88 THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' COX\'EXTIOX. 



]\IR. LEROY. I knew Mr. Koethe^i had some ideas a little different 

 from Professor Smith on the subject of the contagiousness of this dis- 

 ease, and that is one of the reasons why I wanted to have him express 

 himself. There seems to be some reason to judge that it is contagious. 

 In my o^^ti case, I never thought it was, because of the conditions in my 

 o^vn grove ; but, as he said, it may be. We had better study along both 

 lines. TV'e have also with us ]Mr. Kennard of Glendora. who. has an 

 entirely different class of soil from that which Mr. Koethen deals with, 

 and I would like to hear from him on both the remedies and his experi- 

 ence along these lines. 



ME. KEXXARD. ]\Iy experience with the gum disease is confined 

 almost exclusively to this foot-rot. I have only one or two trees that, 

 are troubled to amount to anything with the scaly bark disease. Some 

 years ago I found one orchard in particular that was badly infested 

 with this gum disease at the root. I treated it with carbolic acid, and in 

 my ease, with very marked success. Across the road, in another orchard, 

 I found gum disease in one row, and in about six trees in another 

 row. The strange part of it is, on all of those trees where I found the 

 gum disease, I found it was on a lime root. I don't know that I have 

 found on my soil a case of gum disease on an^-thing but a lime root, so 

 that the root, I think, is a very important matter in regard to fighting 

 this gum disease. I have seen this gum disease treated on lighter soil, 

 and also on heavier soil, very eft'ectively by the carbolic acid treatment. 



MR. LEROY. We have also with us Professor Paine, from Crafton 

 or Redlands district, and he has another kind of soil up there, and has 

 had probably as much experience or longer experience than any other 

 citrus grower on the whole, and he will give us his experience along the 

 line of diseases of the lemon. 



PROFESSOR PAINE. Ladies and Gentlemen: I want to confess 

 that my experience has not given me much that I can give to you. I 

 have been making some observations of what gum disease is, but I think 

 1 have done more experimenting how to cure it than I have in studying 

 what it is. Originally. I conceived it to be an infectious disease, and 

 I treated it with carbolic acid: and then, because I found a hardening 

 of the bark there, and because I thought that the bark had its office in 

 respiration, and that that was hindered by the hardening of the bark, I 

 gave it a chance to make new bark, and after applying the carbolic acid 

 I used a thing that probably is not at all proper to use on a tree — I used 

 neat*s-foot oil, because I knew it used to soften my shoe leather, and I 

 thought it might soften the bark. But the tree to-day that I applied 

 those things on is vastly improved from its original condition. One 

 limb was in an almost dead condition. Its oranges were hardly larger 

 than the large marbles children sometimes play with, and they were 

 very inferior in quality. The leaves were scarcely larger than the 

 little finger, and very small in number. I concluded to keep on experi- 

 menting with that particular tree because it was nearly dead, and 

 because I would not lose much by its loss. That is the tree to which I 

 applied the carbolic acid and the neat's^foot oil. In the earlier days I 

 used conniion beeswax. I think that the Scotch wax. which is prepared 



