340 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Legislation against the introduction of insect pests or plant diseases 

 has received a new impetus since the advent here in the east of that 

 most pernicious of all scales, the San Jose scale. Maryland has recently 

 enacted a law which must, if enforced to the letter, almost entirely pro- 

 hibit the entrance of nursery stock from outside into the state. 



The appearance of this dreaded San Jose scale among us may, in the 

 end, prove a blessing. It has already put every energetic fruitgrower 

 in closer touch with each one of his trees; and, furthermore, he scrutin- 

 izes much more closely his trees when they come from the nursery. There 

 is no doubt that the most fruitful source for the spread of our orchard 

 pests is by means of nursery stock. Our nurserymen are unwittingly 

 sending out pear psyllas, bud moths, case-bearers, and many other insect 

 pests every year. The fact that many nurserymen often buy considerable 

 stock at wholesale of each other, to fill out their retail orders, has appar- 

 ently resulted in a much wider distribution of the San Jose scale here 

 in the east than we are yet fully aware. Many nurseries have, at one 

 time or another, handled New Jersey or Long Island stock since the 

 scale obtained a foothold in these nurseries. There is direct eyidence 

 that the insect has recently been unwittingly sent out from nurseries 

 hitherto unsuspected; and a careful examination having failed to reveal 

 any of the scales in these nurseries, we are forced to conclude that the 

 insect probably simply passed through the nurseryman's hands on stock 

 purchased from infested nurseries. The recent discovery of the scale in 

 a western New York orchard (within twenty-five miles of the Cornell 

 experiment station) on recently-set plum trees, can be satisfactorily 

 explained in no other way. How we are to prevent this wholesale dis- 

 tribution of injurious insects, is a very important and serious question, 

 and one which j^et awaits a satisfactory answer. 



The economic entomologist is one of the products of a demand for more 

 information about our injurious insects. Horticulturists and others soon 

 found that, in order to fight their insect foes to the best advantage, it 

 was necessary to know as much as possible about their habits and life 

 history. I usually find that those who control their insect enemies the 

 most successsfully are the ones that know the most about them. We 

 have much to learn regarding the habits of many of our most common 

 insects. For instance, we do not know how long the " June bug " lives 

 as a white grub, nor the chick-beetle as a wireworm. It is not known 

 where or when the mother click-beetle lays her eggs that are to hatch 

 into the young wireworm, and no one has yet reared a " June-bug " or 

 click-beetle through from the egg to the adult insect. When we know 

 more about the habits of those insects that spend most of their life 

 beneath the surface, we can undoubtedly combat them much more suc- 

 cessfully than we are doing at present. There is a wide field open here for 

 experiment and observation. 



My experience in studying the habits of insects during the past few 

 years also leads me to believe that there is much to be learned about 

 some of those insects that we have thought we knew all about. Some 

 observations I have made during the past season on that apparently best 

 Ivuown of all fruit pests, the apple worm or codlin moth (Carpocapsa 

 pomonclla) , will serve to illustrate this last statement. That we can kill 

 the caterpillars of this insect with the Paris green spray, applied as 



