56 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA : 



Prevention and Remedies. 



A very important matter is the methods of preventing 

 the spread of scale insects, and Professor Comstock has 

 some very wholesome and useful advice on this subject, 

 which for the benefit of growers we venture to quote in 

 the professor's own words : — 



" In planting an orchard choose as isolated a spot as 

 practicable, so as to be able to control as fully as possible 

 the conditions upon which the introduction of pests 

 depends. If isolation cannot be obtained, an effort should 

 be made to induce the owners of neighbouring orchards 

 to join in the determination to grow clean fruit. The 

 greatest care should be used in the purchase of trees and 

 in the importation of buds. Before planting, thoroughly 

 wash all such trees with some substance, as a strong 

 solution of soap, which will destroy insects without 

 injury to the trees; buds and scions brought from other 

 orchards should be treated in the same way before vising. 

 The fact that trees or scions appear free from pests 

 should not deter one from using the utmost precaution, 

 for the untrained eye would fail to detect the early stages 

 of these insects. Do not visit infested orchards unneces- 

 sarily, and above all things do not carry home specimens 

 of scale insects as curiosities. The trees should be 

 watched carefully, and if one is ever found to be infested 

 it should be destroyed at once. Remember that no better 

 investment can be made than to burn such a tree, and 

 that no other time is so good for doing it as the day it is 

 first found to be infested. The system of exchange of 

 fruit boxes which is practised in some markets, notably 

 in San Francisco, is a very dangerous one. Each shipper 

 should have his boxes marked, and insist on not receiving 

 boxes belonging to other shippers, and in any case when 

 boxes are sent to a market where fruit from infested 

 orchards is received they should be scalded on their 

 return. This precaution will tend to check the spread 

 of the codlin moth and other pests as well as scale 

 insects." 



