60 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
the land or the supply of organic matter 
in it, taking the appearance of the trees 
as a guide and endeavoring to as fully as 
possible supply their needs. 
Reference has been made to discontin¬ 
uance of cultivation in June, this with a 
view to fostering all possible vegetative 
growth to secure shade for the soil and 
increase the humus content, and of such 
importance do we regard these two 
points that we make no hay in our 
groves, returning to the soil all the growth 
produced. I consider that the grower 
who makes hay in his grove, particularly 
a bearing grove, pays a big price for his 
hay. 
Protection of groves from frost is an 
undertaking of man’s size. For some 
ten years we provided such protection 
when needed by means of wood fires, mak¬ 
ing an entire success of the work. The 
limitations of this method are so great, 
however, in view of the difficulty of se¬ 
curing sufficient labor, we were induced 
to yield to the claims of the oil-pot men, 
and put in Hamilton Smudge Pots. We 
have the three-gallon size, and place them 
in the grove in pairs fifteen feet apart. 
Our experiments showed that with the 
lid pulled out to afford a burning surface 
of forty-eight inches, three gallons of oil 
would last about eight hours, hence to 
be sure of an all-night burn when neces¬ 
sary, we place the pots in pairs. As we 
have not yet had occasion to fire, we can 
not give anything in the way of results. 
However, the fact that fuel oil has in¬ 
creased in price from 21-2 cents per gal¬ 
lon three years ago to 5 1-2 cents the 
past winter, leads me to conclude the po¬ 
sition of the Standard Oil Company as 
the stronger of the two. 
