68 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
other places, not. If you have a porous 
subsoil, you can use it to advantage, but 
if you have a rock bottom underneath 
your soil, it is foolishness to use dyna¬ 
mite. In the neighborhood of Fort My¬ 
ers, about thirty or forty inches below 
the surface there is a narrow, compact, 
dry strip known as hard pan. You will 
find this time of the year the water 
stands on this hard pan. A charge of 
dynamite allows the water to flow into 
the soil underneath. A great many 
growers have been very successful in us¬ 
ing it. 
Question: Is the presence of Bermuda 
grass or nut grass in an orange grove 
detrimental or otherwise? 
Mr. H. B. Stevens: We have a grove 
where the Bermuda grows so thick a 
wagon or a harrow will not make an im¬ 
pression, and I see no bad results from 
it. 
Mr. Adams: I have a grove just full 
of Bermuda grass, and I see no bad 
effects. 
Question: Is 4 per cent, ammonia too 
much for an application in May or June? 
Mr. Pool: It depends very much upon 
the condition of your trees. If your 
trees are thrifty and you want to push 
the next crop, I do not think it is too 
much, but if your trees are diseased and 
have die-back, don’t put on 4 per cent. 
For general purposes, with healthy trees 
and a heavy crop coming on, I think 4 
per cent, is not too heavy. 
Mr. Hume: You must not lose sight 
of the fact that while percentage is a 
nice thing to talk about, the basis is the 
number of pounds you use. 
Question: Has any one had experience 
with the use of the picking sacks for 
oranges? How do they work? 
Mr. Thompson: We use the picking 
baskets at Florence Villa almost entire- 
ly- 
Mr. McKay: Our experience has been 
that the most satisfactory work has been 
done with the picking sack. The sack 
that is open at the bottom, which the 
pickers can let down into the bottom of 
the box. Also a sack which has a 
closed mouth, or almost closed, into which 
they cannot drop the fruit. The main 
trouble with the basket is, it has a wide 
mouth, and it is a temptation to shoot 
the fruit down from the limb into the 
basket. On the whole, the sack has 
proved the most satisfactory, not only 
in our work, but in the experience of 
most growers. 
Rust Mite: Is there any way to decrease 
the injury to oranges from this insect by 
fertilizing? Are there any insects which 
feed on the rust mite; where can they 
be procured, and what are they? 
Mr. Hume: Dr. Berger, can you tell 
m anything about that? 
Dr. Berger: No, I can’t. I know of 
no method of fertilizing. You might 
leave that to Mr. Yothers here. 
Mr. Yothers: I have never found any 
parasites of the rust mite, and I have 
been making observations about a year 
and a half. Maybe some will turn up 
after awhile. 
Mr. Hume: The reply to that ques¬ 
tion is that so far there is no known 
enemy to the rust mite which holds it 
in check. 
Mr. Carroll: Sq far as I know, there 
