124 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
base for nitric acid before entering the 
plant also forms a base for the plant’s 
organic acids after being separated by 
the sap from the nitric acid and is carried 
along till it finally forms part of the 
plant's tissues. Impure nitrate of potash 
can be bought as fertilizer, but the sup¬ 
ply is limited. It leaches so rapidly as 
to be desirable only for fractional appli¬ 
cations. 
Nitrate of potash can be formed by 
mixing heated solutions of nitrate of soda 
and muriate of potash and recrystallizing 
the resulting nitrate of potash and 
chloride of sodium. It would be a boon 
to horticulture if this could be done with 
little increase in cost. We need informa¬ 
tion as to the effects of the sulphuric 
acid and chlorine of sulphate and muriate 
of potash both before and after nitrifica¬ 
tion. 
The cheap nitrate of the future prom¬ 
ises to be the electrolytic nitrate of lime. It 
is said a 20,000 horse water power will 
soon be used for this purpose in Sweden, 
and that nitrate of lime can be produced 
of soda. Experiments on the efficiency 
of these new lime nitrogens are being con¬ 
ducted in Germany with results averag¬ 
ing about the same as nitrate of soda and 
sulphate of ammonia. There is no doubt 
moderate quantities of nitrate of lime can 
be healthfully appropriated by most 
plants and that its use will open up new 
problems in plant nutrition. 
In this paper I have touched on only 
a few of the more prominent problems 
of fertilizing but enough I trust to stim¬ 
ulate thought on this subject. There is 
no doubt in my mind that we are entering 
an era of soil and fertilizer specialization 
in plant growing that in thoroughness 
will compare favorably with the intricate 
manufacturing processes of the industrial 
arts. 
By B. M. Hampton. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
For some reason unknown to me I have 
been asked to contribute a paper on “Fer¬ 
tilizers" to be read before this meeting. 
Now, I can assure you I would very much 
rather have sat still and listened to the 
other fellow, and let him have written 
this up. You have, or a good many have, 
had a trial at this fertilizer business; and 
while it is something that is vital to every 
farmer, truck grower, and especially so 
to those who make a specialty of Citrus 
culture that I am loath to attempt to write 
on a subject that is of such vast import¬ 
ance to one and all. 
But, after all, perhaps I am not ex¬ 
pected to tell what I know, or rather what 
T might think I know about fertilizing, 
and was perhaps expected to write about 
what I didn’t know; but that would be 
a still greater task, so I will strike a hap¬ 
py medium between what I don’t know 
and what is just possible I might know, 
and what those have known before me. 
There is one point I think you will all 
agree with me on, and that is, it is one 
of the most vital questions of the day, 
and one that after all the centuries that 
have rolled away since man became 
a tiller of the soil, the least understood; 
still we are gaining ground a little, a ray 
of light here and one there, in time it 
will become of much more of an exact 
science than it is today. It seems strange 
when we come to think of it that so little 
was known by the first settlers of this 
