FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
6S 
and I have had the opportunity in my 
A : ork to see the various methods tested 
out. .1 think Mr. Painter is right in a 
great many of his views, but it seems to 
me from what I have seen, being out in 
the fields and through the groves every 
day and all the time, that we might say 
that leaving off the culture of citrus fruit 
trees in all lands and in different sections 
of the State, might some times be a mis¬ 
take. I think there are some groves that 
would be much benefited by proper culti¬ 
vation methods. Never would I advise 
plowing, but I think it a good idea to es¬ 
tablish a dust mulch in the spring time 
and keep it until summer. Then, after 
the cover crop is well grown, cut it into 
the land to procure an amount of humus. 
There are other groves where non-cul¬ 
tivation of the soil would be the best 
method to pursue, or mowing the vege¬ 
table matter from time to time, thus es¬ 
tablishing a vegetable mulch on the 
ground. The matter of establishing a 
mulch, and keeping it on the soil, is im¬ 
portant. We have the choice between 
two mulches, the vegetable and the dust 
mulch. In some localities, it seems to 
me a vegetable mulch answers the pur- 
, pose; in other soils it seems to me that 
the dust mulch answers the purpose bet¬ 
ter. A man who knows the conditions, 
sees the condition of the trees, under¬ 
stands something of the fertilizers, can 
usually recommend just the particular 
treatment that grove needs. Mr. Paint¬ 
er’s advice may be a good general ad¬ 
vice, but it does not work in all cases. 
Besides the cultivation of groves and 
the tilling of the land in the regular line 
crops, I am trying to encourage the grow¬ 
ing of more stock. We believe that while 
Florida will in the future be an agricul¬ 
tural State, it must also be a live stock 
State. We have advantages in this 
State for the growing of live stock and 
growing them more economically than in 
other States. We need to take advantage 
of these opportunities. 
These are some of the doctrines that 
I am preaching in Lake County. We 
hope in the future, to have people begin 
to think of growing more forage and 
more pasture crops. By way of paren¬ 
thesis, I would say that the South Afri¬ 
can grasses introduced into Florida are 
proving very successful on our Florida 
soils; I refer to the Natal and the Rhodes 
grasses. With these crops and the Vel¬ 
vet Beans, we can have rich pastures for 
our live stock all the year around. 
We want to improve the blood of the 
stock. Some times, in discussing this 
matter of live stock, the people get to 
believing I would advocate a no-fence 
law, but I am not taking any position 
on that subject whatever, but I say we 
must have more stock and better blooded 
stock. I am proud to see the movement 
throughout the State of Florida to eradi¬ 
cate the tick and the Texas fever. I think 
it will be soon when we will have perfect¬ 
ed ourselves on these particular points. 
Then it will be easy to organize our 
live stock clubs and diffuse knowledge in 
the production and care of our horses and 
cattle and hogs in this State. 
We have been trying as much as we 
can, and we have had the assistance of 
the Experiment Station and the Agricul- 
