54 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Member—Does this add to the growth 
of the tree? 
Mr. Hampton—The tree shows a big, 
thrifty green leaf, and I never found any 
bad effects if used carefully. 
Member—What is the chemical action 
of the blue stone that causes the beneficial 
action ? 
Prof. Rolfs—I don’t believe that has 
ever been worked by the chemist. I do 
not think that we know just what the 
chemical reaction is. 
Mr. Hampton—For the past two or 
three seasons I find that the kumquat, 
where budded on the rough lemon, espec¬ 
ially, has the sap oozing out right at the 
connection of the bud and the stock. I 
would like to know the cause. 
Prof. Rolfs—We have not succeeded 
in getting any cure or any definite in¬ 
formation as to the cause. 
Mr. Skinner—Isn’t that identical with 
the same disease that is in Cuba? 
Prof. Rolfs—I think not. As near as 
I can tell from observation without in¬ 
vestigation, it is not a genuine disease. 
It almost invariably occurs where it is 
budded on the rough lemon. 
Mr. Hampton—^I am of the opinion 
that the stock of the rough lemon out¬ 
grows the bud, and I think it throws out 
too much sap for the bud to absorb, and 
it throws it out in the form of gumi. 
Mr. Griffing—^Regardiqg the fungus 
asked about. Prof. Rolfs discovered this 
red fungus {Sphaerostible coccophila) 
about ten years ago. We have had it in 
mind since that time, but we didn’t have 
the courage to try it. In the meantime 
it cost us anywhere from a few hundred 
up to about four thousand dollars a year 
to keep the scale under control. That 
does not mean that the orchard was badly 
infested; you probably wouldn’t find one 
tree in a hundred that had any scale on 
it. We used the spray as a preventive 
to keep it down. At the Horticultural 
meeting last spring, in Jacksonville, F. P. 
Henderson reported that owing to his 
inability to spray he got this fungus into 
his orchard and it practically cleaned up 
the scale. We went to Mr. Henderson’s 
orchard and found the conditions exactly 
as he had reported them. You could see 
that ninety per cent, of the trees had 
been infested and the wood was pitted 
with the marks of the scale, but you could 
not find a live scale in the orchard. We 
immediately went tO' work to introduce 
the fungus in our 650 acres of peach 
orchards. Although it was the last of 
July, we tried to inoculate all the infest¬ 
ed trees by taking a piece of limb infested 
with either the red fungus {SpJmerostible 
Coccophila) or the black fungus (Myran- 
giiim durii), and binding on the limbs 
of the infested peach trees. Last fall 
we thought that the fungus was not go¬ 
ing to do the work, but, much to our sur¬ 
prise, this spring the orchard is coming 
out with practically no live scale showing. 
It took a lot of nerve tO' do it, but I be¬ 
lieved that if you have got the nerve to 
keep your spraying machines out and en¬ 
courage the natural enemy, it will help 
you out. 
Prof. Rolfs—Mr. Griffing left oft* the 
most important part, and that is the cost 
of applying the fungus. 
Mr. Griffing—We didn’t know where 
to find a supply of the fungi, so arranged 
with Mr. Henderson to furnish the limbs 
infested with the fungus and carry it to 
the orchard in sufficient quantity for five 
hundred acres for $200.00. I do not 
suppose it cost us to put it on the trees 
