204 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



I would be pleased to know what the society thinks of the 

 apples sent. 



H. 0. KIRSHBAUM. , 



[A further enquiry elicited the following. — Secbetary.] 



ToLoN"A, Mo., December 26, 1884. 

 L. A. GooDMAisr. 



Sir: — Yours of the 14tli received sometime ago and have 

 tried to find if I could who it was that planted that orchard of 

 seedling apple trees on our farm, and to name tlie apple sent yon 

 after him. Well, I learned from old settlers that a man named 

 Rankins came here from Kentucky, and, as near as I can find out, 

 settled in this neighborhood about 1830, and he brought the seeds 

 with him from that state. Trees were grown and the orchards set 

 out by him and one of his sons, one upon the farm on which I am 

 living at present. So I think the apple should be called the Ran- 

 kins, unless there is already an apple of that name. 



H. C. KIRSHBAUM. 



REPORT ON ENTOMOLOGY, 



BY MARY E. MURTFELDT, KIRKWOOD, MO. 



(Read before the annual meeting of the Missouri State Horti- 

 cultural Society at St. Joseph, December, 1884.) ^ 



THE COTTONY MAPLE SCALE {Pultmiaria innumerabilis, rath.) 



It sometimes happens that an insect of which a few may be* 

 observed almost every year, will suddenly appear in such vast num- 

 bers and over so large a territory as to excite general attention and 

 apprehension. This year there has been Just such an unusual 

 development of the species named above. It was never before 

 known to dos so much injury or Avas the subject of so much pop- 

 ular interest. 



The first notice of it that met my eye was a dispatch to the 

 St. Louis Globe-Democrat, early in summer, from Shelby ville. 111., 

 stating that the shade trees in that town were being killed by a 

 large "cottony bug" that fastened itself in masses to the branches 



