28 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
by various parasitic fungous diseases. 
Our knowledge of these effective controll¬ 
ing agents has been greatly added to by 
Berger, Fawcett and other more recent 
workers. Even in the case of the white 
fly, our most serious citrus insect, nature, 
undisturbed, has done as much in effective 
control as we have done. I believe I am 
well within the range of reason when I 
say that some day it will be relegated to 
a much less important place among our 
insect pests than it now occupies, and that 
day is not far distant. 
Witness the rejuvenation of the whole 
peach industry throughout the Eastern 
United States since the introduction and 
use of lime sulphur spray. Before this 
mixture came into general use, the San 
Jose scale was rightly a dreaded insect. 
But this spray has robbed it of its ter¬ 
rors. The live and up-to-date peach 
grower has no fear of its attacks, and 
those who suffer from it now are the in¬ 
competent and the lazy. 
The behavior of insects and diseases 
under natural and normal conditions, 
i. e., when not interfered with by man, 
is much like the movement of a wave 
upon the sea. They have their period of 
rise, when their work attracts most at¬ 
tention ; their period of stationary exist¬ 
ence, when the battling forces of nature 
are holding them in their grip, and finally 
their period of decline, when they sink 
away into the ocean of innocuous things. 
When man steps in, the balance of things 
is upset, and fortunately fumigation and 
spraying have sometimes upset the bal¬ 
ance distinctly in favor of the grower. 
Within the last few years our handling 
and marketing problems have received 
more searching investigation than ever 
before. We had learned how to produce; 
we had forgotten how to pick, pack and 
sell. The result was more disheartening 
than if the fruit had never grown upon 
the tree. But in this particular a new 
rule of things has come and is coming 
into being. Transportation is being im¬ 
proved. Some things still remain to be 
perfected, but the outlook is hopeful. 
New methods of marketing have been in¬ 
troduced, tried and proven good. Some 
may not agree with the Citrus Exchange 
in its workings, yet I venture the asser¬ 
tion that the Exchange has exercised a 
beneficial influence on the handling and 
marketing of all citrus fruits in our State. 
And in conjunction with our selling plans 
who can over-estimate the value of the 
careful investigations of our fruit hand¬ 
ling methods during the last four or five 
seasons ? 
Rain does not always fall when needed. 
Long days and weeks pass, and yet no 
rain. We have learned that cultivation, 
frequent and thorough, helps mightily. 
But under some conditions even this is not 
sufficient to prevent our fruit trees from 
injury and our prospective crop from de¬ 
struction. But the manufacturers of en¬ 
gines and pumping machinery have made 
tit possible, at comparatively small ex¬ 
pense, to make it rain when there are nc> 
clouds. 
Cold weather is to be dreaded. In this 
connection let me say that ninety per cent, 
or more of all the fruit districts in Amer¬ 
ica are so located as to be liable to dam¬ 
age from frost and freeze. We have 
company with the peach grower, the 
apple orchardist and the producer of 
