19 



Tustin, Cal., November 12, 1888. 



B. M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture: 



Dear Sir : Almost every one of the citrus growers are spraying their trees with a rosin 

 wash that was discovered here. It is eight pounds caustic soda, two quarts whale oil, 

 and fifteen pounds rosin, prepared as follows : The caustic soda, rosin, and whale oil are 

 boiled together in about ten gallons of water, for about three or four hours, and then 

 water is added to make one hundred gallons , of solution, and sprayed as usual. This 

 remedy kills almost every "red scale" it touches and all "black scale." It is the most 

 successful wash that has ever been used. It does not hurt the most tender shoots or 

 bloom in the least. I have great faith now in citrus culture, and almost anywhere, even 

 with the white scale (which we have not got) but has been killed with this wash in other 

 sections. There are as many as ten spray tanks now in use in this vicinity. They are 

 worked all the time. The main thing is to cook it well, so it will mix through and through. 

 It must be applied warm. 



Yours very truly, 



H. K. SNOW 



Dr. Kimball: I will inquire whether or not it is a fact that citrus culture 

 that that gentleman speaks of is becoming extinct from the ravages of the 

 red scale alone, to say nothing about the white scale? 



Mr. Frank Kimball, of National City: In the Santa Ana Valley last 

 Sunday, I noticed quite a number of orchards, some of them that were 

 badly infested with the red scale had been cut off to mere hitching posts; 

 every limb cut off to within a few feet of the ground and the trunks white- 

 washed. Some of the orchards were entirely neglected and been abandoned 

 as dead, while within half a mile of such places there were orchards finely 

 growing, and as far as you could see, entirely free from the pests, as vigorous 

 and fine as any I have ever seen. In San Diego County, perhaps, in answer 

 to the gentleman to my left (Dr. White), two years ago the grounds around 

 the house of the late Wallace Leach, in the City of San Diego, became 

 thoroughly infested with the cottony cushion scale so badly that you could 

 not see the limbs. I discovered it, and reported it to the press, and it was 

 immediately taken up by the orchardists in that county, and we went 

 there in a body to operate on the trees. Mr. Leach met us with a shotgun, 

 and said if a man touched a tree he was a nonenity; finally, he was pre- 

 vailed upon to wash the trees continuously, and I do not believe there is a 

 cottony cushion scale in the county to-day; if there is I do not know of it. 

 There are some red scale and some red spider, though I know of but few 

 places where they exist, but I have never found any difficulty with the 

 ordinary whale oil soap wash in destroying either the red spider or the red 

 scale. That wash I have prepared myself from the soap made by the Los 

 Angeles Soap Company; I have used it from three quarters of a pound to 

 a pound per gallon, and applied as nearly boiling hot as I could take it 

 from the tank, and sprayed it with the ordinary spray pipe. I have met 

 with great success on the ordinary spider and the black scale. I take from 

 thirty-six to forty pounds of whale oil soap, of Los Angeles manufacture, 

 and put it in ten gallons of water and boil it — this cooks better than in a 

 larger quantity — then I add in the cauldron water, so as to make the whole 

 forty gallons. The reason I make the difference between thirty and forty 

 pounds, is if the scale is very young, thirty pounds to forty gallons of 

 water would be as effective as the forty, and less offensive, taking it from 

 the cauldron boiling hot and applying it through the ordinary spray pump. 



Dr. White: How long since this extermination occurred that you re- 

 ferred to ? 



Mr. Kimball: That was more than eighteen months ago. I have not 

 seen a recurrence of it at any point. It was imported there on some plants, 

 brought from some other section of the country. I think it was on some 

 roses, brought from San Jose. 



