14 
on through the instrumentality of Mr. H.G. Hubbard, and the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has published a special report prepared by him 
upon this subject. All that is said in that report in reference to the 
value of preventive measures against the scale-insects of that part of 
our country will apply with equal force here in California. 
The value of cleanliness; of thorough cultivation; of pruning judi- 
ciously so as to get rid of alldead wood, open the top of the trees to the 
light and to the sun, and facilitate the spraying of the trees need scarcely 
be emphasized. There may be some difference of opinion as to the 
value of pruning, while different kinds of pruning, or no pruning, will 
have their advocates here as they have had elsewhere. The orange 
makes, naturally, a very dense head, and in the moist climate of Flor- 
ida, where they have a much larger average of shade, cloudiness, and 
moisture than you have here, judicious pruning has all the advantages 
stated, and whether needed or not in California for the purpose of more 
fully ripening and maturing the fruit, [ am quite satisfied from what I 
have seen that itis just as much needed to facilitate proper spraying of 
the trees and to prevent overproduction. 
Some years ago, and prior to the discoveries resulting from the in- 
vestigation in Florida just referred to, the inadequacy of most washes 
caused many of the orange-growers of that State to cut back their trees 
most rigorously, leaving little more than the main trunk, in the hope of 
thus being able to kill out or exterminate the scale-insects that troubled 
them there. I find that many of your orange-growers are going through 
the same sad experience and resorting to the same sad means. It is a 
pity to find men thus re-enacting a farce which has been proved in an- 
other part of the country to be quite unnecessary. Such wholesale lop- 
ping of limbs requires much labor, and even with the greatest care, 
which is seldom bestowed upon it, the tree receives an immediate and 
material injury, and is destined to suffer still more in years to come. 
Moreover, this radical means often proves futile so far as the results 
aimed at are concerned, and unless the greatest precaution is taken to 
properly cover and heal the stumps and to absolutely kill all the insects 
upon the remaining trunk, as well as those upon the severed branches 
and the ground, the new growth will soon be as effectually infested as 
was the old. Many of your own growers have thus lopped or are now 
cutting back their trees in a very blind way and without the precautions 
here indicated, on the popular but erroneous supposition that without 
such precautions they will get rid of the troublesome scales. 
The value of shelters in the form of surrounding trees and wind-breaks 
is, 1 am sure, just as appreciable here, if not so much to protect from 
frost and winds, fully as much to protect from infection from scale-in- 
sects. A row or tall hedge of coniferous trees, such as your cypress, 
upon which the scale-insects will not thrive —or, better still, a belt of 
the same—will often serve as an effectual screen to prevent the young 
insects from being carried from an infested to an uninfested grove. 
