40 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the boiling cask G, otherwise the pipe will 
be sure to clog with sediment in cooking 
lime and sulphur together. The pipe or 
hose on which g is located should not be 
less than one and one-half inches in diam¬ 
eter. The stopcock k closes the pipe 
conducting the diluted spray into the tank 
On the spray-wagon, f is^a stopcock ad¬ 
mitting steam to the diluting tank for the 
purpose of keeping it warm, y and t are 
the orifices through which steam escapes 
and are arranged like those in the other ' 
tanks. 
The diluting tank O is not an absolute 
necessity, since B may be used for the 
same purpose. 
Report of Committee on Citrus. 
E* E. Hubbard, Chairman. 
Previous reports of this standing Com¬ 
mittee have pretty well threshed out the 
questions of commercial varieties, prop¬ 
agation, fertilization and culture, but 
there is still room for improvement in 
varieties, especially of early oranges, and 
I have thought it well on this occasion to 
review the work and conclusions of some 
of the foremost plant propagators of the 
country, with the view of stimulating ob¬ 
servation, selection and improvement of 
varieties by every intelligent fruit grower. 
As all know, the U. S. Department of Ag¬ 
riculture is working to develop early, 
hardy, oranges from hybrids and in this 
connection I will quote from Luther Bur¬ 
bank the foremost living authority on 
hybrids and crosses: 
“The main object of crossing genera, 
species or varieties is to combine various 
individual tendencies, thus producing a 
state of perturbation or partial antagonism 
bv which these tendencies are, in later 
generations, dissociated and recombined 
in new proportions, which gives the breed¬ 
er a wider field for selection; but this 
opens a much more difficult one—the 
selection, and fixing of the desired new 
types from the mass of heterogeneous 
tendencies produced, for by crossing, bad 
traits as well as good are always brought 
forth. The results now secured by the 
breeder will be in proportion to the ac¬ 
curacy and intensity of selection, and the 
length of time they are applied. By this 
means the best of fruits, grains, nuts and 
flowers are capable of still further im¬ 
provements in ways which to the thought¬ 
less often seem unnecessary, irrelevant or 
impossible.'' 
“The plant breeder before making com¬ 
binations should with great care select the 
individual plants which seem best adapted 
to his purpose, as by this course many 
years of experiment and much needless 
expense will be avoided. The difference 
in the individuals which the plant breeder 
has to work upon are sometimes extremely 
slight. The ordinary unpracticed person 
cannot by any possibility discover the ex- 
