FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURx\L SOCIETY 
95 
brought out the second half of the story. 
So, of course, there was no use of our 
going down. 
As a result, we have been forced to 
i adopt a very unusual practice, one that 
just by luck we have carried out in all our 
WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE BEFORE WE ARE FINALLY 
RID OF CITRUS CANKER 
work on the east coast, and that is: never 
burn a citrus tree that has citrus canker, 
without a witness. No matter if there 
isn’t a man within two miles, we hunt him 
up and show him the canker before we 
burn the tree. 
Wm. J. Krome, Homestead, Fla. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
I have not prepared any paper on the 
subject which has been assigned to me, 
knowing that the gentlemen who have pre¬ 
ceded me with addresses on the history of 
citrus canker and the work that has been 
done towards its eradication would tell 
you practically all the facts that have been 
ascertained in regard to the disease up to 
this time. It has been left to me to pre¬ 
sent to you some ideas as to what is going 
to happen in connection with the disease 
hereafter, and I have felt that a paper 
prepared along these lines would be very 
liable to be discounted by the facts pre¬ 
sented beforehand. As my colleague in 
the Dade County work has just said 
at the end of his paper, “It would be 
idle for any one to attempt to proph¬ 
esy what might come to pass.” That, 
as you know, would have taken the 
wind out of anything which I might 
have prepared. (Laughter.) 
There are a few facts, however, which 
bear particularly on the work ahead. 
From the various papers which have been 
| presented this afternoon, you must have 
read between the lines and gathered the 
correct inference that the law of the State 
of Florida, or rather the lack of a proper 
law, permitted canker to enter the State. 
Then it was lack of a proper law that was 
responsible for the lapse of so great a 
length of time before we became aware of 
the existence of the disease. And again 
it was through lack of a proper law, after 
the disease was found, that we had not 
the proper means with which to combat 
it. We had not a dollar, you might say, 
with which to fight it. This is a cardinal 
point which must receive attention; be¬ 
fore we can make an accurate guess as to 
what is going to happen to the citrus in¬ 
dustry, we must know positively what is 
going to happen in the way of a law. 
There has been a law prepared and we 
believe it is such a law that it will take 
care of this case and all future cases of a 
similar nature which may come up from 
time to time. That law is now before the 
legislature and you have been asked at a 
previous session to lend your aid in the 
form of telegrams to your representatives 
urging the passage of the bill. 
