FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Ji 



dead. Then T went back to this Professor Jones, and said, 

 such and such is the result. \\'ell, he said, that may be so; if 

 it is not the oil, it must be because the vitality of the tree was 

 too low to stand the oil. Well, I says, how am I to tell about 

 the vitality of the tree, when it is safe to put it on and when 

 it isn't? So I stopped using- the crude oil, and then I w^as 

 foolish enough to try using kerosene. This same professor 

 said, "Now look here, if you will only use that on a clear day, 

 when the sun is shining bright, and on a perfect day, you 

 will be all right." Well, I swallowed it again, and I went into 

 an orchard that was not very badly infested, of 2400 peach 

 trees, five years old; went in early in spring, I think the first 

 week in April. The buds had not swelled, and I picked out 

 a day. I waited a whole week to get a day made to order, 

 and I put the pure kerosene on that orchard, and gentlemen, 

 I killed all but two or three hundred trees, and those w^ere so 

 scattered I had to dig them up. Then I followed up the oil 

 business by trying the emulsion, and I didn't kill tiiem so 

 bad, but I killed and injured the trees, particularly where I 

 applied it the second spring, so I had to give up the oil. I was 

 compelled to give it up after suffering severely, year after 

 year by it. So I took up the lime and sulphur wash. Now then, 

 I don't suppose you want me to tell you how that is made ; 

 you have heard it a hundred times from the rostrum, and you 

 have read it thousands of times in the newspapers, and it is 

 the important thing in the country for the fruit men to .con- 

 sider. I have been at different agricultural meetings, and 

 they all give one session, and sometimes two, to the scale 

 subject, and it is thread-bare and worn out, but as I heard a 

 man say to-day, two or three men can't get together without 

 talking about the scale. It is an important question, and the 

 W'orst thing that has ever confronted the fruit men. I have 

 heard J. H. Hale say, time and again, "Thank God for the 

 San Jose sale," and I say the same, gentlemen. It is a serious 

 matter that confronts us, but Mr. Hale was right when he said 

 that, for it is a blessing for the man that grows fruit, as it 

 has taught us a whole lot of things. I stick to the sulphur 

 wash, and it is the same old story of making it. for it 

 is the same old thing. I will tell you how it- is done in a cheap 



