74 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



the San Diego Land Corporation, nor were the users of other machines 

 personally interviewed. Upon request, however, the manufacturers 

 kindly furnished a list of the users of the machines and a circular letter 

 was sent to each one in order to obtain the opinions of all those who 

 had had experience with the machines. Replies were received from the 

 operators of ten of the machines. The letters make very interesting 

 reading and might be given in full except that they would take up 

 considerably more time than seems desirable. Below are given the more 

 important points as brought out by the different letters : 

 Mr. A. H. Davis, Santa Fe Springs (one machine) : 



"I have fumigated about 30,000 trees this year with the Dingle 

 machine and have found it more than satisfactory to myself and 

 growers. I find that the machine will do better work than the pots 

 can do, even with 10*^ less material. I am doing prettier work 

 with the f schedule than I have ever done with any kind of 

 a dose. I don't burn the tents. ... I have been using the 

 machine for six weeks without the generator inside, letting the 

 cyanide and the acid fall direct into the residue, and I can see no 

 difference in the gas. The machine can be improved, as it is only in 

 a crude state now." 

 National Orange Company, Riverside (three machines) : 



"At the present time we are much pleased with the machines. 

 They seem to do good work and are easily handled. It is a little 

 early to tell of their efficiency, but they look good to us." 



Rancho Sespe, Sespe (one machine) : 



"The corrosion of the valves caused us some trouble. The grad- 

 uates are a trifle low, which necessitates the operator assuming a 

 stooping position ; twigs and lemons directly at the mouth of the 

 hose are burned, but when care is exercised in placing the end of 

 the hose away from the fruit, no burning or pitting of fruit is 

 experienced. With the 75% dosage, there was an excellent killing. 

 "Where the hatch is even and the scale is fumigated in the right 

 stage, the 62% dosage is ample for the black scale upon our trees. 

 We have 40 tents in our outfit, ])ut Avith the machine we can easily 

 haiidle 60 tents. It takes about 25 minutes to shoot the 40 tents. 

 This time does not include refilling or emptying of the machine. 

 I think the machine is going to prove a great success." 



Ventura County, A. A. Brock, Horticultural Commissioner (one 

 machine) : 



"I have made inspections in orchards fumigated by the Owl 

 Fumigating Machine, and of groves fumigated with the old genera- 

 tion method, and can see no difference in the work as to their scale 

 killing power. The main difference in the work is that with the 

 Owl Fumigating Machine there is very little tent patching to do, 

 while Avith the old method one or two men are kept continually 

 patching. Another difference is that in the old way, one man is 

 required to weigh the cyanide and one to measure out the acid and 

 the water, while with this machine one man does the work of two. 

 There is a big saving in moving the outfit, as there are no gener- 

 ators to move, which had to be moved l)y themselves to avoid tent 

 burning. The handling of the cyanide is made much nicer by the 



