32 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
enment, so that one who thought he 
knew about all there was to it before the 
freeze of ’95 now may find himself in a 
quandary as to just what to do for the 
best interest of himself and his trees, un¬ 
der the changed circumstances. 
And with the increase of the industry 
comes the increase of the insect pests. 
So we have the scale, the white fly, etc., 
to contend with. Then we have mal de 
goma, foot rot, die back and so on, until 
it makes one dizzy to think about them 
and their cause and cure. 
Oh, now we are coming to the gist of 
the subject—the cause and cure—and so 
we have the resin wash, the kerosene 
emulsion, etc. I don’t think you can ac¬ 
cuse me of egotism when I say he is a 
wise man that don’t feel too sure of his 
ground on this subject. 
There was a time when I thought that 
to spray with some of the many insecti¬ 
cides was the proper thing to do. But 
now—well, in the light of increasing- 
knowledge I feel like saying—Don’t! 
And I believe it is becoming the idea of 
the advanced growers of the State to use 
less and less of these sprays and to search 
more and more for, and to encourage 
our friends, both insect and fungus 
growth. Here, I believe, is the line of 
thought that it behooves us to investi¬ 
gate more fully. Now, if I leave this ad¬ 
vice on record, to use less of these sprays 
and to search for and to utilize more and 
more your insect and fungus friends, I 
don’t believe the future generations will 
altogether condemn me. And in connec¬ 
tion with our insect pests and the va¬ 
rious ailments the citrus trees are subject 
to, comes the fertilizer question. And 
here I may well pause before I go on rec¬ 
ord. But it is my firm belief that with 
proper fertilizing and the proper utilizing 
of our many friends, there will be but lit¬ 
tle use for the questionable practice of 
spraying. 
My especial experience in this line is 
that until I took more care of my friends 
and studied and experimented more with 
the fertilizing of my trees, I made but 
little headway against my enemies. Now 
I trust I have put my spjay pump aside 
for good. Foot rot I have never had in 
my grove, and dieback but little. But I 
can get them whenever I want them, by 
simply giving my trees plenty of some 
organic fertilizer. 
I know of nothing that will cause you 
to have a full crop of the various ills that 
the citrus trees are heir to, more surely 
than to stuff them with an organic ferti¬ 
lizer; that is, fertilizer composed mostly 
from material from organic sources. 
This can go on record, and time will 
prove I am right. 
Now, as to the best mode of produc¬ 
tion, I will just say I have had but little 
experience so far as protecting citrus 
trees; yet so far as I can learn, I was 
about the first to use a tent with a lamp 
inside to keep off the cold. 
Years ago I used various devices for 
covering plants and trees to protect them 
from the cold, but in December, 1894, 
my wife and I made tents out of sheets 
from the beds in the house. These I put 
over some tropical or melon pawpaw 
trees, then I lit a lamp and set it in the 
tent under the tree. I found I could pro¬ 
duce almost any desired degree of heat 
in a few minutes; so, after experiment¬ 
ing with them for a time, I set them to 
burn for the night. This was a grand 
success; not a leaf was touched, and I 
believe those were the only trees of the 
kind left alive in the county. 
