FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
149 
Mr. Wilson as to his experience with this 
foot rot in Porto Rico. 
Mr. Wilson.—We have a kind of foot 
rot in Porto Rico which we have fought 
with carbolic acid and Bordeaux mix¬ 
ture, but whether this is the same foot 
rot you have in Florida or not I do not 
know. We discovered it a few years ago 
only on a few trees. When I first found 
this foot rot on my trees my men put on 
the carbolic acid too strong and killed the 
tree but since then I have used this car* 
bolic treatment, superintending it myself, 
and found it very successful. A neigh¬ 
bor of mine has found this remedy very 
successful by pulling the dirt away from 
the trees and washing them with this 
mixture. 
8. Will Dr. Walker please give the so¬ 
ciety a report of the camphor experiment 
at Huntington? 
Dr. Walker.—Mr. President, I am 
afraid the subject on which I am going to 
speak, will place me in rather a false light. 
I have in my possession a sample of cam¬ 
phor prepared in Huntington and purified 
in Washington, but first must tell you 
how this came into importance (and 
must confess that it is of great importance 
to us.) 
Most of the camphor used in the United 
States today comes from Formosa. Re¬ 
cently several Japanese authorities were 
quietly sent over here to see how much 
camphor was grown, and whether we 
could raise it successfully or not. 
The results of their visit were so serious 
that the celluloid manufacturers—our 
great camphor consumers—said, in their 
.report -to Washington that they must 
have American camphor or move to For¬ 
mosa. Camphor, up to this time had been 
worth about thirty cents per pound, but 
immediately advanced to $1.00 per pound. 
In 1898 I met Prof. Hubbard who was 
our State Entomologist and he showed 
me the results of his experiments. I 
found that one pound of camphor could 
be extracted from 70 pounds of leaves. 
It was at this time, when it was worth 
only thirty cents per pound, that people 
thought it would be a profitable business 
to plant camphor trees here. 
The camphor trees are very beautiful, 
and I got rather enthusiastic over mine, 
which were growing well. When I heard 
that another grade of camphor—a chemi¬ 
cal product could be put on the market at 
fifteen cents per pound, so thought it 
would be useless for us to try and raise 
the trees. Camphor is very similar to tur¬ 
pentine. Many people have tried to make 
camphor out of turpentine and think it 
will yet be done. 
We waited for a year or two, during 
which time the camphor workers were 
said to be hard at work, but no camphor 
was produced. Then, at a very oppor¬ 
tune moment, these works were burned 
and we do not think they will be rebuilt. 
Camphor is also very essential in the 
manufacture of smokeless powder. Al- 
tho’ other substances might be used yet 
if anything should happen to draw us 
into a war, when we would require a 
quantity of powder immediately, we 
would be in a dilemma if Japan decided 
not to provide us with the camphor. 
About a year ago, a gentleman came 
down from the experimental station— 
Washington—to see what the camphor 
outlook was in Florida. After a general 
look around he took samples of this Flori¬ 
da made camphor back to Washington 
and purified it. The celluloid people were 
interviewed and shown the samples which 
