FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
53 
somewhat similar yet different from the 
latter. It seems to be caused from a fun¬ 
gus which I believe is either always pres¬ 
ent or develops spontaneously in much 
of our southern soil. This may be a lit¬ 
tle radical and not in accordance with 
some of my professional friends’ views, 
but I will give one of my reasons for the 
assertion and I believe the experience of 
those present, who may have had occasion 
to note same will sustain me. Natural 
peach seed can be gathered, and I believe 
if test wanted to be carried far enough, 
sterilized sufficient to kill any possible 
germs on the exterior of the pits, and 
planted in virgin soil, and a percent, will 
develop these gall knots. In some piec¬ 
es of ground not one tree in 5000 will 
develop a knot, while in another plat, 
or possibly in a different section of the 
same field, one or even two per cent, may 
show it. The Marianna plum roots are 
especial!}^ subject to the attack of Gall 
knots. Cuttings from apparently healthy 
trees can be planted in any ordinary field, 
grown one year, and grafted the follow¬ 
ing winter with scions of the desired 
variety taken from an equally healthy 
tree, and by digging time, one to ten, 
sometimes as high as fifteen percent, will 
develop gall knot. Now where did these 
knots come from if, the fungus causing 
same, was not either already present in 
the soil simply waiting for a suitable 
plant to establish itself upon or de- 
\^^loped spontaneously. The loss from 
these Gall knots is usually small. As a 
remedy would advise removing the knots 
if they apt>ear on the body or crown of 
the tree where they can be detected and 
the cut place moistened with a saturated 
solution of Blue stone water. They will 
never appear again at the place. If you 
get too much of the Sulphate of Copper 
(Blue Stone) in the wound it may cause 
a dead place in the wood. I have seen 
these gall knots for twenty years, or ever 
since the first work I did in a nursery, 
even before our own nursery was found¬ 
ed. I have seen the same in all portions 
of this State, in Georgia, Alabama and 
my brother reports the same in Texas. 
I cannot see that it is any worse now than 
twenty years ago and do not believe that 
it will be any more serious in twenty 
years hence. 
Will next consider the part in Florida 
peach growing played by the moist wide¬ 
ly known and widely disseminated scale 
insect of my knowledge. The San Jose 
Scale. The rapid spread and dissemina¬ 
tion of this scale insect caused more ac¬ 
tivity and discussion by Entomolog^ists 
than all other scale insects and has caused 
many very stringent State and Foreign 
National laws to be enacted, some of 
which are now proving a menace to 
American fruit commerce. This scale 
pest while bad if allowed to run its own 
course, is easily controlled, either by 
natural enemies, the Red or Brown 
Fungus a native Florida Fungus dis¬ 
covered by Prof P. H. Rolfs, now 
Director Florida Experiment Station, 
Dake City, Fla., and the other the 
Chinese Lady Bird (Chilocorus Similis) 
the Natural enemy of the San Jose scale 
in China, or by artificial means. The 
most practical and successful artifi¬ 
cial means is the spraying of the 
trees once or twice during the winter 
months with lime, sulphur and salt 
mixture. Two applications during the 
dormant period is sufficient to keep 
the scale under perfect control if not 
eradicating it until introduced again from 
