February, '10] COOLEY : OYSTER ♦shell scale 57 



tween treatment and the time the examinations were" made. It is a 

 very slow process to make the necessary counts. 



In regard to moisture, I consider that we have more to investigate 

 in this dirction, but we have not found as yet that moisture has any- 

 where near the same importance as temperature. 



Mr. E-. I. Smith: The results of Professor Hinds' experiments 

 would indicate that the fumigation with carbon bi-sulphide in the case 

 cited was not successful. The corn only slightly infested with weevils 

 in September showed after a second treatment in October 38 per cent 

 of weevil stages alive. ^lost farmers think that the fumigation is 

 worthless unless they secure better results than this. In case a fumi- 

 gation kills 90 or 95 per cent of the weevils, and then two months 

 later the few remaining alive increase to considerable numbers, it 

 gives the farmers the impression that the treatment was worthless. 



My reason for making this statement is not to reflect on Professor 

 Hinds' statement, but simply to explain the farmers' point of view. 



' President Britton : We will now hear a paper by Prof. R. A. 

 Cooley, Bozeman, Mont., on "Notes on the Oyster Shell Scale in 

 Montana." 



NOTES ON SPRAYING EXPERIMENTS FOR THE OYS- 

 TER SHELL SCALE IN MONTANA 



By R. A. Cooley, Montana Agricultural Experiment Station 



During the past ten years the oyster shell scale (Lepidosaphes ulmi 

 L.) has been gradually increasing in the apple orchards in the river 

 valleys in the western part of Montana. By the year 1907 it had 

 come to be regarded by the apple growers as rather a serious pest and 

 perhaps a menace to the orchard industry in the Bitter Root valley 

 and around Flathead lake. In some orchards, particularly in those 

 that have been more or less neglected, the scales now occur in notable 

 numbers, encrusting the limbs and branches almost completely, and 

 even extending down on to the main trunk, where great numbers be- 

 come fastened under the loose scales of bark. Much fruit has been 

 blemished and rendered unsalable by the insects attaching to it, and 

 the stems of the apples are often more or less completely covered. 



"We have repeatedly recommended the use of kerosene emulsion, 

 applied as a spray at the time of hatching, but growers have reported 

 that no success followed the treatment. We also recommended lime- 

 sulfur solution as a winter treatment. 



Several years ago, in 1903, on April 21 and 22, lots of seven to nine 

 apple trees in the orchard of Mr. Delaney, at Lo Lo, Montana, were 



