PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 137 



the eggs, larvae, and pupae fixed forms to deal with. As the pest only 

 attacks the leaves of its host plants, by destroying the foliage of such, 

 with the fixed forms attached to them, presented the most practical plan 

 of campaign possible in the limited time between broods. To insure 

 success all the food plants must be located, all the foliage from such 

 removed and destroyed, and the work completed before the issuance 

 of the midsummer brood. It seemed almost an impossibility, even 

 under the most favorable conditions. With the enormous amount of 

 plants and trees to be defoliated, the scarcity of labor, the fruit season 

 at its height, with seemingly everything against us, it certainly pre- 

 sented a herculean task. We will cheerfully admit that it was not an 

 ideal time to attempt the work; but the white fly had by this time 

 become well known to almost every resident of the city, and to a large 

 majority of the children; many persons were visiting the city from 

 the adjacent country, and would, unthinkingly (not being familiar 

 with the danger attending such actions), capture mature specimens of 

 the pest to exhibit to friends in other sections. This grave danger of 

 having the pest spread over a great many sections of the State, in a 

 very short time, made it all the more necessary to commence work 

 immediately. In the face of all the arguments set forth by many 

 persons, who insisted that the season was the wrong time to attack the 

 pest, I feel safe in stating that should such a course have been followed, 

 viz. : the let-alone-policy until the winter season arrived before com- 

 mencing active work, the white fly would now have been practically 

 all over California. Our first idea, then, was to reduce the danger of 

 spread to a minimum in the shortest possible time, and later on, when 

 the trees would be in shape to be handled and the season of the year 

 more favorable, to give our time to efforts of complete eradication. 



The campaign, as outlined then, consisted of the defoliation of all 

 known host plants, and constant inspection covering the infested area, 

 extending through the winter months. In case of any adults being 

 found, or if anything should happen during the defoliation to delay 

 the work sufficient for , a new brood of flies to appear on any host 

 plant — for in any and every undertaking as extensive as this one ; one 

 that so far is unparalleled in the horticultural annals of California; 

 the unforeseen contingency must always be counted upon— then the out- 

 lined plan included : reinspection of the new foliage as soon as it ap- 

 peared. This was closely watched and allowed to remain long enough 

 for any belated individual which might happen to escape and reach 

 this tender growth, which is the ideal food for Aleyrodes citri. Judg- 

 ing from our experience, which covered many weeks among the pest, 

 the flies would go immediately to this young foliage, deposit their eggs, 

 and soon disappear ; thus we again had the progeny of 'the outlaw flies 

 trapped on the young growth, with the adult flies dead and their 



