157 



taken at his expense. He deserves much credit for the energetic way 

 ill which he attacked the difficulty, and it may be safely said that the 

 orchard is at present practically innocuous as a center of dissemination, 

 and that the insect will be completely stamped out by the close of the 

 year. 



During March further specimens of the San Jose scale were received 

 from De Funiak Springs, Fla., through the entomologist to the Florida 

 experiment station, Mr. P. H. Rolfs. Information concerning remedial 

 measures was iiuinediately sent both to the director of the station, 

 Prof. O. Clute, and to the Fruit Growers' Association, Mr. G. W. Mel- 

 lish, secretary, at De Funiak Springs. Recognizing the fact that this 

 outbreak could probably be handled by the State experiment station, 

 in cooperation with the Fruit Growers' Association, the Department 

 was loath to undertake any other than advisory functions, and both 

 organizations were so informed. The entomologist to the station. Prof. 

 Rolfs, was sent by the director. Prof. Clute, to De b\iniak Springs, 

 and prepared a resin wash, which was used with some effect. The most 

 badly infested trees in certain orchards were burned. In the mean- 

 time the fruit-growers, alarmed by the finding of the insect over a much 

 larger area than was at first suspected, petitioned the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington to send an expert to the spot, to assist and 

 advise with Prof. Rolfs. As one of my assistants, Mr. H. G. Hubbard, 

 was at the time in Florida, conducting investigations upon the insects 

 affecting the orange, he was instructed to proceed to Walton County 

 and report the results of his examination. From a report which Mr. 

 Hubbard submitted July 4, it appears that the scales are practically 

 confined to the peach and plum, occurring, however, in small numbers 

 upon Kieffer pears and also upon pecan and persimmon. The prevalence 

 of persimmon shoots through theorchards constitutes aserious difficulty 

 in clearing orchards of the scale, as they form thickets in waste places 

 and fence corners, providing lurking places from which the pest will 

 spread again to the peach trees. Mr. Rolfs had visited the locality and 

 taken copious notes as to the extent of territory infested. According 

 to Mr. Hubbard, he found many thousands of trees infested, and nearly 

 every orchard within a radius of five or six miles more or less attacked. 

 The efforts which had been made to keep it down were desultory and 

 ineffectual. After an examination of the effect of the resin wash, which 

 had been api)lied in varying proportions, even at the rate of equal parts 

 of water and resin wash, many living scales were found in all cases. 

 Mr, Hubbard recommended the standard kerosene emulsion, 1 to 9, 

 and visited one grove where this was said to have been used in the 

 course of spraying. He found it had been very effective, quite as much 

 so as in the case of the purple scale on orange. A second application, 

 however, had not been made during the month of June, and the scale was 

 again increasing. It was further learned that the experiment station 

 had arranged that Prof Rolfs should go to De Funiak Springs with an 



