FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
133 
of potash for peaches will retard the 
ripening. This we know by sad ex¬ 
perience, as when we used too much 
of it we came in a week or ten days 
later than some of the orchards ad¬ 
joining us. But potash does materially 
aid in the carrying quality of the fruit. 
Mr. Hart—My experience with or¬ 
anges in the free use of potash is that 
it has a tendency to prevent softening 
of the fruit. 
Mr. Longley—My experience in us¬ 
ing potash was in the fall. I fertilized 
in the fall and didn’t think there was 
enough potash, so I sent to Brother 
Painter and got a carload. The next 
summer we got the finest crop of le¬ 
mons I ever saw. They were big and 
fine looking, and brought a good price 
in the market. I think a good deal of 
it was due to putting it on in the fall. 
I also put on an extra amount. 
Mr.-In the spring, my trees set 
a good crop of fruit, and I gave them 
a good application of potash. As the 
result, I lost nearly the whole crop of 
fruit. A friend of mine said he had 
the same experience. It was just about 
this time of year that I put the potash 
on ; perhaps a little earlier. 
Mr. Hart—Was it a dry year? Per¬ 
haps that was the cause of your losing 
the crop instead of too much potash. 
Mr.-No, it was not a particularly 
dry year. I saw no reason except too 
much potash. The season was an av¬ 
erage season. 
Mr. Jones—One fall we had drops 
to the tune of 500 boxes. They began 
to drop in September. Somebody told 
me what the ground needed was pot¬ 
ash, so I got five tons of high-gra'de 
potash and put it on the grove, which 
was about nine acres, and the next 
year I could not get a box of drops. 
They were fine oranges; clear and 
smooth and fine. 
Mr.-Did you put on in the fall? 
Mr. Jones—No, it was put on in 
June. 
Mr. Griffing—I understood the lady 
to say that potash had a tendency to 
harden the wood fibre. Now, take it 
in the growth of nursery trees. In the 
early season we use fertilizer more 
largely composed of nitrogen, and in 
the fall we increase the potash very 
materially, running up to eight and 
nine per cent. We find the trees will 
carry better and stand more cold 
than trees that have been given more 
nitrogenous matter. In the fall we 
leave out one per cent, of the ammonia 
and increase the potash three or four 
per cent. 
For the orange nursery trees, we 
fertilize them in the early part of the 
season, then give them about two 
more applications during the season; 
in all, about three or four times a 
year, increasing the potash every time. 
We fertilize the peach seedlings as 
soon as they are about four or five 
inches in height, giving a strong pot¬ 
ash fertilizer in the fall, and it un¬ 
doubtedly hardens the wood fibre. 
Mr. Skinner—Why do the formulae 
run so high in phosphoric acid for 
young trees? All the formulae run 
very high. 
Mr. Rose—I can only surmise that 
it is a business proposition. The phos¬ 
phates are the cheapest source of plant 
food that we have, particularly in 
Florida, and it is the predominating 
