[BETHUNE] RECENT WORK IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY Ge 
inspection should be continued, that the utmost care should be taken to 
prevent the spread of the scale, and that as full information as possible 
regarding it should be widely disseminated among the fruit-growers of 
the province. 
In October last an important conference on the San José scale was 
held at London, during the annual meeting of the Entomological Society 
of Ontario. Mr. Dearness, one of the commissioners, Professor Loch- 
head of the Agricultural College at Guelph, Inspector Fisher, Professor 
Webster of Ohio, Dr. Fletcher, the Dominion Entomologist, and Professor 
James, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, took part in the discussion, 
oi which a full account is given in the last annual report of the society. 
At a subsequent session a resolution was adopted expressing approval of 
the measures that had been employed by the Minister of Agriculture for 
the suppression of the scale and “the wise and judicious manner in 
which he had endeavoured to carry them out.” 
Influenced by the report of the commissioners and the facts brought 
out at the conference, the Minister of Agriculture introduced a bill dur- 
ing the last session of the Ontario Legislature amending the previous 
Act regarding the scale. The new Act provides that “the Lieutenant- 
Governor-in-Council may, upon the recommendation of the Minister of 
Agriculture, adopt regulations for the treatment of infested plants by 
spraying, washing or fumigation...... and such treatment. may be al- 
lowed or authorized...... in place of destruction by burning.” On the 
25th of April, 1900, an Order-in-Council was issued authorizing the De- 
partment of Agriculture “to furnish owners of scale infested orchards, or 
of orchards that are adjacent to such infestation, with whale oil soap 
suitable for spraying, in barrel lots, at one half its cost including freight 
(being one and three-fourths cents per pound) on the following condi- 
tions, namely that the applicants agree : (1) to properly prune and pre- 
pare their trees for treatment; (2) to apply the soap under instructions 
to be given by the inspector in charge ; (3) to make application to the 
chief inspector or such other person as may be named by the Department 
stating the number and kind of trees to be treated ; and (4) to prepay 
the cost of the soap as per terms above stated.” This is the Act which 
is now in force in the province and under which the fruit-growers are 
dealing with the scale. It will be interesting to learn what measure of 
success has attended its operation and how far its provisions have been 
of avail in controlling or exterminating the pest. 
The recommendation of the commissioners regarding the dissemina- 
tion of information about the scale has been satisfactorily carried out by 
the publication of an excellent illustrated bulletin on “The San José and 
other scale insects, prepared for the use of fruit-growers and scale in- 
