106 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
that one season was after using Bor¬ 
deaux mixture; but, needing bright or¬ 
anges, we did spray with a sulphur and 
caustic potash compound that not only 
was effective on rust mites, but was al¬ 
most equally so upon young scale, even 
after they were partially covered. 
Ever since we have been in Florida 
we have heard of using salt around trees, 
as a scale insecticide to be administered 
through the sap, but have made only one 
trial, and that on but six two-year-old 
trees, giving them from three-fourths of 
a pound to two and one-half pounds 
each, and for want of rain, soaking it 
in once per week with water from a hose. 
The salt did kill nearly all the scale; but 
it also hurt the trees so that they dropped 
most of their leaves, even when I used 
less than one pound of salt; and where 
I used the most salt, the small limbs died 
back for a few inches and the tree was 
a long time without foliage. 
To recapitulate: We would say, first, 
avoid conditions favorable to a multipli¬ 
cation of scale, by hardening up the 
bark by a maximum percentage of potash 
and a moderate amount of nitrogen 
from inorganic sources—preferably sul¬ 
phate of ammonia, and avoiding any un¬ 
necessary cultivation of trees. 
Second, encourage all natural enemies, 
such as scale destroying fungi and lady 
birds. 
Third, if justified in spraying and in¬ 
tending to do so but once during the sea¬ 
son, use one of the resin washes, but do 
not use it while the fruit is quite small. 
If continued spraying is intended, use one 
of the fish oil potash soaps; and where 
rust mites are also to be destroyed, add 
some potash sulphur compound. 
But preferably get the natural ene¬ 
mies of the scale to work, and do not ex¬ 
pect immediate results; for, while the 
mills of the gods grind exceedingly fine, 
they are unusually slow, in the time ideas 
of man. 
SAN JOSE SCALE. 
By F. P. Henderson, Gainesville. 
Mr. President, Ladies a-nd Gentlemen: 
The general subject of Diseases and 
Insects has been so thoroughly and ably 
discussed by persons more competent 
than myself that I think it more profitable 
to this body that I give very briefly my 
experience with the San Jose Scale. Per¬ 
haps no one in the State has had more 
loss by the San Jose Scale or succeeded 
better in its destruction than I have. 
In 1901 I planted at Arno, Fla., a 60- 
acre peach orchard. In 1903 nothing 
could look more promising, when the San 
Jose Scale appeared in two or three 
places. I immediately cut down and de¬ 
stroyed the first trees infected. But this 
failed, as by winter several hundred trees 
were affected. During the winter of 1903 
to 1904 I sprayed all the infected trees 
and all the trees around them with the 
Lime-Sulphur Salt solution. This seemed 
to destroy most of them, but during the 
summer and fall of 1904 they spread very 
rapidly. I again sprayed the whole or¬ 
chard very thoroughly during the winter 
of 1904 and 1905, with only temporary 
results, so that by the fall of 1905 al¬ 
most every tree in the orchard was in- 
