70 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
guished by a novice; where the gum exudes the bark com¬ 
mences to die. Sometimes the discharge has a frothy appear¬ 
ance and a disagreeable odor. 
Die-back is another disease that causes a good deal of loss 
to the orange grower; it is most noticeable in the fall when 
the wood is ripening. It appears in hard brown scabs or blis¬ 
ters on the smaller limbs and twigs; the scabs also are seen 
on the fruit. The disease spreads to the larger limbs and 
finally kills the tree unless measures are taken to stop it. It is 
■caused by (well now I tremble for my reputation) too much 
plow and harrow for the most part, and can be caused by too 
much ammonia, but ammonia has to take the cussing for the 
whole family. If you do not “worry the soil” too much, it 
will take a tremendous amount of ammonia to give a tree the 
•die-back. I tried it. I took a small tree for my experiment. 
The tree was about eight feet high and six feet through the 
top. I gave the tree two wheelbarrow loads of fresh stable 
manure, twenty-eight pounds of bright C. S. meal and eight 
pounds of blood and bone, all within one year, and I succeeded 
in giving the tree the die-back, but only slightly. It all 
passed away the next season, and has never shown since. The 
trees were only plowed once, and I hoed once during the year. 
I would suggest to those troubled with die-back, that they 
use the mowing machine more and the plow less, but do not 
stop fertilizing entirely, as some do. No cast-iron rule can 
be laid down, as there are hardly two groves on the same kind 
of soil. I think that the growers as a general thing cultivate 
too much and feed too little. * 
I have just received a letter from a friend in the southern 
part of the state, complaining that the white-fly is working sad 
havoc with their groves, some nearly ruiued by it. I would 
suggest that from two to four pounds of sulphur be scattered 
around the tree or thrown into the branches, as you please; 
leave on the surface. The fumes will kill the fly, young scale 
and rust-mite; at least, that has been my experience. 
Hoping that I have not proved too tedious, and my effort 
not altogether in vain, I am, yours for the advancement of our 
■society and all it implies. 
