Fertilizer 
Wm. M. Atwater. 
The subject of fertilizer in connection 
with our citrus groves will be studied 
more closely in the future than in the 
past, particularly to the grower who is 
engaged in the industry for profit, will 
this be a very important subject. 
The continued advance in the prices 
of materials entering into the manufac¬ 
ture of this product, together with the 
reduction of the tax on the importation 
of citrus fruits, will tend to make us 
careful that we get every return possi¬ 
ble from the fertilizer fed to our trees. 
We all know in a general way what our 
trees require, but nearly every grower 
has his own ideas as to when and the 
amount to apply. 
I regret that I have not had more 
time to spend in my neighbors' groves, 
because much can be learned from the 
experience of others and results wit¬ 
nessed in the trees, so the best I can do 
in this instance is to give my experience 
with my own trees. 
Let me first state that my grove is lo¬ 
cated on high sandy land, what is called 
spruce pine land; there is quite a slope 
or fall in the land from the north to the 
south. It seemed to me that when I 
fertilized, as I did at first, in January, 
April and June of each year that I was 
not getting the results I should; at least, 
my trees did not show it, so I went 
about investigating. I wrote to that 
good friend of every citrus grower, Pro¬ 
fessor Rolfs, and he suggested that he 
thought I would get better results if I 
were to fertilize five times per annum, 
instead of three, putting around the 
trees the same amount of fertilizer. This 
I tried, and was rewarded with better re¬ 
sults. Still I was not satisfied; thought 
my trees did not put on enough new 
growth each year and bear enough fruit. 
So I decided to fertilize more often, and 
I now feed the trees each month in the 
year except during the very heavy rainy 
season, namely July and August. 
My plan generally is as follows: When 
I have finished shipping I figure up the 
number of boxes sent to market, and let 
me say right here that at first I did not 
take into consideration the fruit dropped 
from the trees and not shipped, which 
I should have done, as this year on ac¬ 
count of the unusually warm winter, it 
has been very heavy. After I have se¬ 
cured this data, I figure just how much 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash I 
will give to my trees for the twelve 
months beginning with September of 
each year. In September I feed them 
potash and phosphoric acid, the same 
in October, with November I add a lit¬ 
tle nitrogen, increasing this quantity in 
December just a little over November, 
and continue increasing in January; then 
during the other months I hold to about 
