576 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



case of cost of material for making the gas, the outlay for enclo- 

 sures will increase in proportion to the height and diameter of the 

 trees. At this early date it cannot be definitely stated if the trees 

 were in any way injured. However, we feel certain that they are 

 not, for we have yet to find the first instance of injury to fruit or 

 orchard trees from HON fumigation where even as much as three 

 times the normal dosage was used. It has repeatedly been applied 

 to dormant trees as strong as eight times the normal dosage with 

 no injurious effects whatever. 



There is no doubt whatever but that with HCN gas is the inost 

 effective means of treating the San Jose" Scale, and in some in- 

 stances would be made quite practical, as in the case of a few small 

 or especially valuable trees. Nevertheless, it is not practical for 

 the average orchardist, and could not, or would not be used by am 

 small farmer or orchard owner. 



The fact that fumigation is not practical to the average fruit- 

 grower (and the average grower is the one person that should 

 be reached in all cases), makes spraying, by elimination of other 

 methods, the only practical means that can be employed generally 

 at present in combating this insect. If fumigation were as simple 

 and inexpensive as spraying, and yet as much more effective as it 

 is, probably not one person in five would be induced to fumigate 

 for San Jose" Scale. The reason for this is that during the last 

 decade the public has been educated to spray. There are few farm- 

 ers or small fruit growers who do not know at least something about 

 spraying, and although this knowledge is, as a rule, of little use 

 in spraying for San Jose' Scale in comparison with other insects, 

 yet it makes it easier for these persons to adapt themselves to more 

 difficult and effective work. 



The professional orchardist does not, I think, realize the magni 

 tude of the task when we speak of educating the public to spray 

 for the Scale. Such persons have been spraying for years. They 

 would not think of continuing their business without spraying, and 

 do not realize that they are simply about 1 per cent, of all the 

 persons in the State who are trying to raise fruit, and the other 

 99 per cent, have as yet not attempted to fight the Scale in any 

 practical way. It may be true that this small number of growers 

 raise the larger part of the marketable fruit in the State, yet the 

 fact that they have been successful as specialists does not entitle 

 them to more consideration than belongs to the large number of 

 small and unsuccessful growers. Outside of about a dozen counties 

 practically nothing was known of spraying for San Jose" Scale be- 

 fore the Division of Zoology commenced its demonstration last 

 fall. 



Bearing the above facts in mind it was decided that the best 

 method of educating the public was to send out men who were 

 competent to do the work in a satisfactory manner and to teach 

 others how to do so. These men were to be equipped with apparatus 

 sufficiently powerful to show how it should be done, and were 

 actually to make and apply the materials recommended for spraying 

 for San Jose" Scale, and to give such other information regarding 

 the entire work of fighting the Scale and other injurious insects as 

 might be found necessary. 



The apparatus carried by the demonstrators must have two requi- 



