FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
129 
By Mrs. Nettie M. G. Prange. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I am assured it is the wish of the 
Society to have a plain talk on fertilizer 
anu its value, by a beginner, to those 
even newer to the work, so I will make 
no excuses, but gladly relate my humble 
experience. 
When I decided to make a grove I 
wrote to several prominent orange grow¬ 
ers to ascertain which was, in their opin¬ 
ion, the best nursery in the state. In 
the spring I engaged the best trees in 
that nursery, to be delivered the next fall. 
My land lay beside a flourishing grove, 
so I thought, after securing my trees 
properly, I had settled all vexing ques¬ 
tions, for, of course, all good groves 
were made with “Smith’s’’ fertilizer. 
A valued correspondent wrote:. 
“Though ‘Smith's’ fertilizer is good, he 
asks more per unit of plant food than 
‘Brown’ does.” About all I understood 
of this sentence was that there might be 
a change to save some money; and you 
know that idea appeals to any of us. But, 
was “Brown’s” fertilizer as good? I felt 
the need of being able to judge for my¬ 
self. My first step was to take prices 
from a list of agricultural chemicals, and 
get cost of contents in the two formulae 
under discussion. I struck all the av¬ 
erages, finding price per pound of each 
ingredient, and worked it all out in reg¬ 
ular schoolma’am fashion. The figures 
showed my correspondent to be right, but 
for further information I submitted the 
work to a person experienced in that line. 
I do not begrudge his quiet smile, for he 
wrote me the kindest of letters, tell¬ 
ing me the easy way to reckon fertilizer 
values, and many other things of interest 
and importance. Neither do I begrudge 
the work I did. Try it yourselves and you 
will see it is just what one needs to make 
him realize that fertilizer is not just fer¬ 
tilizer! 
When one sees it is a combination of 
plant foods, mixed in stated proportions; 
that three of these nutrients, ammonia, 
phosphoric acid, and potash, have a mar¬ 
ket value, and only these three; and that 
the name of Smith, Brown or Jones has 
nothing to do with it beyond his relia¬ 
bility as to work and materials, and that, 
as we shall see later on, we do not have 
to trust him very far even in this—one 
next wonders which of the numerous 
formulae presented is best suited to his 
purpose. This calls for a knowledge of 
the effects of the different plant foods . 
There are many good books on this 
subject for sale, but I will speak only of 
those to be had for the asking, though 
I am to append a list of the others I have 
found useful. 
Send to German Kali Works, 93 Nas¬ 
sau Street, New York, for their “Orange 
Culture,” and then for the other dainty 
booklets listed in it. Peruse carefully the 
pamphlets from all the fertilizer firms. 
There, is something to be learned in every 
one. To be sure, one must always bear 
in mind, the firms issue these books to 
sell their goods, and while all presented 
may be facts, yet each emphasizes that 
fact which is to its own interest; also 
remember, no law controls these state¬ 
ments, and if a company wants to mis¬ 
represent its goods in the pamphlets, it 
can do so. It is the tag on the fertilizer 
that has to tell the truth. 
Write to the Secretary of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., for a list of Farmers’ 
Bulletins, and ask to have your name put 
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