9 Dec, 1907.] Insect Pests in Foreign Lands. 717 



in its attacks, but during the last season a series of experiments have been 

 carried out by Mr. W. H. Volck (County Entomologist). Spraying is 

 universal throughout this section, the growers sprajing with arsenite of 

 lead from three to five times in the season; 30,000 lbs. of this material 

 have been sold and used in this district, which Mr. C. H. Rogers (County 

 Horticultural Commissioner) informed me had produced last year fruit 

 valued at i^ million dollars. No bandages are used on the trees for codlin 

 moth when systematic spraying is carried on, but in many places the 

 trunks of the apple trees were bound round wdth rope soaked in stickfast 

 to prevent the tent moth caterpillars getting up into the trees, which unlike 

 the tussock moth caterpillars cannot be killed with arsenical sprays. 

 Mildew of the apple foliage is another trouble sometimes, and up tO' the 

 present no fungicide has been found effective. Where spraying is not 

 carried out, codlin moth is just as bad as in Australia; in this valley a 

 number of the codlin moth parasites {Efhialtes carbonarius) were turned 

 out over a year ago, but none of the residents have ever seen them since. 

 And I might state that I have been unable to find any instances in which 

 this ichneumon parasite has been found in an orchard. Mr. Isaac 

 (Commissioner at Sacramento) said he found two in his garden a few weeks 

 before where a great number had been turned out in an infested apple 

 tree, but I could find no traces- of them, though codlin moth grubs were 

 very plentiful. I asked all the officers of the State Horticutural Depart- 

 ment if they could send me into an orchard where I coiild see this parasite 

 working under natural conditions, but they did not know of any. The 

 general opinion of all the apple growers, with whom I talked, is that this 

 parasite is a failure up to the present time in California, and will not 

 make the least difference in their spraving w'ork. 



My next visit was to Marysville, a centre of the peach and raisin grape 

 industry, west of Sacramento. ,This town is famous for the " White Fly " 

 scare {Aleurodes citri), a serious orange pest in Florida, which was dis- 

 -covered in many gardens in the town. Though there are no oranges grown 

 in the neighbourhood a tram line runs through the town into an orange 

 district some miles distant; a scare was started by these growers, the 

 whole force of the Horticultural Commissioners Avas mustered, and notices 

 were served by post on 600 residents informing them that they would have 

 to top, cut down, or defoliate all the different kinds of trees known to be 

 the food plant of the white fly, not because there was anv danger to their 

 gardens but on account of the danger to the orange growers miles away. 

 The powers of the Commissioners are so great that all these householders 

 had at their own expense to do all this w^ork, destroying to a great extent 

 many of their finest shrubs and whitewashing the remains. It cost a good 

 many thousand dollars, and though the Horticultural Commissioners in 

 some cases had to call on the police only one man took his case into the 

 law courts and he lost it. It is now claimed that white fly is exterminated 

 in Marysville. I quote this instance to show what powers the State 

 Horticultural Commissioners have in California. In this district I visited 

 Yuba, went through a number of vineyards where raisins were being dried, 

 and several orchards ; one large but neglected apple orchard w^as found 

 to contain plentv of codlin moth. 



From here I went on to Sacramento and met Mr. Isaac the Horticul- 

 tural Commissioner in that town, who gave me a lot of valuable informa- 

 tion regarding the insect pests of this district, introduced me to many 

 of the leading exporters and, arranged for me to visit several orchards. 



