546 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



I am trying to find time to boil down and print the result of our 

 experiments with the various materials for the San Jos6 Scale, es- 

 pecially the latter results with commercial insecticides. It is my 

 intention to publish this in the February Culletin, as that issue is 

 always on scale insects. 



A year ago I read a letter from one of our inspectors in Centre 

 county; in this he outlined the conditions as he there found them and 

 showed that there existed a scattering infestation of the San Jos6 

 Scale with very great indifference on the part of tree owners as to 

 the result of the presence of this pest. However, by our work, in- 

 cluding my own individual efforts and lectures in that county, many 

 of the farmers and fruit growers were awakened to the importance 

 of doing something and took action. It is now interesting to see 

 the results of that start made a year ago. I have before me another 

 letter from the same inspector concerning his second trip to the same 

 region but written one year later. This was not written with a 

 view of publication and is a sample of the bona fide correspondence 

 and reports sent to me by our inspectors and demonstrators re- 

 grading the practical work we are trying to do in the different parts 

 of this State. The letter is as follov.s: 



"Rebersburg, Pa., August 29, 1906. 

 'Trof. H. A. Surface, 



"Harrisburg, Pa . 



''My dear Prof. Surface. — On my v.'ay to Pine Grove Mills on Mon- 

 day I took a day to go to Kebersburg to see what results the work 

 of last December was bringing. I was very much pleased with the 

 results and found that a large number of men had taken up spraying. 

 I also looked for the spread of the scale and found that where men 

 had not taken any precaution the scale had spread very badly. 



Along this line I would cite the case of Mr. , orchard, 



about one mile west of Kebersburg. Last December I found one 

 tree or so on which a few scale could be found. Yesterday I found 

 at least twenty-five or thirty trees infested in the neighborhood of 



this one. Mr. did not spray his trees but I am convinced 



now he will spray as soon as he can. Mr. — , remarked 



after we left last December that we were only going about the 

 country trying to scare people into spraying so as to make sale for 

 pumps, etc., and that he would not be scared into it. I believe he 

 now see the importance of our work. Very different from this is 

 the case of Mr. Charles Bierly, of Kebersburg. He has an orchard 

 of nearly eleven hundred trees. Last fall we found scale there, 

 some trees being badly infested. He secured a good spray pump 

 with all necessary attachments for successful work and sprayed this 

 entire orchard. He practically rid his orchard of scale, besides 

 cleaning up his orchard in good style, making it have a thrifty good 

 appearance and quite a sprinkling of nice perfect fruit, which is 

 rare in this locality. Mr. Bierly is now a thorough convert to the 

 spraying and lime-sulphnr-salt doctrine and tells me he will spray 

 regularly. He tells me the entire cost of spraying his eleven hun- 

 dred trees was only about thirty dollars. 



''The only trouble I find in the prospect of spraying is that so many 

 of the citizens of Kebersburg, who are interested in spraying, are 

 })urchasing "tin cup spraying outfits" instead of good substantial 



