FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
190 
if you know what that means, you know 
what causes foci rot. (Laughter). He 
told us that nearly forty years ago and 
we have just gone on the plan that Prof. 
Briosi knew what he was talking about, 
and American pathologists have not given 
it much attention. 
Foot rot was a fatal disease in the 
Azores along in the ’30s and in about ten 
years destroyed about 25 per cent of the 
citrus trees. Along about the ’70s it had 
been almost completely subdued. It was 
transported to Portugal, and then worked 
eastward to Sicily and Messina and 
throughout the Mediterranean region 
where the citrus fruits were grown. 
Later it came into the United States 
and the first authentic records we can 
get of it in Florida seems to be about 
1876, and up to about 1880 it was a very 
rare occurrence. Then it spread very rap¬ 
idly and by the middle of the ’90s it was 
a very common thing in Florida, Since 
that time it has appeared intermittently. 
Now, as to how to take care of it, Mr. 
Hume showed us the picture last year of 
how the Spaniards take care of the dis¬ 
ease. Or was it at the Seminar he showed 
the pictures? 
There is no great difficulty in handling 
the disease so we see no special reason 
why we should spend much time in work¬ 
ing on the cause of foot rot. We know 
it is an infectious disease but, as I said 
before, we have spent very little time in 
finding out what it is. The method used 
to cure it is efficacious, and even if we 
knew what it was our method of treat¬ 
ment would probably be the same. 
In curing it, you want to bear in mind it 
is a disease that does not always show 
the lesions. In my inoculations it was a 
number of months after placing infected 
material under the bark of the tree before 
the tree began to show the symptoms, 
and when it did show the symptoms it 
was usually some distance from where 
the infection was introduced; sometimes 
on the other side and above or below 
where it was put in. 
I think I have given you the whole 
story in a nutshell. 
Mr. Hart: You haven’t told us how 
it can be cured. 
Mr. Rolfs: The method used in Italy, 
and the one that Prof. Hume showed us 
at the Seminar, is that of removing the 
soil from the crown, letting in plenty of 
air and light around the crown of the 
root, removing the dead and diseased ma¬ 
terial where the outbreak occurred and 
then applying an antiseptic. The only 
reason for applying the antiseptic is to 
keep from contaminating the other trees. 
You are likely to spread the disease from 
the infected into the healthy tissues unless 
the utmost caution is used. I have seen 
cases over and over again where it has 
been spread by using instruments such as 
hoes and prunning shears, on healthy trees 
that had been used on diseased ones. 
Some people advocate throwing blue- 
stone under the trees and curing it in that 
way. It reminds me of the Irishman with 
his flea medicine. A Dutchman bought 
some of him and asked him how to use it. 
The Irishman said, “First you catch the 
flea and choke him until he has to open 
his mouth to breathe. Then you put two 
teaspoonsful of the medicine down his 
throat.” The Dutchman said, “Why, I 
can stamp on him quicker.” “Well,” said 
