174 State Horticultural Society. 



to commend the course you have taken, Mr. i'lesident, to get at the 

 facts, as the practical work in the orchard has developed them. The 

 individual experience of every grower, who has used both systems is 

 good, the collective experience of a large number of growers, under 

 varying conditions, climatic and otherwise, on all kinds of fruit grown 

 m our diversified climate is better. Our reports this season cover 

 Ml the fruit growing sections of the United States, on all kinds of 

 deciduous fruits and vegetables as well as the citrus fruits of Florida 

 and Southern California. Our reports also embrace the application 

 c»i the dust process to the Walnut Blight in California, as conducted 

 under the auspices of the Walnut Growers Association of Southern 

 California, with the result that the disease has been controlled. In 

 i;eneral, the reports show, without exception, that on all kinds of 

 stone fruits, grapes, all kinds of vines, gooseberries, currants, straw- 

 ben its, potatoes and all kinds of vegetables, the dust proces.s is far 

 superior to the liquid. The past season has developed the j'act that 

 the f'T)^ formulae are the only ones that can be used successfully on 

 peach and grape rots. The Department of Agriculture at Washington, 

 D. C. instituted a comparative test for the peach rot at Fort Valley, 

 Cf-i , under the direction of Prof. Scott. We had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing Prof. Scott at tlie World's Fair, and he reports tha'; his tests 

 were without result, owing to the absence of rain in the section in 

 Vv^hich he operated, the rot did not develop, the first time that section 

 has been free from it in eleven years. We also had the pleasure of 

 a visit from Prof. Woods, of the Division of Plant Pathology at 

 Washington, D. C. He stated to us that the dust process was the 

 only successful one for the treatment of the rot, and that the depart- 

 ment was now engaged in perfecting the dry formula. As an in- 

 secticide, the reports show the dust formula to be superior to the 

 liquid for the same purpose, due, no doubt, to a more perfect distribu- 

 tion of the arsenic, and the limitation of the arsenic necessary in the 

 liquid form, being removed by the change of the conveyor from 

 water to dry form. On Scab Fungus, the reports of the past season 

 show, that as between the two systems it is six of one and half a dozen 

 of the other. In our own orchard we had complete control of the 

 disease on the foliage and fruit. We do not mean by this that our 

 fruit was free from scab, but we do mean, that the application of the 

 dry formula we used killed the fungus on both foliage and fruit, but 

 owing to the excessive rains, we could not keep the dust on our trees, 

 and the fungus stole a march on us between times. We sprayed our 

 apples eight times, peaches, plums, cherries and grapes four times 



