REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 201 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



to the professional entomologists who always try these newly sugg-ested remedies, and, 

 it may be added, have in the past found most of them of little value. 



There is much inquiry every year for the regulations under which the government 

 permits nursery stock to be imported into Canada and also with regard to the formula 

 used for destroying the scale on trees which are imported. In the first place it may be 

 stated that the sole purpose of the government federal fmnigation hou&es is for the 

 cleansing of the stock from the San Jose Scale, and there is no legislation whatever of 

 the same nature against any other insects. This statement is called for by persistent 

 misrepresentations which are made in British Columbia. In that province the govern- 

 ment officials condemn and frequently destroy nursery stock upon which they find 

 several other insects besides the San Jose Scale; but the only one against which at 

 the present time any federal legislation has been enacted is the San Jose Scale. 



The formula used. — The formula used at the federal fumigating stations is one 

 ounce of cyanide of potassium (98 per cent), one ounce of commercial sulphuric acid 

 (6d° Baume), and three ounces of water, for every 100 cubic feet of space, and all 

 nursery stock is exposed to the gas generated by this mixture for 45 minutes. This 

 fonnula generates sufficient hydrocyanic acid gas of a strength requisite to kill every 

 scale insect upon the trees in the 45 minutes during which stock is exposed to it. 



Fumigating Stations. — There are six points only along the border at which 

 nursery stock can be imported into Canada. At those points the federal government 

 maintains houses for the fumigation of all nursery stock coming into the country 

 from other countries known to be infested by the San Jose Scale. These are as 

 follows : Vancouver, B.C. ; Winnipeg, Man. ; Windsor, Ont. ; Niagara Falls, Out. ; 

 St. John's, Que.; St. John, N.B. 



The federal fumigation houses are kept open, with a superintendent constantly 

 in attendance, throughout the spring and autumn shipments of stock. The superin- 

 tendents are all trained men, expert in examining stock, and in unpacking and re- 

 packing all packages which come into their hands. Up till the present time the 

 superintendents at all of the stations have done their work carefully and well, and 

 no well founded complaints as to carelessness or injury to stock have been received 

 from importers, either with regard to the reasonable delay which must occur while 

 stock is being treated or as to injury to trees during the necessary unpacking, 

 handling and repacking. In every instance when complaints have been made a 

 thorough investigation has been promptly instituted, and in every instance it has been 

 satisfactory to report to the Honourable the Minister of Agriculture that any injury 

 that trees suffered in transit could not be atti'ibuted to carelessness on the part of 

 the superintendents. 



The Customs regulations as now consolidated under the San Jose Scale Act 

 read as follows : — 



1. Under ' The San Jose Scale Act ' the importation into Canada of any trees, 

 shrubs, plants, vines, grafts, cuttings or buds, conmaonly called nursery stock, from 

 any place to which the Act applies is prohibited, and ' any nursery stock so imported 

 shall be forfeited to the Crown and may be destroyed, and any person importing 

 rrursery stock from any such courrtry or place, or causing or permitting it to be so 

 imported, shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence under section 6 of the Customs 

 Tariff, 1897, and shall be liable to a penalty prescribed by that section.' 



2. By an order in council approved March 18, 1898, the said Act prohibiting the 

 importation of nursery stock is declared to apply to nursery stock from the following 

 countries, viz. : United States of America, Australia, Japan, Hawaiian Islands. 



3. By an order in council approved March 18, 1898, plants exempted from the 

 operations of the above mentioned Act are as follows: — 



(a) Greenhouse plants with the exception of roses (such as palms, ferns, orchids, 

 cacti, chrysanthemums, azaleas, begonias and carnations, but not roses or any other 

 woody plants). 



