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have not been able to find any eggs under any of the scales, nor have I seen any of 

 the young. The scale seems a species of Lecaniiim, and I have only found it on the 

 one tree. I will keep a clo.se watch on it and observe future developments. We are 

 busy inspecting the orchards here for Lecauium olecG and Lecanium hesperidium. One or 

 two patches of Aspidiotus aurantii have made their appearance here, but these were 

 quickly cut out and burned and the infested trees and those surrounding them sprayed 

 with a strong caustic-soda solution. I have been only a few months at the work of 

 inspection, but it is interesting me greatly. I have been for many years a diligent 

 natural-history student in Scotland, so possess an advantage of long training to 

 observe over the other inspectors here. I find great difference of opinion existing 

 regarding the black and brown scales, some maintaining that they will do the tree 

 and fruit no harm, others that they will in the end kill the tree. Some say that they 

 will not increase, but will die out in this hot and dry climate; others say that they 

 will soon be over all our orchards. Then, the samediiference of opinion exists about 

 the effects of the various solutions for spraying and the time they should be used. 

 Several instances of injury done, both to the fruit and trees, have occurred by spray- 

 ing according to the orders of the commissioners ; so that some other remedy is being 

 sought after by the orchardists. So much difference of opinion is confusing to a 

 novice, but I have set about trying to find out for myself. 



In the district assigned to me I go over each orchard carefully, noting the percent- 

 age of trees infected with either scale, so that by next year 1 will be able to say 

 whether it increases'. I have tried the effect of some of the washes on the young of 

 the black scale, and find a potasli wa.^li the most effective in killing them. The 

 alkali in the solutions seems to me to be the active agent in killing. We recommend 

 in the meantime a solution composrdof 1 pound pearlash and 2 pounds resin to 1 gal- 

 lon of water ; then one part of the mixture to from six to eighteen parts of water, accord- 

 ing to the strength required. In some cases the resin sticks on the fruit. I intend trying 

 oil instead of the resin to see how it will do. Black scale is very generally distributed 

 over our apricot and orange orchards, but not in large quantity. I found the eggs 

 under the scales beginning to hatch in June. They are continuing the hatching 

 process yet. Though the great majority of them are hatched, only in very few cases 

 have I found young scales forming on the stems or leaves. In many cases I find both 

 the young and eggs killed under the scale seemingly with the dryness or heat. The 

 killing of the scale was more apparent in an instance where the trees had been 

 trimmed up. In one case I found what seemed a parasite inside of a scale. It was 

 three times the length of the young scale, had wings appressed to its body evidently 

 in an immnture state and scarcely so long as its boily, jointed antenna? onetliird the 

 length of its body, a small head, and prominent eyes. I recently examined three 

 orchards that had been sprayed for black scale, two of them with a caustic soda 

 solution consisting of 8 pounds of caustic soda, 25 pounds of resin, 2 gallons of oil, 

 and 200 gallons of water. I found about 5 per cent, of the scale still alive on the 

 trees three weeks after the spraying had been done; the trees were partially defoliated 

 and a small percentage of the fruit defaced by the action of drops of the solution in 

 the two orchards sprayed with the soda. In the one done with the pearlash solution 

 I found about the same percentage of the scale alive, no leaves having fallen from 

 the trees and the fruit being quite uninjured. I made some experiments with kero- 

 sene emulsion, but was convinced that the kerosene had little effect on the scales. 

 Young scales lived for half an hour in i>nre kerosene. They died almost instantly in 

 a weak potash solution. Another disputed point among the orchardists here is the 

 influence of ants on brown scale ; many say they eat the scale. I have never seen 

 an instance of an ant tearing off a scale from a leaf or twig, but when the scale is 

 torn off by some other means they greedily carry away whatever is under it. Some 

 orchardists assert that the ants nurse the scale for the food it affords them. Another 

 difficulty is when to spray an orchard. Some have sprayed them now, and intend 

 spraying again in October, but the general opinion is that the heat will accomplish 

 what the spraying will do at this season and that all that is necessary is to spray in 



