No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 579 



iiieicial oicliards 1 would not rocommond its introduction because 

 you have to liavc the scale or kill the beetle. At present 1 rc'coni- 

 mend all men, who have orchards, to spray. In the meantime we 

 will do what we can to spread this insect and, if possible, wipe 

 out of existence this pest, but it will take three, four or five years 

 to do that. Even if the beetle becomes very useful it will take 

 some time to get a large supply and we should continue to spray 

 in the meantime. , 



PROF. SURFACE: Tell us about caustic soda and water. 



PROF. MARLATT: It is difficult to prepare. If you have means 

 such as Dr. Funk has, the difficulty will be small ; if you have a steam 

 plant it will not be very inconvenient. It might be well for a num- 

 ber in a community to go together in order to have all the ap- 

 pliances necessary to do good work. The caustic soda has been 

 recommended by the Farm Journal. We have had a report made 

 on all these substances ard years back one of our best experiment- 

 ers, the late Mr. Hubbard, published all these formulse and the 

 caustic soda was the worst on the tree and had the least effect on 

 the San Jos(S Scale. Caustic potash was better than the caustic 

 soda but that was bad on the trees and not efficient on the bug. 



The consequence was that if you use it in sufficient quantity of 

 strength to extinguish the bug you would kill the tree. I used 

 also potash and I put it on, in strength, three pounds to the gallon 

 of w^ater, without killing all the scale insects but doing material 

 damage to the tree and I used it down to half a pound to the gallon 

 and it gave no effect. I do not believe caustic soda is going to be 

 a remedy. You spray the tree with caustic soda and it cleans the 

 bark and a man will think he has accomplished something, but he 

 has not accomplished anything. If the caustic soda would do the 

 work you would have a very easy remedy to dispose of the San Jos^ 

 Scale, but it does not do the work. 



MR. LEDY: Tell us about the summer treatment of the scale? 

 PROF. MARLATT: I think your advice covered that fully. 

 A Member: We have people who have used sublimate of lye. 



PROF. MARLATT: We have used concentrated soda lye and 

 concentrated potash lye. There are a great many brands of lye. 

 If one placed reliance on all the statements we have seen we would 

 be led astray. 



A Member: I have tried it and have had pretty good results. It 

 appeared to have good efi'ect. Whether it would break it up or 

 not I don't know. 



