216 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



tation down and raising a crop ; or with a scalding spray of either soap solution or pure 

 water ; but either course involves considerable outlay. 



" I am really thoroughly disheartened in the matter, being convinced that we have 

 either to destroy the infestation absolutely at once or be ruined by the expense of keep- 

 ing it so far under control as not to destroy the trees or crop. It is just one of those 

 thinss like a house on fire in a town, the whole force of those interested should at the 

 beginning have been concentrated on the infested spots to smother it out. 



" You ask, July 26, to note what distance young scales travel from the mother. 

 In the summer I saw on pear shoots 18 or 20 inches long, young scales of the first brood 

 only three or four leaves away from the extreme ends of the shoots. These were few in 

 number, but the mother scale could not have been closer than the terminal bud of last 

 year's growth, and most likely not as far out as that. This year, on Nov. 10, ther- 

 mometer 55 degrees, cloudy day, I saw young lice crawling about. The first brood of 

 the year did not come out till the first week of July, with a temperature of about 85 

 degrees in the shade. 



" The man who told me he found scale three days ago said there were lots of young 

 lice, and he thought he saw them move. The day was rather warm, south wind and 

 about 60 in the shade." — [Chas. Thonger.] 



Referring to Mr. Thonger's suggestion to spray with a scalding hot spray. I have 

 found the application of hot spraying mixtures in the first place impossible, because the 

 breaking up of the liquid into a spray causes it to cool before it has reached a distance 

 of one or two feet from the nozzle, and, besides this, all hot water remedies are both 

 extremely inconvenient to use and to make, and also very destructive to apparatus. 



I have not had an opportunity of visiting this orchard myself this autumn ; but I 

 know Mr. Thonger to be a close observer, and he has reported to me from time to time 

 on the progress made. Mr. Burrell has also visited this and some other infested orchards 

 in the neighbourhood of St. Catharines, and his report appears herewith, I have been 

 lately shown a letter published by Mr. Thonger in the Rural New Yorker, in which he 

 speaks of treating his infested trees mechanically with a wire brush to free them of the 

 scale. Although undoubtedly by this method a large number would be destroyed, still, 

 this being an imperfect method, as many scales must necessarily escape the brush, I fear 

 that it would be a dangerous practice to adopt, owing to the feeling of false security which 

 would be created from the apparent cleanness of the trees. They might seem to be quite 

 free from scale, but it would be impossible to treat the scales on the branches and small 

 twigs with such a brush, and, judging from experience in other matters, I am confident 

 that, although Mr. Thonger might follow up the brushing of the trunks with a thorough 

 spraying of coal oil emulsion or of whale-oil soap solution, many others would not do so 

 owing to the extra amount of labour and time necessary for two operations. 



Mr. Martin Burrell's observations : 



"St. Catharines, Ont., Oct. 11. — With reference to your inquiry as to the San Jos^ 

 Scale, its spread, development, <fec., I am very happy to give the results of my own 

 observations in this district. In the two orchards where the scale is at work, there has 

 certainly been an extension of the infested area since spring. The infestation of new 

 trees has, however, not been nearly so marked as the extraordinary increase of the scale 

 on trees that were only moderately attacked in the spring. In the latter case the scale 

 has, in nearly every instance, spread over the whole tree, including leaves and fruit. 

 On one three year old Japanese plum tree which was afiected severely last year only on 

 the trunk and the bases of the main limbs, the insects had spread to such an extent by 

 the middle of July that out of 407 plums on one tree, 405 were attacked. One plum 

 had on its surface upwards of 450 newly set scales, and in more than one case there 

 were between 1,500 and 2,000 scales on a single leaf. When the breeding process is in 

 full swing, the trees appear to have been dusted with a yellow powder. So minute and 

 in such numbers are the insects, that on a raised piece of bark no bigger than a pea I 

 have carefully estimated that there were more than 150 larvse. It has been stated by 

 some that the larvae are not very active and move but an inch or so from the parent 

 scale. The facts I have mentioned rather contradict this. It is true that, as far as my 

 observations go, the larvae do usually set within a short distance of the old scale, but, 



