Florida and California Laboratories 241 



plants, and examining leaves and conducting tissue of healthy and 

 diseased limbs. On March 2\, 1893, Swingle had written to Smith 

 and told him of his orange grove pollination experiments. " Have 

 made a good number of cross pollination experiments," he said, 

 " and have studied the means by which it is accomplished in 

 nature." Swingle had closely observed the pollinating roles of the 

 honey and huriible bees, the humming bird, and he was interested 

 in the warbler and what it, as well as other birds, accomplished 

 in the process. Swingle was a man of far-sighted vision. Webber 

 believed that he possessed a true Darwinian zest for scientific 

 inquiry. Early he envisioned the possibilities of large scale plant 

 introductions, an " acclimatizing scheme " he called it in a letter 

 of May 5, 1893, to Smith, as a principal way of advancing the 

 state's industrial economy. Plant disease study was the other prin- 

 cipal investigational branch. By 1894 Galloway was reporting 

 that, 



Sooty mold, a destructive disease of the orange and other citrous fruits, 

 has been successfully treated. Scab of lemon, another very troublesome 

 disease, has also been held in check by the application of fungicides. It is 

 believed now that with the increased knowledge as to the cause of these 

 diseases they may be held in check at comparatively small expense. The 

 more obscure diseases of the orange, such as blight, foot rot, and die back, 

 have been further studied and much additional information has been 

 obtained in regard to them. 



Swingle and Webber did not confine themselves to citrous 

 diseases, but, like Pierce at the Pacific Coast laboratory, diligently 

 pursued laboratory and field examinations in a wide variety of 

 agricultural crops. An early prominent phase of inquiry was in 

 what Swingle described to Smith in 1893 as " fertilizer-in relation- 

 to-disease." On behalf of this and the so-called acclimatization 

 work Swangle appeared before the state horticultural society 

 meeting at Pensacola to inculcate further interest and secure special 

 appropriations in aid of the work. Both men became American 

 plant breeders of eminence. Webber, with special abilities as a 

 c)'tologist and a special interest in plant fecundation, extended at 

 Eustis his knowledge of the art and science of plant breeding. 

 The brilliant achievements of Swingle and Webber in citrous 

 hybridization will be considered at a point later. Now both men 

 were doing important work in plant pathology. 



