FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
55 
over $250.00 or $300.00. Since then we 
find that we could get quantities of the 
fungus by hunting up live oak trees that 
were infested with obscure scale. You 
can find it almost anywhere if you look 
carefully. You will find where the oaks 
are infested with the scale, the fungus 
will be growing out over the scale. I 
think the one that has done the best work 
is the black one, which seems tO' work 
equally well during either the wet or the 
dry weather. I don’t think the cost of 
applying the fungus will be over $1.00 
per acre. Mr. Berger, please tell them> 
what per cent, of the scale you found had 
been killed. 
Prof. Berger—We estimated some¬ 
thing like 99 per cent. 
Mr. Griffing—Prof. Smith from Geor¬ 
gia has just been in the orchard. He 
came to see what the results were, and 
he might tell you. 
Prof. Smith—I came from Georgia 
principally for the purpose of investigat¬ 
ing the red fungus on the scale, because 
if it will do the work in Georgia, it is 
of great importance to our fruit grow¬ 
ers. I visited that orchard last Monday 
and found that the scale was practically 
dead, as has been reported. In fact, a 
larger per cent, was dead than Mr. Ber¬ 
ger has reported in the majority of the 
orchard. We could not find much red 
fungus, either, at this season of the year. 
Of course, I am not well enough acquaint¬ 
ed with the work of this fungus to ex¬ 
plain the condition, but certainly some¬ 
thing has killed the scale in that orchard, 
and if not the fungus it is something 
equally valuable. In my own personal 
opinion, I think, there is very little doubt 
but that the fungus is doing the work. 
Mr. Griffing—I want to say right here. 
too, that when we visited the Henderson 
orchard last June we didn’t find any fun¬ 
gus. We simply found that the scale was 
dead. 
Mr. Rowe—Would it not be possible 
to dissect some ol those insects and find 
out what was working on the inside? 
Prof. Rolfs—^That is exactly what I 
did ten years agO' and presented the re¬ 
sults of my work to^ this society at the 
Orlando' meeting, and before I got 
through reading my paper I had the house 
entirely to myself. I never tried it again. 
The red-headed fungus has several 
stages in its life history, some of which 
are invisible to the unaided eye. The life 
history of this fungxis being unknown, 
it proved a serious obstacle in its practi¬ 
cal use as an insecticide. We found that 
the scale was dying off without any ap¬ 
parent cause. After learning the life his¬ 
tory of the fungus all of this difficulty 
disappeared. In my studies I found no 
difficulty in getting pure cultures of this 
fungus from insects, that showed no signs 
of disease to the unaided eye. (For a 
full discussion of this fungus see Bulletin 
No. 41 of the Florida Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Station.) 
After we have discovered this peculiar¬ 
ity of the fungus we then found that by 
taking some of the diseased insects we 
could readily get cultures of this fungus 
from them, proving* quite conclusively 
that it was the cause of the death of 
those particular insects. Since that time» 
however, we have made considerable pro¬ 
gress, and have added the black fungus 
as an ally in killing off the San Jose 
scale. The red-headed fungus likes a 
moderately dry season, while the black 
fungus wants, or prefers, an extremely 
rainy one, such as we had last year. Con- 
