Gummosis and Frenching 
Eugene L. Pearce, Clearwater 
This is not a scientific paper. I shall 
mention no measurement finer than the 
thousandth part of an inch; no time limit 
shorter than the. hundredth part of a sec¬ 
ond. I shall not differentiate sharply be¬ 
tween a fungus, a female bacteria and a 
group of pupae. 
This paper will represent some part of 
the experience of a plain grower. I trust 
it will possess one quality worth while— 
brevity. 
And now to business: 
Gummosis is a serious matter, when 
neglected. If noted when tree is first at¬ 
tacked, it is one of the least difficult of 
citrus disorders to check. Whenever the 
grower sees gum breaking from the bark 
of a grapefruit tree or a tangerine—in my 
section it is chiefly these varieties of the 
citrus which are attacked—diagnose the 
trouble as Gummosis and go to work. 
Should the trouble prove not to be Gum¬ 
mosis, you have ordinarily done no par¬ 
ticular harm. If the gumming is caused 
by Gummosis, you have bettered the, sit¬ 
uation. 
In the above advice, the writer is as¬ 
suming that Citrus Canker has been vir¬ 
tually eradicated in Florida and that Pso- 
rosis has not yet been listed as an incur¬ 
able disease. 
The treatment for Gummosis is simple. 
Cut out all bark which seems to be af¬ 
fected by the disease, until bark is clear 
white where cut. The same rule applies 
to the sap surface beneath the bark. 
Scrape it until the wood is white and free 
of all discoloration, especially of those 
raised, pulpy spots which seem to be the 
seats of infection. Examine the tree 
carefully, the trunk and the limbs, for 
other evidence of the disease. Treat all 
gumming, even the slightest, as pre¬ 
scribed. 
Three or four days after these surgi¬ 
cal operations, when sappy surface is en¬ 
tirely dry, paint all bared surfaces with 
Bordeaux paste or protexol (Aven^rius 
carbolineum). In rather young trees it 
is safest to dilute the protexol to half its 
pure strength by adding whaleoil soap 
and water. Every grower knows of this 
treatment. The only element in it which 
has never been sufficiently emphasized is 
prompt action. The work is trifling, if 
done in time. Vigilance and immediate 
treatment are the chief ingredients in the 
remedy. 
While the “stitch in time” adage is the 
secret which usually marks the difference 
between the man who grows oranges for 
a profit and the man who grows them to 
look at, with Gummosis, let me repeat, 
prompt attention is the all-essential. 
After such a treatment, inspect the 
trees attacked at intervals for a recur- 
iS5 
