FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
89 
fungi working on the spray, while the 
dust does not. 
Mr. Painter—A good many com¬ 
plaints Jjave come in the same as Mr. 
Skinner’s, and one man told me he 
overcame that by giving his men olive 
oil with which to rub their faces and 
hands. 
Mr. Longley—I don’t think the sul¬ 
phur solution brings scale. I spray 
with a sulphur solution and have been 
for a number of years, and in my case 
it killed the scale. I never have a 
scale even on the grapefruit, and we 
all know that it is a great breeder of 
scale. 
Prof. Rolfs—I will say in connection 
with this subject that the lime in the 
dry spray is not necessary for it to be 
efficacious. It is pretty apt to kill the 
fungi and let the scale come out. 
Mr. Longley—In order to keep the 
scale down and the rust mite down, I 
have found that unless you spray thor¬ 
oughly you had better not spray at all. 
Consequently, it is necessary almost 
always to personally supervise it or do 
it yourself. 
THE WHITE FLY INVESTIGATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
By Dr. A. W. Morrill. 
Mr. President } Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I spoke to you last year on the subject 
of fumigation for the White Fly, describ¬ 
ing the methods of procedure and dis¬ 
cussing in a general way the results ob¬ 
tained up to that time. As most of you 
know, the present investigations of the 
Department of Agriculture have for their 
object a thoro study of all phases of the 
White Fly problem. Such work naturally 
divides itself into: first, studies of life 
history and habits; second, control by 
natural enemies, including parasitic in¬ 
sects and fungi, third, control by spraying 
or fumigation; fourth, studies of miscel¬ 
laneous factors in their relation to White 
Fly damage and control. 
The early history of the White Fly is 
rather obscure and its origin not 
positively known. The evidence at hand, 
however, seems to show the pest to have 
been an imported rather than a native 
species and much support has been given 
to this theory by its recent discovery in 
China. The first investigation of Citrus 
pests in Florida was by H. G. Hubbard, 
who was doubtless known to many of the 
present members of this society. As a 
special agent of the Division of Ento¬ 
mology of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture he published in 1885 a valua¬ 
ble report entitled “Insects Affecting the 
Orange,” based on three years’ work be¬ 
gun in August 1881. In connection with 
the White Fly, it is interesting to note 
that at the time of Mr. Hubbard’s in¬ 
vestigations this insect gave no promise 
of developing into a pest, although its 
