31 
Now, what is the thing to do, I am wondering. 
I think I will thin out the whole plantation, have 
Morrow buy several carloads of stable manure, and 
scatter it around in the grove before the rains 
come on, v;hich will soak the food material from 
the manure into the ground. You know I have always 
contended that the bamboos were starved. I still 
think so. 
I see I have not made it clear that the tender 
light-green leaf-sheaths turn a brownish color whicdn 
later becomes almost black and over this blackened 
area which is sometimes an inch or so long you will 
find under a hand lens thousands of the pinkish- 
orange mites. I wish you 7;ould look for this rascal 
wherever you go in China and let me know if it is 
there and how much damage it causes to the groves. 
Isn't it disgusting to have a thing like this 
come on the grove after all that we have done for it? 
How I have another bit of news which X must ask 
you to keep in confidence until you hear from other 
sources that it Is true. Do you remember wanting to 
go to Formosa? And do you recollect that your rea- 
son for wanting to go was in order that you might 
look for the citrus canker on the native Zantoxylum 
species that occur there? Well, the man at the 
Citrus Canker Laboratory at Homestead, a Mr. Jehle, 
has produced the canker on the native Zantoxylum 
fragara by inoculating it with the bacteria from 
grapefruit leaves. He has gone further and dis- 
covered the same kind of cankers as those produced 
artificially on Zantoxylum fragara in considerable 
numbers scattered over the Zantoxylum fragara plants 
growing ?;ild in the Royal Palm Hammock below Home- 
stead and in another hammock near there. Now, the 
canker v;as first found in the region where this wild 
Zantoxylum occurs so that the case looks very sus- 
picious to say the least. Of course to make the 
thing certain it will be necessary for Jehle to in- 
oculate the organism which he has already isolated 
from the cankers of the wild Zantoxylum onto the 
grapefruit and get the disease there. Until he does 
this the case is not definitely decided and he would 
rather we said nothing about it, 
I have spent several weeks in Miami this ^ing. 
I was there through the great freeze which scorched 
the gardens as though a fire had swept over them. 
Nearly everything turned grey or brown and a good 
many things were killed back to the ground. The 
temperature v/ent to ?6.5 ?• for an hour or so. 
December 31, I917. 
