FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
45 
but that the gummosis fungus ( Diplodia ) 
of which more will be said later is also 
able to produce a kind of stem end decay. 
Other new facts brought out by our 
study since last year are these: That the 
fungus lives and produces spores in the 
dead twigs and in and on the decayed 
fruit, that it is more widely distributed 
than it was first thought to be. 
We also tried out some spraying ex¬ 
periments beginning in October in five 
different parts of the state. In the first 
plot Bordeaux mixture was used; in the 
second ammoniacal copper carbonate; in 
the third self-boiled lime sulphur and in 
the fourth the commercial lime sulphur. 
The reports of shipping experiments have 
just come in, and it seems that the 
spraying had very little effect upon the 
amount of stem end decay on fruit 
held at Washington for as long as 
three weeks. The checks were nearly as 
good as any of the others. This shows 
that spraying with fungicide for stem end 
rot decay is no good whatsoever, espec¬ 
ially if begun as late as October. The 
checks were 21% after three weeks at 
Washington, Bordeaux was 32% (11% 
more), ammoniacal copper carbonate was 
21%, just the same as the check; self- 
boiled lime sulphur, 23% ; commercial 
lime sulphur, 17%, somewhat less, but 
not greatly less than the check. 
These shipping tests Were made by H. 
J. Ramsey of the Bureau of Plant In¬ 
dustry. 
CONTROL. 
The results of this study and experi¬ 
ments with this fungus indicate rather 
definite lines of control. Since the spores 
of the fungus are abundant upon the kill¬ 
ed twigs and mummified fruit upon the 
ground, the importance of a thorough 
pruning out of these dead branches and 
a thorough cleaning up and burning of 
diseased fruit that have dropped the prev¬ 
ious year is suggested as a means towards 
preventing new infection of the next crop. 
The result of the inoculation experi¬ 
ments last year suggested the probability 
of fruit becoming infected when being 
washed, and the advisability of trying ex¬ 
periments in treating the wash water and 
also in spraying the oranges with a fungi¬ 
cide just as they came out of the tank. 
In cooperation with Mr. Ramsey of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, 
we carried on some experiments in this 
line at two different packing houses. It 
may be said as a general statement that 
these experiments did not indicate that 
any new infection took place in the short 
time that the fruit was in the wash water. 
Our experiments at least, did not show 
any consistent difference in amount of 
stem end decay between the treated and 
the untreated fruits. Some of the chemi¬ 
cals we used appeared to increase the 
amount of blue mould decay due prob¬ 
ably to injury to the rind. 
GUMMOSIS. 
A second fungus enemy has been found 
guilty only during the last ten months in 
connection with the gumming of both or¬ 
ange and peach trees. The gumming of 
orange and peach trees in various forms 
has been known for a good many years. 
There are several diseases in which gum¬ 
ming occurs, but the word “gummosis” 
in Florida has been applied to the particu¬ 
lar disease of citrus trees in which the 
first stages are characterized by copious 
