FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
35 
to stand forcing- and other well intended 
abuses, I think that it is not wholly domes¬ 
ticated and prefers some of its natural 
forest conditions, a sweet, moist, rich soil 
on which the sun cannot shine and where 
its delicate root system, will not be disturb¬ 
ed. To bring the soil to such a state 
plenty of muck, leaves or trash will be 
needed and a good application of ground 
shell or raw ground limestone will be 
necessary. A number of observations on 
shell and marl land, besides liming tests, 
make me sure on that point. And if the re¬ 
quirements of this system are filled its 
adoption will be almost a necessity. The 
reverse is also somewhat true of it. 
Why do we cultivate so much in our 
too active sandy citrus soils? I would not 
use a fertilizer on my grove that would 
be injured by the sunshine or would not 
wash into the soil with a few showers. If 
cultivation really saves much moisture un¬ 
der our grove conditions it is of little con¬ 
sequence under modern irrigation or on 
low land. If to keep the crust broken, so 
far as I know the sort of crust we break 
only forms under cultural conditions, and 
if we keep the top crust broken one will 
form just below the cultivator limit 
that we cannot break without 
injury to the roots. This also indi¬ 
cates that the soil mulch as we use it is 
not perfect as a mellowing agent. I think 
also that the apparently good results from 
cultivation are deceptive and may finally 
become destructive, especially when the 
soil is worked when wet or green stuff is 
worked into it. And the warmer the 
weather the greater the resulting injury 
will be in any case. The action of culti¬ 
vation on our active sand is as a powerful 
stimulant to the tree when it is done, 
afterwards, the reaction. 
Many of us have seen groves that 
for some reason were thrown out. If 
these trees were properly fertilized, irri¬ 
gated, mulched, and pruned with the grass 
mowed to return to the soil instead of 
clean grazing the quantity of fruit might 
increase to commercial proportions with¬ 
out destroying the quality. At least, we 
should not be complaining of bad results 
from fertilizing, etc., when bad cultural 
conditions were the cause. If any one 
should be favorably impressed with this 
idea I can only ask them to go slowly with 
it as I did. . But on rich, moist land the 
commercial possibilities of this system are 
especially good and it might adapt such 
land to citrus culture where it now fails. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mir. Mead—I have been trying some 
experiments in fertilizing trees lately. I 
came to the conclusion that the effect 
of fertilizer does not last very long, so a 
year ago I tried the experiment of ferti¬ 
lizing much more often than I had ever 
done before, giving a less quantity. Now, 
the ordinary method is to give from twen¬ 
ty to forty pounds of fertilizer to a tree all 
at once and several months apart. I exper¬ 
imented by giving a tree ten pounds every 
month. Tlie yield the very first year, al¬ 
though I began the experiment in Jan¬ 
uary, increased from an average of six, to 
eighteen boxes of oranges. This year the 
tree has grown splendidly and has set 
what seems to be a moderate crop of fruit, 
but it may turn out to be much better than 
it now seems. I used a complete orange 
tree fertilizer (Mape’s) the “fruit and 
