202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



In nurseries, fumigation is now practiced in Connecticut. 

 This requires a tight box, room, or tent in which the trees 

 are placed. The materials used are cyanide of potash, sul- 

 phuric acid, and water. An earthenware dish may be used 

 as a vessel in which to generate the gas. For each one hun- 

 dred cubic feet of space take twenty-five drachms, or four- 

 fifths of an ounce of strong cyanide of potash, one and one- 

 fourth ounces of sulphuric acid, and two ounces of water. 

 Place the acid in the generating vessel and pour in the water 

 slowly with a constant stirring. This jar, or vessel, should 

 be placed inside the fumigating house within easy reach of 

 the door, the house having been filled with the nursery stock 

 to be fumigated previously. The cyanide should then be 

 dropped into the jar quickly and the door closed, and the 

 person should withdraw at once. The trees should be left in 

 the house for thirty minutes, when the house may be opened 

 from the outside and aired thoroughly before anyone enters. 

 This gas is extremely poisonous and may cause death if one 

 breathes it. 



It would be well if our orchardists would demand that all 

 their nursery stock be fumigated before being sent to them 

 from the nurseries. 



The oyster shell bark louse (Mytilaspis pomoriim, Bouche). 



This pest has long been present upon our apple trees as 

 well as upon the young birch, ash, and poplar trees in our 

 fields and forests. There is only one generation annually of 

 this insect. It passes the winter in the Oigg stage, and if we 

 lift the armor at this season of the year (February) we will 

 find a mass of white oval eggs beneath. These eggs hatch 

 about June first in this latitude. The young insects crawl 

 about for a short time and then locate upon the bark and 

 begin to suck the sap. The armor or shell is elongated and 

 narrow at one end, and is often curled, curved, or twisted. 

 It is usually about the "same color as the bark when found 

 upon apple trees. It grows on large apples trees usually 

 and is seldom found upon young nursery trees. It is very 

 hard to kill this insect during the egg stage, or in fact at any 

 time of the year except just after the eggs hatch. If we 

 spray the trees thoroughly the first or second week in June, 

 using any of the common contact insecticides, like common 

 soap and water, one pound in eight gallons, or whale oil soap 

 and water, we can kill them readily. 



