FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
41 
Mr. Hart—I will meet two of the 
points that have been brought up. My 
Bordeaux mixture was made fresh for 
each barrel full and applied within an 
hour after it was made. It was made 
right or else the Government experts 
are wrong, for I tried all their tests, and 
therefore I cannot admit that it was 
wrong in any way; and yet it did not 
bring the results that some seem to have 
obtained. This was done early in June. 
The dieback continued right through for 
the rest of the year and for the next 
growth; so much so that on the trees 
that were affected the summer growths 
were reduced to almost nothing. They 
are cured now. I cured them by the old 
methods. I am sure we can cure die¬ 
back without the Bordeaux mixture, but 
it may take a year to do it. In one cor¬ 
ner of one of my oldest groves there 
were about forty trees that were badly 
affected with dieback. I used the Bor¬ 
deaux mixture on part of two rows of 
them, and I treated these and all the 
rest but three trees by leaving off culti¬ 
vation and giving them potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid only. They immediately got 
well and are now almost equal to the 
rest of the grove. The difference be¬ 
tween the trees that I continued to cul¬ 
tivate and the others that were treated 
by non-cultivation, potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid, now is that the latter are 
two-thirds larger than those three. But 
last fall I treated those the same and 
they are now healthy. The only way 
that I can see that Bordeaux mixture 
can do any good is to go into the root 
and there limit the action of the soil fer¬ 
ments, the excessive activity of which 
causes the disease. There are three sets 
of them that work over organic matter 
before they get it in shape for the tree 
to take up the nitric acid, and warmth 
and moisture increase in their action. 
They cannot work in cold weather and 
they cannot work without moisture. 
Both conditions are just right for them 
in Mr. Porcher’s shedded grove. Bor¬ 
deaux was applied, went into the ground 
and checked the disease. A fungicide 
would check that development and in 
that way, it seems to me, it must bring 
about the change, if it does any good 
at all. 
Mr. Waite—Had you used nitrate of 
soda, do you think you would have had 
any bad results? 
Mr. Hart—I don’t think I would, but 
I can’t waste money or even run the risk 
of harm by using more nitrogen on these 
trees until its need is indicated by the 
color of the foliage and character of the 
growth. 
The point was brought up about 
spraying the bloom. That matter has 
been so thoroughly tested that there is 
no question but that it does harm. In 
New York State the horticulturists were 
so sure that spraying should be done dur¬ 
ing blooming time that they finally got 
a law through the legislature allowing 
spraying at that time for experimental 
purposes, expecting to prove their side 
so as to allow anyone to spray then if 
they chose. Scientists of Cornell and 
others took hold of the matter, expect¬ 
ing to get results favoring this, but when 
they finally brought in their report it 
was such as to satisfy every one that it 
was imprudent to spray at the time of 
bloom and that the spray just before or 
just after would answer all purposes. 
They proved conclusively that spraying 
fruit blossoms destroyed the potency of 
much of the pollen and thereby greatly 
reduced the crop. Hundreds of tests 
