ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 8& 



shall have no difficulty in indicating the dividing line that separates the honorable from 

 the dishonorable, and it will avail nothing for a belligerent firm to close their grounds 

 and books against inspection and then demand our proof of infection. The very lack 

 of proof of non-infection will V)e sufficient to fasten suspicion upon them, 



I have noticed that the services of entomologists have been quite in demand during 

 the last year by nnrseymen who were free of the San Jose scale, and the statements^ 

 of such entomologists were used in the advertisements of these firms ; and I think the 

 influence of Dr. Lintner and myself has been felt by at least two nursery firms when 

 it came to the question as to whether they could continue to impose on the public 

 or not. Now, while, as I stated, we ha\e no laws to sustain us. we have a strong: 

 public sentiment in our favour, quite sufficient to influence the honorable to favour our 

 plans, and the others we can whip into line, so to speak, by working on their inter- 

 ests. .While we have not ccme out; of this contest just in the shape that 1 wish we had, 

 we have certainly placed our profession on a better footing and shown that we have a 

 power to do for right and justice ; that we can help the deserving and at the same time 

 deal firmly and judiciously with the undeserving and disreputable ; and so long as we are 

 faithful to our trust we shall be able not only to hold our iLfluence but greatly increase 

 the same. 



I confidently look for considerable aid from nurseymen themselves in the matter of 

 preventing the distributing of orchard pests. The most pushing and energetic are 

 beginning to see that it will pay to tpray their trees year after year in the nursery row 

 with both insecticides and fungicides; that by so doing they will get a better growth and 

 consequently a larger nutuber of first-class trees that will bring a better return for use of 

 their land and labour. Now, these are not likely to be so blind as not to see that to be 

 able to warrant their stock free from insect and fungus enemies will give them a prestige, 

 and they will thus guarantee every bundle of stock that is shipped from their grounds. 

 When we reach this stage of advancement it will be a small matter to get a United States 

 law that will make this a condition of acceptance for transportation by the railway and. 

 express companies. 



In the past our advice and cautions have been more or less ignored, but I think i^ 

 a nurseryman were about to import trees or bring them from California he would think 

 of consulting the United States entomologist in regard to the risk he woulel run with respect 

 to injurious insects. And there is little doubt that there will be much more caution 

 exercised in future than there has been in the past, and the next new thing we get we* 

 shall be better prepared to exert our power and influence than we were in this case. I 

 am satisfied that the San Jose ? cale can be stamped out where it has been introduced, 

 at least between the Eocky and Allegheny mountains. East of this area it will have to 

 be exterminated or else many nurseries will be compelled to suspend business for lack of 

 customers, and they are not going to do this in the near future. We have done well this 

 time, but we will do better in the future. 



Note. — The fluted scale of the orange (Icerya purchasi), though it has been sub- 

 jugated in Oalifornia, at a saving of thousands, if not, indeed, millions, of dollars (and the 

 importation of the natural enemies whereby this was accomplished was the greatest 

 achievement ever attained in practical entomology), still it has yet to be exterminated. So of 

 the gypsy moth {Ocneria (i/s^^ar), introduced into Massachusetts by a lamentable piece of 

 carelessness on the part of an entomologist many years ago, while it has been overcome in 

 some localities, it has not been exterminated. I am free to confess that up to the time 

 of presenting this paper I had very serious doubts as to the possibility of this ever being 

 done; not because of any fault or neglect among those intrusted with the work, but 

 because it appeared to me that they had attempted an impossibility. I have since spent 

 a day in examining the work in all of its details, and believe that I saw not only what 

 had been done, but also what yet remained to be accomplished ; and that, too, with 

 unprejudiced eyes and mind, and in company with one who clearly had no other motive 

 than to show me every feature precisely as it existed, without magnifying, minifying or 

 concealing anything. 1 now leel confident that the question of the extermination of this 



