69 



cent of the orange groves in Manatee County are infested, and as this 

 county ijuts out something like 200,000 boxes of oranges per year, 

 worth on an average 13 per box, and since infested groves usually turn 

 out one good crop not oftener than once in two years, and sometimes 

 onl}^ 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. The damage 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 verj^ 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 larv?e, 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 {Aschersoiiia aleurodis) and the brown fungus over 

 all the Manatee River section, at Myers, and at Orlando. The growl- 

 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 ver}^ 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, 



