332 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



APPLE. LIMBS. 



dots or atoms, which disperse themselves over the smooth bark 

 and then become stationary, with their beaks inserted in the bark 

 sucking its juices. Some of these ere many days acquire two 

 wings and resemble small flies or midges. These are the males. 

 The others remain fixed to the bark, die, and become overspread 

 with a substance resembling fine blue mould, forming little 

 patches upon the bark through most of the month of June. As 

 this mouldiness wears off, the little blister-like scale first noticed 

 again becomes visible, these scales being the dried relics of the 

 females, forming a covering to protect their eggs through the 

 autumn and winter. See Trans. N. Y. State Agricultural Soc. 

 1854, p. 732. 



Of late years every orchard in the district adjacent to Lake 

 Michigan has been ruined by this insect. Numerous remedies for 

 abating the evil have been tried, without success. Now at last, 

 it is pretty w^ell ascertained that anointing the trees with grease 

 or oil is an effectual remedy. I am assured of this by Dr. Hoy, 

 of Racine, and other correspondents, and by several communica- 

 tions in the Prairie Farmer and other agricultural periodicals. 



16. CoTTOX SCALE INSECT, j^spidiotus GossypH, new species. 



It may not be wholly out of pLace in this connection to observe that almost 

 every tree and shrub, as well as many herbaceous plants, are infested, each 

 with a species of bark-louse or scale insect peculiar to it. As yet, however, 

 no insect of this kind has been recorded as pertaining to the cotton plant. But 

 on some dried specimens of the Gossippium religiosum, sent me from Ningpo, 

 China, by Pv,ev. M. S. Culbertson, of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, I find 

 a scale insect placed along the sides of the mid-vein, upon the under surface of 

 the leaves. It is smaller than the scales of the apple bark-louse, pale yellow, 

 flattened, of a broad oval form, pointed at one end, the opposite or rounded 

 end being whitish, thin, and semi-transparent. It also shows a slender raise-d 

 line running lengthwise upon each side of the middle, and slight transverse 

 wrinkles. There is reason to apprehend that this insect may find its v. ay to 

 our shores at some future daj', and become detrimental to one of the most 

 important staple products of our country. 



IT. Apple tree blight, Eriosoma lanigera, Hausmann. (Homoptera. 

 Aphidae.) 



Small patches of white down or cotton-like wool covering a 

 cluster of minute pale lice; situated near the root, particularly 

 around the base of twigs and suckers growing from the trunk, 



