WINTER MEETING. 315 



Normandy, St. Louis county, Missouri, several orchards and small 

 fruit farms. 



Des Peres, St. Louis county, Missouri, two orchards. 



AflftOD, St. Louis county, Missouri, two orchards. 



Moberly, Randolph county, Missouri, fl^e private orchards in city 

 and two east of city limits. 



Blue Springs, Jackson county, Missouri, two orchards, one with n 

 city limits and one just without. 



Independence, Jackson county, Missouri, one orchard 1 mile east, 

 one orchard 3 miles south, and one orchard 2^ miles south. 



Missouri horticulture will suffer many million dollars loss in the 

 near future unless every effort, both private and legislative, be at once 

 made to exterminate this scale in the areas now infested, and to pre- 

 vent its introduction into new localities. Each year that this matter 

 is neglected greatly increases the difficulty and expense necessary to 

 eradicate it, enlarges the infested area and renders some new locality 

 beyond control. No one can form an idea of the importance of this 

 pest until they have seen an infested orchard — the damage done, the 

 trouble and difficulty to kill the insect, and the impossibility experi- 

 enced by the ordinary observer to detect its presence unless it occur 

 in vast numbers, which indicates that it has probably already spread 

 over a considerable area. 



Missouri ranks third among the states in its horticultural interests. 

 Many states whose fruit is a small item compared with Missouri's, 

 have already made appropriations for the investigation and extermina- 

 tion of the San Jose scale, and have enacted laws to prevent the in- 

 troduction and spread of the pest. Missouri should have been one of 

 the first to provide for its fruit interest in this respect, and it is to be 

 hoped that every fruit-grower and every intelligent person in the State, 

 will demand that our next Legislature provide for this important work. 

 Ample funds should be provided with which to carry on the investi- 

 gation and work of extermination ; and laws should be enacted to 

 compel owners of infested plants to make immediate efforts to eradi- 

 cate the pest, or submit to having it done ; and also laws enacted to 

 regulate the sale and distribution of infested nursery stock within the 

 State. As it now stands, any infested nursery can ship its stock into 

 Missouri. 



The full description of this insect and its remedies, with illustra- 

 tions, can be found in the State Horticultural report for 1896. 



