6o 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
truck-growers on account of the drought, 
the affected plants showing the result of 
the injury much sooner on account of 
the limited water supply. Nothing fur¬ 
ther than was said last year can be stated 
now with reference to combating these 
pests. It seems probable, however, that 
where sub-irrigation can be used to soak 
the soil full of water for a period of sev¬ 
eral days, the trouble from; nematodes can 
be prevented, or very greatly reduced 
for some months or years to come. Possi¬ 
bly on this account, the trouble due to 
nematodes is less abundant around San¬ 
ford than at Orlando where this sub-irri¬ 
gation cannot be successfully practiced. 
Report of Committee on Control of White Fly. 
(Fumigation.) 
By Df. A. W. MoffilL 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
The history of the use of hydrocy¬ 
anic acid gas for insect pests covers a 
period of nearly twenty-one years. 
The process was discovered and 
brought to its present degree of per¬ 
fection in California where it has 
steadily grown in favor until, at the 
present time, thousands of tons of 
potassium cyanide are used annually 
for controlling scale insect pests. This 
remedy has also become well estab^ 
lished in the orange growing sections 
of New South Wales and in South 
Africa. Wherever it has been adopt¬ 
ed, it has proven to be the cheapest 
and most effective of the direct rem¬ 
edies for citrus pests. 
Several years ago, Prof. H. A. Gos- 
sard, well known as the former exper¬ 
iment station entomologist, undertook 
some experimental fumigation work in 
this State and was led to conclude that 
the efficiency of this treatment against 
the white fly is such that if a fumigated 
grove were segregated from all others, 
one fumigation would render it so 
nearly clean that it would need no ad¬ 
ditional attention for two or three 
years. Prof. Gossard predicted that 
“a process that has been found so val¬ 
uable in every other part of the world, 
is certain to eventually come into favor 
in Florida.” 
Having in charge the white fly inves¬ 
tigation of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, the writer secured the 
assistance during the past winter of 
Mr. Stephen Strong, a horticultural 
commissioner of Los Angeles County, 
Cal., a man of wide experience in prac¬ 
tical dealings with citrus pests and 
probably as well posted on the subject 
of fumigation as any other man in that 
State. Modern fumigation methods as 
adapted for use with trees of all sizes, 
were employed for the first time in this 
State during the past winter months 
