12 CITRUS TREES AND THEIR DISEASES 



tality and weakened the constitution by our present 

 methods of propagation to the extent that the tree 

 today requires much more nursing and much more care 

 than in the day of our grandfathers. It is also true 

 that we have many more enemies and much more dis- 

 ease of the tree than we had some sixty years ago. 

 Now this cannot all be laid at the doorstep of climatic 

 conditions for the simple reason this does not only 

 apply to trees, plants, etc., but to agricultural products 

 as well. 



When a young man the writer conceived the 

 thought that the man who wrote the first book, that 

 has been handed down from generation to generation, 

 which is no doubt a wonderful book, if it be written 

 by man, he surely is entitled to great credit beyond 

 mention, but if he was a man who wrote this first book, 

 I want to ask the one question. If there were no books 

 for him to copy from, how did he obtain his knowledge ? 

 I answer the only possible way in which I could see 

 that he gained such knowledge was by the study of 

 nature itself. Could it be possible that all men of 

 today are subject to error? The writer is ready and 

 stands open to contradiction, that this great writer did 

 make one error at least and that error is the most im- 

 portant feature in the citrus industry. I don't think 

 you can find where this great writer has ever spoken 

 of that. In this creation, every single thing was 

 created that was expected to live, exist and die, is 

 created with a body. I firmly believe that the reader, 

 when he stops to think for one moment, will agree with 

 me on this point. Now, in the creation of this body, 



