232 Early Studies in Bacterial Plant Diseases 



I have been stopping with . . . Lyman Phelps over a vi^eek. He knows a 

 great deal about Citrus and has many exceedingly valuable crosses. . . . 

 Probably has $15,000 worth of crosses. Has discovered that the bud taken 

 from belotv a crossed flower may show influence of pollen ! ! ! Showed 

 me influence of stock on scion and has often seen it. Will send you and 

 me boxes of crosses and teratological and pathological growths for study 

 next winter. 



July 21 he told Smith by letter, " I have been offered trees to 

 bud (and have budded firm large ones with blight) . . .". Swingle 

 continued his studies of orange pollination, began budding and 

 grafting experiments, and now must have anticipated his famous 

 work in cross breeding and hybridizing of citrus. He chose H. J. 

 Webber to be his co-worker at Eustis. Webber, skillful in plant 

 physiology and pathology, was to become one of America's out- 

 standing authorities on plant breeding. Appointed to his position 

 on September 15, he was soon in Washington to receive his instruc- 

 tions. During the first weeks of October, they were " busy looking 

 up books, apparatus, and making plans " ^ for their laboratory. 

 Late that month they journeyed to Jacksonville, and thence went 

 by boat on the St. Johns River to Sanford, described by Webber 

 in a letter to Bessey as " the early seat of American Citrus culture 

 and at present probably the home of the greatest practical orange 

 grower in America." They arrived at Eustis on October 25, and 

 by November the citizens there were building their six-room 

 laboratory consisting of a library, culture room, dark room, and 

 three work rooms. 



In May, Fairchild had written Smith and told how much he was 

 enjoying working at the Division's laboratory at Geneva, New 

 York, the " best laboratory room," he said, " I have worked in 

 by all means." 



On July 31, Newton B. Pierce, again at Santa Ana, had thanked 

 Smith for a copy of his paper on the " Chemistry of Peach 

 Yellows." He had just completed typing " a translation of a 

 valuable paper on the hybridization of the vine, by Millardet. 

 Will probably present the same with my own observations on 

 Coulure," he wrote. " The almond disease which I did some work 

 on last fall has been conquered and I am now of the opinion that 

 the souring of the figs may in part at least be likewise mastered. 



' Letter from May Varney to Smith, October 17. 



