REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 233 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



As an illustration of this, it will be worth the while of all fruit-growers 

 living in that part of Ontario where the San Jose Scale occurs, to acquaint them- 

 selves with the actual facts of the present condition of Catawba Island, Ohio, in Lake 

 Erie. A year or two ago this island was practically one large and very prosperous 

 peach orchard. Later the San Jose Scale was imported and increased to the extent 

 that the fruit prospects of the whole island were thought to be ruined. The natural 

 excitement caused by this state of affairs stirred up the whole I'ruit-growing com- 

 munity to the adoption of energetic measures. By the advice of Prof. F. M. Webster, 

 whale-oil soap was adopted as the universal remedy. Arrangements were made with 

 Mr. \V. H. Owen, of Catawba Island, to make a uniform grade of whale-oil soap, and 

 this was applied to the trees throughout the island. As a consequence of this work, a 

 large crop of fruit has been reaped from Catawba Island, where but for this concerted 

 fiction only devastation and ruin could have existed. It must not be forgotten, however, 

 that this action by the fruit-growers was almost universal, and nearly every orchard was 

 sprayed regulary and at^the time advised. Now, Prof. Webster expressly states that 

 the San Jose Scale on Catawba Island is by no means exterminated, but that the 

 fruit-growers have got it iinder control by a persistent use of whale-oil soap. They 

 Jiave :^imply reduced the pest to a point where it can be controlled ; but, just as sure 

 as thej' give over their etiorts for a single year, the insect will come to the front again, 

 and, if two or three years were allowed to pass without treatment, a great many trees 

 would be lost. 



In one particular district in Ontario the fruit-growers protested strongly against 

 the measures adopted by the Provincial Government to control the scale, but at the 

 same time it was found afterwards that they had done nothing to treat their trees 

 to prevent the scale from spreading. As a consequence, during the past season this 

 district has become one of the very worst infested. There was at one time in the United 

 States the same difficulty in persuading fruit-growers to treat their trees. Prof. 

 Webster in his bulletin (No. 103, Ohio Agr. Exp. Station), ' The San Jose Scale 

 Problem in Ohio, in 1898,' says : ' Heretofore it has sometimes been difficult to get the 

 owners of some slightly infested orchards to apply whale-oil soap, but this season has 

 taught ihem a lesson that they will not soon forget, for, while they stubbornly refused 

 to treat their orchards last spring, they now have the rather humiliating spectacle of 

 trees on their own premises almost if not quite totally devoid of fruit, while their 

 more prog essive neighbours, who invested their money in whale-oil soap and applied 

 it faithfully, have plenty of fruit and no longer fear the San Jose Scale. Many 

 orchards whose owners could hardly have been induced to treat their trees last season 

 on suspicion of the San Jose Scale being present, will hereafter be treated on the 

 slightest possible suspicion of the scale being present, and the owners will do it 

 willingly.' 



Prof. Lochhead. of Guelph, who has devoted much time and attention to the 

 question of the San Jose Scale in Ontario, says, under date December 22, 1900 : 



* This is the cloud which is hovering over the fruit-growers of south-western 

 Ontario at the present moment. They recognize now that the scale has spread very 

 ■widely during the past season, and has also increased in intensity. They know also 

 now that no remedy need be applied in a slipshod fashion. To my knowledge the 

 scale is spreading from new centres not previously known. The remedies are known, 

 but it remains for the owners of orchards to follow the prescription closely which has 

 been given by entomologists. The nurseries will be more closely watched than ever 

 this coming year, so that no infested stock can possibly leave the grounds.' 



It will be seen from the above precautionai-y measures, which ara being strictly 

 enforced by both the federal and the provincial governments, that every possible effort 

 is being made in Canada to-day to control, if possible, this terrible pest, and to prevent 

 by every meang fresh introductions. Not only is every woody-stemmed plant imported 

 into Canada from infested countries fumigated with hydrocyanic acid gas, but every 

 nurseryman in Ontario is forced to submit to the same treatment every shrub and 

 tree supplied to customers. 



