90 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 



bark. When I heard two years ago that that was what ^Ir. Teasrue did. 

 I thought he was a good one to follow, so I slit the bark of the next 

 trees I tried to doctor. It is about twenty months since then. I used 

 beeswax to cover up the wound and keep the air out ; and I have not 

 seen a particle of gum exude from those trees since. I have come to the 

 conclusion that the slitting v/as of very -much more account than I at 

 first considered it. I simply put the beeswax over to keep out the air. 



We have also with us to-day :\Ir. J. W. Mills," who has been in 

 experimental work for some fifteen years right around in our sections. 

 I am sorry to say that he is going to leave us in a few months. I would 

 like to hear from him on the subject of his experience in splits and 

 drops, or anything he wishes to say in a few minutes on the subject of 

 citrus diseases. 



MR. J. W. ]\IILLS. Mr. Chairman: When I talk about splits and 

 drops, I Avish I Avould get stage-struck so I could not talk. I don't 

 think I will talk about that at all. There is a disease that has been 

 spoken of that is quite common in certain sections, especially near the 

 range of hills to the north of the valleys, and that is what they call the 

 Florida die-back. I have brought a few samples of it here that come 

 from an orchard of ten or twelve acres. This is a growth that was made 

 last June. The tree was not affected until it came to a height of twelve 

 or fifteen feet. These leaves will start to turn yellow or get crisp, and 

 the touch of a finger will cause them to drop off. They will dry up. and 

 the wind will shake them off. There is an exudation of gum clear down 

 to the green wood. Some people claim that it is due to infertility, and 

 a good fertilizer will correct it. There was a case over in Pomona where 

 there were about seven acres that were affected in the center of a 

 hundred-acre orchard. The trees became badly affected in the second 

 year. Occasionally an orange would be found on them that would be 

 exuding the sweat that would have this peculiar brown gum on it. and 

 would crack at those places. The trees in that orchard were planted 

 east and west from the nursery. AA^e came to a certain point in the 

 orchard where it stopped almost like a Avail. The trees of the orchard 

 were normal size, and produced good crops. In the, other direction it 

 kept getting less and less until it died out. This orchard Avas bounded 

 on the north by a lemon orchard AA^hich Avas affected in the same Avay. 

 The OAA'Uers of this grove fertilized heavily with barnyard manure on 

 that seven acres and Avorked it in. They had their oaa'u Avater system, 

 and irrigated it AA^hencA^er they thought the trees needed it. Still, after 

 the spring groAA^th had passed, they would die back in that wa^^ So they 

 tried commercial fertilizers in connection AA'ith barnyard manure. They 

 tried nitrate of soda, and the same results Avere obtained. There is a 

 man over at Highlands AA'ho claims to haA^e found a remedy for this, and 

 claims to have gotten it from the authorities at Washington. He claims 

 he sprayed his trees (some that he didn't knoAv aa± ether he Avould dig 

 out or not) AAdth a weak solution of Bordeaux mixture when the fruit 

 was about the size of peas, and again about six Aveeks later, and his trees 

 are now as fine as any he has. That is Avhat he tells and his neighbors 

 tell about it. There is an orchard adjoining AA'here they Avill spray this 

 year about 100 acres that are affected the same way. He used Bor- 



