FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
93 
tas to New York and so does not pass 
through Florida. Another slight infesta¬ 
tion was found at Antilla on the north 
coast, east of Nuevitas and La Gloria. 
We have had no further reports on this 
infestation. The latest infestation report¬ 
ed to the Havana office is at Cupey, in 
Oriente, several miles north of Manzanillo 
on the south coast. The black fly is also 
at the Experiment Station at Santiago de 
las Vegas, about fifteen miles south of 
Habana. It had evidently been planted 
there with malicious intent and was not 
discovered until too late to take measures 
for complete control. Immediately upon 
the discovery of this infested center the 
Chief ordered the cutting down of all the 
citrus in the vicinity of the center of in¬ 
festation. In this center were several im¬ 
mense old seedling mango trees about fif¬ 
ty feet high and a number of fine varie¬ 
ties of citrus used in experiments and 
propagation. The citrus trees were cut 
down, but the old mango trees were left 
standing. They are still there, black with 
the pest. 
For all practical purposes we may as 
well consider Cuba as one hundred per 
cent infested with the black fly. All 
spraying, pruning and other control oper¬ 
ations have been abandoned for several 
months on account of the lack of funds. 
An efficient campaign and plenty of funds 
to draw on in an emergency would have 
controlled the black fly in Cuba and today 
we would not be faced by the menace of 
having the pest in our own groves. 
In any discussion of the black fly con¬ 
sideration must be given to the efforts be¬ 
ing made to prevent introduction of the 
pest into the United States from the in¬ 
fested countries. The protective measures 
are both state and federal quarantines. 
Here in Florida they are administered by 
inspectors of the State Plant Board sta¬ 
tioned at the ports of entry. Materials 
which may be dangerous are inspected 
and fumigated. The Federal Government 
considered imposing a quarantine which 
would have almost amounted to an em¬ 
bargo on certain Cuban shipments. On 
the grounds of certain pledges made by 
the Cuban Government and to avoid seri¬ 
ous interruption of trade and traffic, the 
proposed measure was somewhat modi¬ 
fied. The Cuban authorities have not 
lived up to the promises made at the hear¬ 
ing by the Federal Horticultural Board at 
Washington in December of 1920, when 
the quarantine question was under con¬ 
sideration. They agreed to maintain a zone 
200 feet on each side of the principal rail¬ 
road lines throughout Habana Province 
which was to be free from all black fly 
host plants. An attempt to do this was 
immediately made, but where influential 
property owners refused to allow the Bu¬ 
reau of Plant Sanitation to cut and prune 
their trees the host plants were allowed 
to remain as before. Freight shipments 
coming through these infested localities 
are subject to infestation and the black fly 
has every chance in the world of being 
brought to Florida if it were not for the 
efficient work done by the quarantine in¬ 
spectors of the State Plant Board. Their 
fumigation work at Florida ports of en¬ 
try has doubtless destroyed the black fly 
in all its stages many times and has repaid 
a hundred times the sums outlaid in the es- 
