PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 131 



PESTS, NEW AND OLD. 

 BY PROF. L. R. TAFT, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



In giving this subject to tlie secretary, I had it in mind to go a little 

 outside of what we usually think of as pests (generally of the animal 

 kingdom) and include some of the diseases. By including two or three 

 of each class, I can perhaps give you some jioints of value, for the reason 

 that during the past two or three years we have had brought among us 

 quite a number of new and troublesome pests as well as diseases, and, so 

 far as my experience goes, there have been few years when we have been 

 more troubled by new insects as well as old than during the past spring. 



Of the insects which have, within the jiast two or three years, been 

 brought particularly' into notice, there is nothing more to be feared, I 

 think, than the one known as San Jose scale. We do not know just where 

 it came from, but it reached us by coming across the mountains from 

 California, and now it is on its way back home again. It has reached 

 so far west as our own borders, upon its return, and though I do not 

 now know of a single tree in Michigan infested with this insect, still I 

 should not be at all surprised if there were large numbers of them, from 

 the fact that for the first vear or two it is not noticeable, and it is not 

 until the third year, when the tree is dying, that it conies to the attention 

 of the owner and he attempts to ascertain the nam^ of the insect. 



You can judge of the dan.ger from this insect when you realize that 

 three years is sufficient for it to destroy a tree, particularly if the tree 

 is young; and more than that, it is to be feared because it spreads rapidlj'. 

 While it has no means of locomotion from place to place, in itself, it is 

 cari'ied by the birds and in various other ways scattered from tree to tree; 

 and, once there, it multiplies rapidly. It has been learned that if every 

 individual developed during the season should attain its full size and 

 develop itself, we might expect something like four millions at the end 

 of the season from a single one in the spring; but, of course, they do not 

 all mature, bj^ any means. But, with this very rapid development, you 

 can see that a single insect on a tree would soon be able to do great 

 injury. It is a really terrible insect — terrible not only because it kills the 

 trees, but because, when it has gained a lodgment on a tree, sufficient to 

 be observed by an ordinary person, the injury by that time might be 

 sufficient, and would be on a young tree, to forever blight any hopes of 

 fruit from it. 



It is a sucking insect — it punctures the bark and sucks the juice; and 

 the sap thus taken, and the injury made by the insect in the bark, would 

 be sufficient to prevent any further growth. This insect has been found 

 in many places in Ohio, in at least a dozen localities, and the trees nearly 

 all trace back to one or two nurseries in New Jersey and possibly one or 

 two in New York. There is some doubt about the trees from New York. 

 It is possible they came indirectly from New Jersey; so far as we 

 know, at least, there is no nursery in western New York that is infested. 



