104 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
barcl, as such conditions produce a close 
bark, not favorable to scale ; but what is 
better proof, is that I have never been 
able to find any neglected trees that 
showed any unusual amount of scale, 
unless around some old barn or hen 
house, where the ammonia may linger 
longer than one would expect. Of course 
cultivation will cause and increase scale 
by increasing the nitrification of any am- 
moniates that may be in the soil and thus 
causing a more sappy growth; provided 
the ammoniates are in the soil. 
Any covering, greatly increases scale, 
and this true, not only when immediate, 
as in the case of spider webs, birds’ nests, 
etc., but when the cover is much above 
the trees, as in the case of overhanging 
forest trees, and is well illustrated in 
shedded groves. Also, in shedded piner¬ 
ies scale abound in proportion to the 
amount of shade. 
In addition to the above causes, we 
must admit, that at times we have a gen¬ 
eral increase of scale, probably owing to 
climatic conditions. 
For instance, last year we had a long 
spring drouth, followed by a meager 
rainy season, thus seriously handicapping 
the fungoid enemies of the scale, which 
are now very numerous. 
But the worst of all attacks of scale is 
that following the white fly, the usual 
dead wood inside of whitefly trees, 
being less due to the whitefly than to 
the scale that follows them. 
NATURAL ENEMIES. 
Upon our Sub-peninsula, at least, I 
would give the first place to the black 
fungus ( myrangium duraci), which is 
well distributed with us; and, while it 
confines itself mainly to the trunk and 
larger limbs and does not become abun¬ 
dant until the scale are also in sufficient 
numbers to injure the trees, still I think 
it our best ally against the scale. I first 
saw this fungus some eighteen years ago, 
in the grove of Mr. Moffet McClung, of 
Dunedin, and scraping it from the trees, 
got a mixture of fungus, bark and scale. 
When my trees were still wet from a 
summer rain, I rubbed the above pow¬ 
dery mixture along the upper sides of 
such large limbs as showed scale, being 
careful to work high in the tree, so that 
the rains would wash the spores of the 
fungus down the limbs. All conditions 
must have been favorable, for every tree 
treated got a good start. 
While we have long heard of the white 
fungus (ophionectra coccicola), it did 
not appear in our vicinity until the last 
two years, and was first noticed in the 
grove of Mr. W. E. Heathcote, and is 
now spreading. It works upon smaller 
limbs than the black fungus, and will 
thus supplement the effect of the latter. 
Considering that it has been doing good 
work during the past dry year, it prom¬ 
ises well under more moist conditions. 
As Cuba has one or two species of fun¬ 
gus preying upon scale that I do not 
think that we have, it might pay to make 
some importations. 
Of lady birds, the only species numer¬ 
ous enough to be of value is our common 
twice stabed one, which, like our lady 
friends, are ever with us, and are ever 
busy, both in larvae and adult form, de¬ 
stroying what scale their stomachs will 
admit, but (again like our lady friends) 
are not quite equal to the occasion of ac- 
com/plis'hing all desired results for our 
good. Incidentally, I might say that in at 
least one shedded pinery I found this lady 
bird to be a specific for the pineapple 
scale. The covering of this scale being 
