Los Angeles herald., 1890-04-26
ORANGE STOCK.
Florida Stock Infested with Scale, and
HOMEGROWN Trees.

f1Ome-JIOWu ices.
EDITORS HERALD-The cry made by
the Florida importers that our nurseries
are unable to supply the demand for
trees, is not only direct reflection upon
the country, but statement entirely at
variance with the facts. / notice one
purchase made only yesterday from
home nursery of 1000 as fine and clean.
looking trees as have seen for many a
day. | know of another nursery that
has large number of trees ready for
planting, while there is still another
that has now in growing almost a million
Washington navels and other varieties
of orange trees. The fact of the whole
business is simply this: the parties en-
gagged in the importation of Florida trees
have no interest whatever in the coun-
try, and on the other hand large per
cent of Florida trees that are
being planted are set out on land for
speculative purposes. There is good
deal of risk in buying Florida trees, be-
cause they are an unknown quantity,
the purchaser never knowing whether
they are true to name and free from
scale. In many cases they are bought
up from all sections of the Magnolia
State, good, bad and Indifferent, and
brought out here by parties whose only
interest in the whole transaction is in
the selling of the trees. No one having
the interest of the country at heart and
desire to support home industry should
for moment tolerate anything of the
kind, especially when our home trees
are superior in every respect and are to
be had in sufficient quantities to meet
the demand and at reasonable price.
That the Florida scale is with us and
is daily gaining ground is becoming
more apparent day by day. DR.. j. H.
Dunn. OF Pomona, reports having
sprayed trees that had been planted for
year for Florida scale with Prof.
Coquillette's receipt for making the resin
wash. DR.. Dunn is of the opinion that
the purple scale will attack native trees
quite as readily as the Florida-grown
trees. This discovery on trees planted
year is causing no little anxiety among
the fruit-growers, wherever the inn
ported trees have been planted, and it
seems to be the general opinion among
those who are familiar with insect pests,
that, if the scale will live for year or
over, there is no reason why it should
not thrive here permanently. Parties
interested in the importation of Florida
trees now claim that it will not live in
our dry climate. To this the fruit
grower naturally asks how long will it
live here? If it will live one year, why
should it not live two or three or for an
indefinite period?
1t would be interesting to know, if
they have lived and are breeding after
being planted for year, how much
longer it will take in dry climate to
eradicate them? The importers say
that they do not injure the trees in
Florida. Now proposition is simply
an absurdity. Common sense will at
once suggest that any insect pest tn at
derives its living from the tree must in
jure it.
That the importers are becoming des-
perate is evidenced by the fact that one
firm offered to bet me $500 to 500 that L
could not find live purple scale
on a tree which had been in an orchard
two years. l am not betting man and
do not like to be bulldozed in this man
ner. l have talked with a great many
growers about this matter, including DR..
Dunn, whose statement l believe correct
touching the existence of the Florida
scales in many of our orchards. 1t is
lurCIler dSSerueu Dy GHe importers undC
only our home nurserymen are fighting
the Florida stock, but of course this is
nothing but simple evasion of the
question, as the orchardists have more
at stake than the nurserymen. If we
believe the importers, that the pest will
not live in this climate, and will not in
jure trees, and after four or five years
find that such is not the case, that
the pests live and are injurious, both
to tree and fruit, the importers would
have made their profit on the sale OF their
trees, while the deluded orchardists
lose all and have no recourse against
nonresident tree-peddlers. In many
instances large tracts have been planted,
involving an immense outlay of money,
which will be a total loss in the event
that the scale should live and thrive.
Now, it is fact that all scales imported
on nursery stock into this country have
not only lived but luXuriated to re-
markable extent in this climate. In
view of this fact the fruit-growers owe
it to themselves not even to tolerate the
possibility of introducing any scales
into this country. l am for rigid quaran
tine against all infested localities and
am opposed to all foreign tree-peddlers.
M. BALDRIDGE.