200 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



8-9 EDWARD VII., A. 19G9 



very minute, six-legged mite-like insects which swarm over the trees giving them 

 the appeai-ance of having been dusted -with some coarse white powder. By the second 

 day most of the young scale insects have chosen a suitable place and have attached 

 themselves to tlie young tender bark by means of their slender sucking tubes. There 

 they remain for the rest of their lives, growing rapidly during June and July. Early 

 in August the females have become little more than a bag of eggs beneath the waxy 

 scale. The insect itself is crowded up into the narrow end of the scale where it dies, 

 leaving the eggs to carry the species over the winter. The scales of the male are 

 seldom noticed; they are most frequently found upon the leaves and are of an entirely 

 different shape from those of the female, being elongated, square at the end and 

 somewhat tapering to the front. They are veiy small not more than one-twentieth 

 of an inch in length and pale in colour. Unlike the female which lives all its life 

 inside the scale and has no power of m.otion after it once settles, the male is a minute 

 two-winged fly which when mature emerges from beneath its scale and has the power 

 of flying very rapidly. 



Remedies. — The remedies for the Oyster-shell Scale are the invigoration of the 

 tree by high culture and good orchard management and the direct treatment of the 

 scale insects with contact insecticides. The young hatch about the beginning of June 

 and as soon as these are noticed on the trees, whale oil soap solution, or kerosene 

 emulsion, should be promptly applied as a spray. The sooner this is done after hatch- 

 ing has taken place the more effective it will be. Trees badly infested should be 

 helped by having some quick-acting fertilizer spudded in around their roots in spring 

 and in autumn should be sprayed with a lime wash made of one pound of quick lime 

 in each gallon of water. Two applications of this weak whitewash should be made 

 and the second one may be put on immediately the first one is dry. This spraying 

 should be done as soon as the leaves fall or at any other convenient time afterwards 

 before the intense weather of winter sets in. During the winter the lime flakes off 

 find carries with it a large proportion of the egg-containing scales which have been 

 loosened by the lime. 



The San Jose Scale^ Aspidiotus pemiciosus, Cmstk. — The condition of affairs 

 with regard to the San Jose Scale in the orchards of Ontario is practically the same 

 this year as it has been for the last year or two. This insect although it has spread 

 to new orchards has not invaded new territory in the province. Owing to the late 

 season of 1907 the appearance of the young was also later than usual and there is no 

 doubt that the fruit growers of that part of Ontario where the scale occurs, now 

 understand its habits and the importance of using the lime and sulphur wash which 

 is the standard remedy. Mr. J. Fred. Smith, the San Jose Scale inspector for the 

 province of Ontario, reports that never before has there been so much done for the 

 destruction of the scale by fruit growers as during the past season. The lime and 

 sulphur wash was. the remedy mostly used. Mr. W. H. Bunting, a large fruit grower 

 and a leading member of the Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario, stated in a 

 lecture given at Ottawa last winter that he considered the advent of the San Jose 

 Scale into the orchards of Ontario, although it hod done an enormous amount of 

 injury, had really been a blessing to fruit growers, because with the lime and sulphur 

 wash if properly applied, they now knew they coiild control this insect and the work 

 which had been necessary owing to its presence had placed their orchards in a far 

 better condition than they would have been had the scale never invaded the province. 

 Systematic spraying had become a necessity and with its practice many of the regular 

 enemies of the orchard had disappeared. The general condition of these orchards, he 

 believed, was now greatly improved. Many different materials have been experimented 

 with as remedies but up to the present tim.e nothing better than the lime-sulpluiT 

 wash has been discovered and fruit gro^vers will be wise to recognize this as the standard 

 remedy for the treatment of their orchards and leave experimenting with new materials 



