98 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
I have been for two years, as Dr. Ber¬ 
ger and Mr. Morrill will tell you, endeav¬ 
oring to get a commission sent abroad to 
look up the home of the whitefly and find 
out what it is that keeps it in check; to 
find out what remedy Nature furnishes. 
I know Nature generally furnishes a 
means to keep the balance between the 
pursuer and the thing pursued. 
As you probably know, Uncle Sam 
brought this thing in through his private 
green houses in Washington. 
A lot of us started in and originated an 
idea of sending a committee abroad to try 
to find the original home of the whitefly 
and find the remedy that came to keep 
it down, because the whitefly came from 
somewhere and unless there is something 
there to keep it in proper limits, the place 
where the bird originated would have 
been a howling waste by this time. 
We succeeded in getting a bill through, 
appropriating $10,000. We had selected 
Drs. Berger and Back as the men best fit¬ 
ted to go on that expedition. If any more 
funds were necessary there were plenty of 
us ready to stand back of it. 
Now, I want to commit myself on the 
inside working of the powers at Washing¬ 
ton. When we had gotten the bill 
through and the Committee on Appro¬ 
priations were considering the matter, 
Mr. Howard went, unsolicited by any one 
and requested them to cut this appropria¬ 
tion in half. He said it was utterly un¬ 
necessary to spend that much; that he had 
in his office a very brilliant young man, 
thoroughly competent to make this inves¬ 
tigation and report to us. If we do any¬ 
thing with this whitefly problem, we will 
have to send someone who is competent 
to be entrusted with this important com¬ 
mission, back to the place where the fly 
came from and find what bites it there. 
We must raise the money our own way, 
and then we can spend it our own way. 
Mr. Hart: I want to say that Mr. Tem¬ 
ple is expressing my ideas exactly, as to 
the remedy we may look forward to for 
doing away with the whitefly and making 
it a minor trouble. 
It was not so many years ago since 
the purple scale was a serious menace to 
us. It is still with us, but not so very se¬ 
rious. I believe firmly that when we find 
the original home of the whitefly, we will 
find it to be a minor trouble, and if it is 
a minor trouble, there is some cause for 
it. If we find that cause and bring it here, 
the whitefly trouble will drop out of sight. 
I am ready to assist in this matter in any 
way that seems best. 
I went to Washington last September 
to see what I could do in regard to this 
matter. I was one of the committee ap¬ 
pointed by this organization. The other 
members of the committee could not well 
meet with me there at that time, but I 
expected them to go to Washington with 
me on the way back. I wanted to know 
whether the men we wanted to see would 
be there at the time we got back. I met 
with every courtesy and among others of 
the men I talked with, was Dr. Howard, 
and he put up this proposition in regard 
to Mr. Woglum. I was innocent enough, 
and supposed everything was all right. 
When I came back and reported, we start¬ 
ed to raise a sum for the Florida growers 
to help in the work. Dr. Howard’s prop¬ 
osition was that the Government would 
pay. Prof. Woglum’s traveling expenses 
