98 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



CHAPTER XI. 



ENEMIES, AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM. 



So much has been said and written about the enemies of 

 the orange tree that one might think it one of the most 

 delicate and cruelly afflicted trees in the vegetable king- 

 dom, while the contrary is really the truth, and it escapes 

 very lightly. For instance, there are no less than sixty 

 insects that prey on the apple tree, twelve on the pear, 

 sixteen on the peach, seventeen on the plum, thirty-five 

 on the cherry, and thirty-one on the grape. 



And yet we have heard orange growers grumbling over 

 the constant fight against the insects that attack their trees. 

 To such we commend a glance at the above host of enemies 

 upon which the northern fruit growers are waging constant 

 and not always successful war. Many of these are borers, 

 and their work is done in secret, and in an almost impreg- 

 nable fortress ; whereas, an orange tree has no borers, all 

 its foes being open and aboveboard, and hence easily de- 

 tected and conquered. 



The renowned scale insects are the most injurious, and, 

 before the best means of fighting them was discovered, did 

 much damage to the trees, and threatened a wide-spread 

 destruction to the orange interest in Florida, when it first 

 appeared in the State, which was at Mandarin, about 

 twenty years ago, being carried there on orange trees 

 brought direct from China. 



It may seem surprising that from a few trees, and from 

 one grove, this minute enemy of the orange tree should 

 have spread all over the State, and that, too, in a very 

 short time ; but when one comes to consider the matter it 

 is not. so wonderful after all. 



