In Illinois we took a different view of that proposition, and it was, that we had the San Jose scale and we thought the thing to do was to stamp it out, to get after it.  So we agitated that subject in our society and talked about it.  We had the state entomologist canvass the entire state to find out where the San Jose scale was doing its work and gave him authority to go in and spray those places or cut down the trees and get them out of the way.  The effect of that work is very evident.

The people of other states would point to us saying that they did not have the scale but that we had because we reported the fact, but I know they now have it a great deal worse than we do because of this neglect.

In this matter of spraying and spraying materials, if we go back in history—­we have to look for truth wherever we find it, whether it comes from low or high sources.  As a matter of fact thieves and sheep ticks and ignorance are largely responsible for our spraying and the spraying materials of today.  It doesn’t sound very well in a scientific body to talk that way, but truth is truth wherever you find it, whether it comes from the university professor or from the farmer.  If we recognize truth, from whatever source it comes, then we are open-minded and can take advantage of things that will be greatly to our benefit.

In the matter of spraying materials:  They were discovered through accident, in an effort to prevent thieving in the vineyards of Bordeaux, France.  It seems that workmen on the way to their places of employment were in the habit of foraging on the vineyards of the farmers along the way.  To prevent that some of the fruit growers conceived the idea it would be a good thing in order to scare them to get blue vitriol and mix it with water and spray it on the fruit along the roadside.  Later in the season, very much to their surprise, they found that the grapes that were treated in that way were not affected with the brown rot.  So they tried it again to see whether they were right about that being the cause, and it wasn’t long before they used it for that purpose.  They stopped the thieving, but they also discovered a scientific truth, that the Bordeaux mixture was a fungicide and that fact has been of immense value to the world since then.

When the San Jose scale came into this country from the west, some man who had used sheep dip for sheep ticks, said:  “If it is a good thing against sheep ticks, why isn’t it good against this little vermin they call the San Jose scale?” He tried it on the trees, and he found that it was an effective remedy for the San Jose scale.  So we have lime-sulphur today as one of the spray materials in very common use.