212 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



where, in the event of any of the insects being alive and breeding, the young might be 

 carried on to surrounding trees by flies or other insects attracted to the peelings during 

 the short time that they were still moist. 



Fatal effects of Infestation. — It has been noted by all observers that plants attacked 

 by the San Jost^ Scale die with greater rapidity than from the attacks of other insects. 

 "In the whole category of injurious insects we have not another one that is so difficult 

 to detect, so pernicious in its effects and which breeds so rapidly as the San Josd Scale." 

 — [F. M. Webster, Wooster, Ohio.] 



"If the tree survives the attack, the infested wood becomes knotty and irregular, 

 partly from the sapping of the juices by the insect and also without doubt largely from 

 the poisoning of the sap of the cambium layer by the punctures of the insect, as indi- 

 cated by the coloration. Young peach trees will ordinarily survive the scale only two 

 of three years. Pears are sometimes killed outright, but generally maintain a feeble, 

 sickly, existence, making little or no growth for a somewhat longer period." — (Howard 

 «fe Marlatt, Bull. S.) 



Whether from the fact that the climate of Canada is not so well suited to the rapid 

 increase of this scale as the warmer regions to the south of us, or from some other cause, 

 it would appear to take a longer time in Canada for the San Jos^ Scale to produce fatal 

 effects upon infested trees than stated above, and I only mention this as it has been 

 several times referred to by correspondents when discussing whether or not the scale 

 insect which has been found in Canadian orchards is really the San Jose Scale. 

 Unfortunately, there is not the slightest doubt about this, and disastrous results have 

 already attended its presence in Canadian orchards. To the credit of those fruit 

 growers on whose grounds this scourge has been detected, it may be said that they have 

 endeavoured to stamp out the occurrence promptly, sometimes at what seemed to those 

 who did not understand the gravity of the case, to be a considerable and unnecessary 

 sacrifice. The danger of heavy pecuniary losses in the various kinds of fruit trees, as 

 well as in shade trees and ornamental shrubs, should the San Jos^ Scale be allowed to 

 spread in Canada, must not be lost sight of, as there is hardly a deciduous shrub or tree 

 which it will not infest. Now is the time to put forth great efiurts to eradicate the 

 pest wherever it may be found. The Federal Government and the Provincial Govern- 

 ments of Ontario and British Columbia are using every effort to learn of any occurrences 

 in the country, and fruit growers will be suicidally foolish if they adopt the narrow- 

 minded policy of trying to hide the fact if they have been so unfortunate as to 

 accidentally introduce the pest into their orchards. A single tree neglected may be 

 the means of infesting a whole orchard, from which the trees in every other orchard, 

 garden, public park or cemetery in the neighbourhood may suffer irreparable injury. 



Occurence in Canada. — The San Jos^ Scale is now known to occur in injurioiis num- 

 bers in a few Canadian orchards. These are situated in the fertile peach districts of the 

 province of Ontario. The most western points in Ontario where infested orchards have 

 been found are near Kingsville, Essex County, and Chatham, Kent County ; others 

 occur in the neighbourhood of Niagara and St. Catharines, probably the orchard worst 

 infested being actually vvithin the limits of the last named town. 



In British Columbia there have been four distinct occurrences, all of which have 

 been promptly eradicated through the energy of the active Inspector of Fruit Pests, Mr. 

 R. M. Palmer, who saw that every infested tree and those immediately surrounding 

 them were cut down and burnt as soon as the scale was detected. The localities where 

 the San Jos^ Scale was found were at Kelowna, on the shore of Okanagan Lake, in 1894, 

 at Victoria in 1896, and at Salt Spring Island and Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, 

 during the past summer. 



The first occurrence of the San Jos^ Scale in Ontario, as far as I can learn, was on 

 the grounds of Mr. John Van Horn, of Chatham, Ontario. This gentleman has made 

 every effort to eradicate the pest and has kindly kept me posted during the season on 

 the progress he was making against the scale. I have been similarly favoured with 

 regard to the Niagara outbreaks by Mr. Charles Thonger, of Niagara, a practical and 

 successful fruit grower and au accurate observer, moreover, possessed of the most re- 

 markable eyesight for detecting San Jos^ Scale or any other injurious insect , also by 



