69 
cent of the orange groves in Manatee County are infested, and as this 
county puts out something like 200,000 boxes of oranges per year, 
worth on an average $5 per box, and since infested groves usually turn 
out one good crop not oftener than once in two years, and sometimes 
only once in three years, it is only reasonable to believe that with the 
insect absent the present annual yield of fruit in this county would 
be more than doubled. Thedamage to this single county alone can 
be hardly less than one quarter of a million dollars per year. The 
direct and indirect consequences of the insect’s presence in the State 
could have amounted to but little less than one half million dollars 
the past year. 
I believe the orange industry will flourish in spite of the fly and, 
barring freezes, that the restoration of our groves over middle and 
northern Florida will continue at a rate exceeding that of white fly 
dissemination, but if present conditions continue it appears that 
within a half dozen years our State will receive almost a million dol- 
lars less than it would with clean groves, though we do not doubt 
that the total income from the crop will have multiplied as many or 
more times than the loss during the interval. I am very sure the 
insect will not become worse anywhere than it was in Manatee County 
last year, and if groves are excellent property there at present they 
will remain paying holdings in said county and elsewhere, notwith- 
standing the presence of the fly. 
Signs of alleviation from the pest have been noted for some years, 
but not until last year did the value of its fungous enemies become 
emphasized to the most casual observer as a more than decimating 
factor in its extraordinary numbers. By autumn disease had so 
reduced it that the worst infested districts are this year cleaner than 
they have been during any of the three seasons since coming under 
my observation. <A visit paid to the infested territory in early July 
led me to recommend that the trees be left to themselves until the 
appearance of the September brood of larvee, when resin wash might 
be applied if the fruit was becoming smutty with mold. 
The fungous diseases of the insect seem well distributed throughout 
the State where the fly occurs, but may have been introduced by the 
hand of man following the coming of the fly. I have observed both 
the red fungus (Aschersonia alewrodis) and the brown fungus over 
all the Manatee River section, at Myers, and at Orlando. The grow- 
ers usually make an effort to introduce these fungi whenever the 
Aleurodes appears in a new locality. The brown fungus seems more 
effective than the red. 
Notwithstanding the mischief the white fly actually does and the 
dread it inspires, it is noteworthy that the earliest infested grove in 
south Florida on the west coast, that of C. H. Foster, of Manatee, the 
one mentioned in some of the very earliest literature of white fly 
(Insect Life, vol. 5, p. 219), and hence infested for at least ten 
years, is still living and vigorous, with the exception of a few trees, 
