REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 221 
Whatever the reason may be for this great difference, the value of the remedy for the 
West is undoubted and well attested. Similarly, the gas treatment has given less satis- 
faction in the Kast than on the Pacific coast, but this is to some extent due to the difti- 
culty of treating deciduous trees, such as are infested by the San José Scale, which have 
a more spreading, open growth than the close-growing, thick-foliaged trees of the Citrus 
family, upon which this method is chiefly used in California for other kinds of scale- 
insects. For the disinfection, however, of nursery stock, the gas treatment is certainly 
most convenient. Probably the remedies which will be found most available for Ontario 
fruit-growers will be the whale-oil soap wash and the kerosene emulsion. The latter 
should be applied as soon as the leaves drop or during the winter, made according to 
the Riley-Hubbard formula and diluted with only four parts of water, to be followed 
before the leaves expand in spring by the whale-oil soap wash, 2 pounds in 1 gallon 
of water. 
Mention may be made of the fact that where trees are closely planted the scale has 
spread more quickly than where the trees are farther apart. This points to the advan- 
tage of having the trees planted as wide apart as possible without waste of land. 
Since the San José Scale is already established in several centres in Ontario, it is 
now too late to prevent its introduction into the-country ; still, no effort should be 
relaxed which will prevent further importation from infested nurseries in the United 
States, and it should not be forgotten that nearly all of the Canadian outbreaks have 
been traced back to nurseries in the State of New Jersey. There are some precautions 
which common sense would seem to dictate to all fruit growers, such as: (1) Do not buy 
either from nurseries known to have been infested, or, as it is unnecessary, even from 
States where the scale is known to exist. The home-grown trees of all our Canadian 
nurseries are much safer to purchase than those coming from any of the usual sources 
in the United States. Up to the present not a single Canadian nursery has been found 
to be infested. 
(2) Examine all trees upon your own grounds and upon your neighbours’, particu- 
larly those which have been planted or grafted during the last five years. 
(3) Plant no young trees without examining them carefully for any trace of the 
San José Scale. Should any case of infestation, or even suspected plants, be found, at 
once report the matter and send specimens for examination to the Government entomo- 
logists at Ottawa or Guelph for advice. 
On account of the exceedingly inconspicuous nature of this enemy and its habit of 
hiding beneath scales of bark, buds, etc., as well as the extreme danger which attends 
its introduction, in those cases where it is considered necessary to purchase from 
American nurseries, it would be well for fruit growers not to trust to the certificates 
that the trees are free from scale, which are sometimes supplied by nurserymen, unless 
they are actually signed in writing by state entomologists of recognized standing, and 
also for the actual consignment of trees with which they are imported. 
As an illustration of the difficulty of detecting the young scales when they are few 
in number, Prof. F. M. Webster has published an illustrated article in the current 
December number of Hntomological News, showing a twig from a peach tree which had 
been submitted to him for inspection and of which he says: “ The most diligent search 
with a lens failed to reveal any outward trace or indication of the presence of San José 
Scale. When one of the buds was removed it was found that there was behind it a half 
grown scale which had been completely covered and concealed by the bud.” This 
showed that practically no one could be certain that a tree was absolutely free from 
scale without removing all the buds, which of course is out of the question. 
