FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
223 
be admitted. As a matter of fact if it 
had not been for the vigilance of our 
nursery inspector, Dr. E. W. Berger, it 
would probably have been disseminated in 
Florida in such a way that it could not 
be stamped out. We believe, however, 
that the measures adopted will clear the 
State of any of this disease. As nearly 
as we can tell from the work that has been 
done by Prof. Stevens, it would prove a 
very much more formidable disease to 
handle than either scab or withertip with 
probably all of the destructive qualities of 
anthracnose. 
LATER INTRODUCTION OF INSECTS. 
Among the insects that are of later im¬ 
portation those that I mention in the fol¬ 
lowing paragraphs could easily have been 
kept out of the State by an efficient hor¬ 
ticultural inspector working under a sat¬ 
isfactory law. Immediately after the in¬ 
troduction of the first of these pests, the 
San Jose scale, active steps were taken to 
have laws passed for the control of dis¬ 
eases and insects in the State. A commit¬ 
tee was appointed by the Horticultural 
Society to draft a law and have this pre¬ 
sented to the Florida legislature in 1897. 
The committee consisted of myself, Dr. 
Webber and another gentleman. 
We used the best State laws then in 
existence as models and worked it out on 
the most economical plan possible. It 
failed of passage on account of the fact 
that little effort outside of the committee 
was made to further the interests of the 
horticulturists. 
The cottony cushion scale was acciden¬ 
tally introduced into Florida from Cali¬ 
fornia. At the time it was discovered it 
occupied a very small territory, only a 
small fraction of an acre being infested. 
Just as vigorous work as the State laws 
permitted was made by the Entomologist 
of the Experiment Station, he was, how¬ 
ever, powerless under the conditions to 
do more than recommend what should 
be done and then stand by and give his 
services heartily in carrying out the work. 
Later, the State spent a considerable 
amount of money, both from public funds 
and also from private funds to suppress 
the pest, and we are now losing annually 
more from its depredations than would 
have bought out the entire premises and 
destroyed every living plant upon it. As 
later introductions may be mentioned, the 
mango scale and the California citrus 
scale. There are many others that are 
knocking lustily at our door. We are 
waking up somewhat tardily to the fact 
that we need an efficient policeman at 
our gates to keep out the rogues. 
The whitefly was introduced either di¬ 
rectly or indirectly from India, and the 
ravages of this pest have caused the loss 
of many millions of dollars directly in 
fighting it, to say nothing of the loss 
that has been caused by its presence. 
Then there is still that larger loss which 
has deterred the investment of many 
thousands and possibly millions of dol¬ 
lars, in the business. At the close of the 
great freezes of 1894-95, Prof. H. G. 
Hubbard, seconded by Dr. Webber and 
myself, pointed out strongly how we had 
the opportunity of limiting the spread of 
this pest. Drastic and active steps taken 
at that time would have limited the 
spread of it very materially. Even so 
