144 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
up about four gallons of preserves and 
gave our neighbors all they wanted. There 
are several varieties of figs that are very 
hardy and they are very easily raised and 
anyone who has a back yard can have a 
fig tree that will give him all the figs he 
wants. 
The pear tree, I am pleased to note, is 
recovering from the blight very rapidly 
in all sections of the country. The pear 
will not stand much cultivation and too 
much ammonia. In some orchards, the 
blight has almost disappeared. They 
need phosphoric acid and potash. I be¬ 
lieve the blight is caused by improper 
treatment and fertilizing with too highly 
ammoniated manures. 
I do not think the deciduous fruits are 
given the attention in this society that 
they should have. 
As to the decline of the peach business 
in Florida, possibly the San Jose scale 
has done as much to discourage it as any 
other one thing. It has gone all over the 
state. However, it is very easily over¬ 
come now by the use of red-headed and 
the black fungi. The curculio from the 
north is advancing very rapidly down the 
state. It is down perhaps to Ocala. Down 
about Lakeland and that country the 
worms have not appeared. It seems to 
be our most dangerous enemy to the 
peach. They have had it in Georgia since 
I was old enough to know much about 
worms. They have been trying to learn 
ways to fight it for the last twenty-five 
years. I know it will destroy the fruit, 
but don’t know how to destroy it. To the 
peach, it is worse than the whitefly to 
the orange. You can’t touch him with 
the spray, because when the spray hits 
him he curls up and drops off on the 
ground. You can’t hardly see him or find 
him. You simply have to burn him up 
with fire to get rid of him at all. 
Another thing I notice is that when 
peaches are stung by the curculio it does 
not necessarily ruin every peach, because 
hundreds of them that are stung make 
good peaches. Of course, you can see 
where they were stung, because a little 
bit of white wax comes out where it is 
stung. As I said before, I think we ougnt 
to give some attention to other things be¬ 
sides oranges. We spend two or three 
days talking about oranges, and then put 
off the other fruits with an hour or two. 
It isn’t hardly fair to those of us who are 
interested in other things. 
