose; 2800 pounds 
regular mixture; 126 1-2 bushels large, 
37 1-2 bushels small; total marketable, 
164. 
The sulphate of ammonia and the 
Mapes patches bear out former exper¬ 
iences. 
Theoretically, sulphate of ammonia is 
injurious to most plants on soils deficient 
in lime. Mapes does not show up well 
as a forcing manure. 
Slag phosphate does surprisingly well 
and, so far as one test goes, sustains the 
