WORK ROUTINE. - 37 



ing to the size and number of the trees. For medium-sized trees 

 requiring tents not larger than 44 feet in diameter, five men can work 

 to advantage. This crew can -handle 30 tents every forty-five 

 minutes and can treat from 350 to 400 trees in a night's work of ten 

 hours. For trees requiring larger tents, which are shifted by means of 

 uprights, a crew of five or six men is needed to handle about 12 or 15 

 tents every forty-five minutes, or between 100 and 150 trees in a full 

 night's work. This rapidity is attained when the trees are regularly 

 set and properly spaced and when the schedules showing the dosage 

 for each tree to be fumigated are prepared during the day, or when the 

 dose is based upon the judgment of the fumigator after the tent has 

 been placed in position. As has been stated, the plan of work com- 

 monl}^ followed in California in treating scale insects, as far as the 

 estimation of dosage is concerned, can not be recommended for use 

 against the white fly in Florida. The method of estimating the 

 dosage herein recommended at the most affects the schemes of routine 

 previously followed in fumigating only by adding an extra man to 

 the crew. One man can calculate the dosage faster than two men can 

 weigh out the chemicals and generate the gas. The extra expense of an 

 additional man is entirely negligilile considering the increase in effi- 

 ciency on the one hand and the check on unnecessary waste of the 

 chemicals on the other. 



Barrels of water should be placed during the day at convenient 

 points in the grove, as should also carboys or large jugs containing 

 the acid. The tents are taken to the end of the rows, unrolled, and 

 placed in position for covering the first trees. The cart with its sup- 

 ply of acid and cyanid is located near the end of the row of tents, and 

 everything is put in readiness to start work by sundown if the wind 

 is not so strong as to interfere. Each man in the crew has definitely 

 assigned duties. The men who handle the poles or derricks are com- 

 monly known in California as ''tent pullers," or "tent men." These 

 men, with their one or more assistants, proceed to pull each tent in 

 succession over the first trees of the row. If one tree should be missing, 

 the tent is left unused during the first period rather than to break the 

 line by moving it at once to the second tree. As each tree is covered, 

 each one of the tent men, after disconnecting liis pole or derrick, walks 

 halfway around the tent, pulling in the edges so that it will not 

 spread out to inclose unnecessary space. A tent after being pulled 

 in at the bottom is shown in Plate VI. After reaching the end of the 

 row the tent men return to the cart or commissary tray and assist in 

 generating the gas. As soon as the first tent is in position the fore- 

 man with a lantern in hand, except when the light from the moon is 

 sufficient, notes the position of the tent with respect to the center of 

 the tree, using as guides the lines heretofore described. The reading 

 is made where the selected line touches the ground. 



