44 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
The trees were decidedly damaged. 
Most of those trees had never been 
pruned in the center, and had they been 
pruned out properly, I don’t think the 
white fly would have effected any dam¬ 
age. The very thickness of the tree 
kept out the air, but the tree in general 
was not damaged. 
Mr. Porcher—We have years when 
the scale is more prevalent than others. 
It has to go through a certain period. 
I argue that there are periods when you 
have to submit to scale and white fly 
before you get the assistance of the 
fungi. In a period of say twenty-five 
years we have to pass through certain 
conditions of disaster before our friends 
come to relieve us I argue for spraying 
as a thing to be done every year. I be¬ 
lieve that while you may destroy your 
friends, you are at the same time de¬ 
stroying your enemies. I submit that 
they cannot grow grapes in any portion 
of the United States without spraying. 
In addition to that, here is the very 
point I brought forward to emphasize— 
that while your friends are helping you, 
your enemies are attacking you and leav¬ 
ing you in a very helpless condition. In 
every section of our State, if we had 
sprayed ever single month in the 
twelve, there would not be a white fly 
in the State of Florida. If there was a 
law which made it obligatory upon all to 
spray, there would not be an insect that 
would trouble us in the whole State. 
Mr. Hart—The loss of fruit is very 
small under the plan that I advocate. 
There will be in a grove of a thousand 
trees two or three that will be bad with 
scale, and those two or three are the 
only ones that will be injured, and that 
only for perhaps one season. With the 
white fly, Mr. Porcher thinks that if they 
had sprayed from the beginning they 
would have kept it down. Suppose 
they had sprayed from the beginning. 
They would be spraying now. They 
would have gone to immense expense 
and cost with white fly. 
The largest grove near us where they 
have made a careful study of spraying is 
about twenty acres, and that has been 
sprayed regularly for white fly for several 
years, and the cost of spraying has been 
so heavy that the owners get but very 
little out of the fruit, although they get 
very good crops. The cost of this con¬ 
tinual spraying is very great. You have 
to spray three or four times a year. Cost 
is several hundred dollars and the profit 
is reduced to little. 
Mr. Porcher—The cost of my spray¬ 
ing last year was $180, including every¬ 
thing. 
Mr. Stevens—I would like to hear 
something as to the mealy bug. 
Mr. Porcher—I can say that I entirely 
conquered it. It was only on two trees 
and it would get down between the at¬ 
tachment of the leaf and stem and was 
very persistent, but we have finally con¬ 
quered it. 
Mr. Adams—I cured it entirely with 
hard wood ashes, putting dry ashes on. 
Mr. W. H. Mann—I have had some 
little experience with them. I could not 
kill them without killing the tree, and 
finally I cut the trees to the ground. 
Mr. Adams—I had the mealy bug on 
one tree in my grove and nowhere else. 
I dug it out and tried the dry ashes and 
I never had any trouble with them. 
Sometimes I had to try the second time, 
but they did the work. 
