36 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
vine” variety for all except one applica¬ 
tion. I tried the same experiment years 
ago with five pounds a month on a plot of 
six trees, and the results were very satis¬ 
factory. The fertilizer was paid for sev¬ 
eral times over. I used a brand that con¬ 
tains 12 per cent, potash, 2 per cent, to 
3 per cent, ammonia and 8 per cent, phos¬ 
phoric acid. It is one of the standard 
brands for fruiting trees. 
Mr. Temple—May I ask the gentleman 
if he made any change in his method dur¬ 
ing the dormant period of the tree? Do I 
understand that he fertilized every month, 
the same quantity, right through the 
year? I would also like to- know if he 
found this had any effect on the tree ; that 
is whether it bloomed earlier in the 
spring, or later than trees treated as they 
are ordinarily. 
Mr. Mead—I gave ten pound's each 
calendar month. As to earliness the differ¬ 
ence is so slight as not to- merit attention. 
Possibly it did open up a little earlier but 
I think that was due to the tree being* in 
more vigorous health, but the difference 
was but a few days. Some of the trees 
that I did not fertilize at all last year 
bloomed more heavily, and some of them 
bloomed earlier in isolated cases. How¬ 
ever, this tree has certainly -set a good 
crop. 
Mr. Penny—May I ask the gentleman 
how the fruit on the trees ripened up; did 
it ripen up earlier or later, and also how 
was the texture of the fruit, coarse or fine, 
and -was the skin smooth or rough ? 
Mr. Mead—There was not very much 
difference between the trees; they all rip¬ 
ened about the same time. The fruit is not 
of the very best quality but as the other 
trees were similar I took it to be due to 
Other conditions than the fertilizer. I could 
not see any difference in the texture of 
the fruit. When I was fertilizing the plot 
of six trees the fruit was exceedingly good 
and smooth. I was fertilizing then with 
five pounds a month. I could not see that 
the fertilizing had 1 very much to do with 
the quality of the fruit. The tree was af¬ 
fected with the whitefly more or less but 
that did not seem to make any particular 
difference. 
Mr. Penny—How about the ripening? 
Mr. Mead—It ripened a little later than 
usual this year, but by December it was all 
right and shipped a little later than the 
middle of December. 
Dr. Richardson—Then you mean to 
say that you think the only difference was 
the increased bearing. I have heard it said 
that an experiment was tried in which a 
tree was given 300 pounds of fertilizer 
during the year, but after 125 pounds was 
given they could not see any difference in 
the bearing capacity or condition of the 
tree; that it did not seem capable of assim¬ 
ilating more than 125 pounds. 
Mr. Penny—I would like to ask Mr. 
Kilgore what kind of nitrogen he uses. 
I understand that he used nitrogen inde¬ 
pendent of his other fertilizer. 
Mir. Kilgore—I use almost any sort of 
nitrogen I can get, dependent on the sea¬ 
son. In the spring I keep my grove just 
as rich in nitrogen ais I dare. I get it eas¬ 
ily from the legumes, rich muck beds, etc. 
In the early spring I generally use nitrate ‘ 
of soda or nitrate potash. Later in the 
season I would prefer organic nit¬ 
rogen from the soil but I can only do that 
by allowing the weeds and grass to grow. 
