100 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
heavy a fruit and I think will average 
smaller. 
Mr. Dade—Do they have rusty 
oranges there ? 
Mr. Hart—No, I don’t think they have 
the rust mite there. I talked with the 
horticultural commissioner about it and 
they thought they had, but the specimens 
they showed me did not show the effect 
of the rust mite. I think it must be 
something else. They have had a little 
touch of the whitefly but are confident 
that they have wiped it out. The commis¬ 
sioner told me he would give me $5.00 to 
find a whitefly. They exterminated it 
with fumigation; that is, they cover the 
trees with tents and treat them with gas. 
In California, that is a very much more 
(simple matter than in Florida. Where 
there is irrigation they can raise almost 
anything—orange trees, pepper trees, 
eucalyptus and roses galore; oh, such 
roses!—flowers of all kinds, but just out¬ 
side the line of irrigation there is noth¬ 
ing but sage brush or scrub; no timber at 
all, while in this country we have plants 
and trees that are host plants for the fly, 
scattered all over everywhere. Now if 
they can clean up a grove out there, the 
whitefly does not come in from outside. 
It is true orange groves there are all in 
one great body generally, but if they gas 
their trees and do it universally—(and 
they have laws there which make it com¬ 
pulsory—I don't see why they cannot just 
about exterminate him. With us it is en¬ 
tirely different and a far more difficult 
proposition. We have got a state full of 
china berry trees and all other kind of 
trees that harbor the whitefly about as 
well as the orange trees and when we fum¬ 
igate or spray to kill the ones that are in 
the grove, the ones from the outside sit 
around and wait until we have finished 
and then come right in and live with us. 
Their worst enemy seemis to be the 
black scale, which is confined largely to 
the coast. The purple scale, which with 
us is a minor trouble, seems to trouble 
them a great deal. They have a gum dis¬ 
ease among them. The gum will ooze 
from the limb or the trunk. They tell 
me the disease commences from the in¬ 
side of the trunk and in a little while the 
limib or trunk is dead. They have no 
treatment that they claim to be a posi¬ 
tive cure but several things are recom¬ 
mended for it. It very much resembles 
the foot rot on our trees only that it ap¬ 
pears higher up in the tree. The best 
remedy they have found is to dig out 
the dirt and expose the roots. Some ap¬ 
ply one or another application to it, but 1 
think that the most satisfactory remedy 
that they use is to just dig under the 
trees and expose the roots. 
Question—I would like to hear about 
the labor they have in picking and pack¬ 
ing fruit. How does it compare in intelli¬ 
gence and availability with ours and 
what do they have to pay for it. 
M,r. Hart—They use white help most¬ 
ly. The greater portion of their fruit is 
packed by white men and women. In 
some packing-houses they use the Chinese 
and I think they are found quite satis¬ 
factory help, too. They seem faithful 
and a number of growers to whom I 
talked seemed to think them very good 
help. There are not many Japanese em¬ 
ployed and as a rule they are not liked 
as well as the Chinese. 
Question—Did you see any paraffining 
process ? 
