OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 75 



But toward the close of 1872, just before f2;iving this report to the 

 printers, I concluded to write again to Mr. Hanan, and learn the latest 

 experiences. The following is his reply: 



Dear Sir — In reply to your inquiries of the 27th, in regard to the 

 Oyster-shell Bark-lice on Dr. Wm. H. Martin's apple trees, in Kahoka, 

 in this county, I will state that I have just returned from a visit to his 

 and his neighbors' orchards. 



I long ago satisfied myself that the Dr. had them all exterminated 

 from his trees, from what he had told rae at various times. And as I 

 could neither find nor hear of them being on the trees in any other 

 place in our county or State, I gave the matter but little thought of 

 late. But imagine my surprise and sorrow when, to-day, I found them 

 more abundant on Dr. Martin's trees than when I first wrote to you 

 about them, in February, 1870. In your reply tp that letter, you re- 

 quested Dr. Martin and his neighbors to use every possible effort to 

 destroy them and prevent their further spread, as they were the only 

 ones known to be in our State ; and you referred us to your article on 

 the insect, published in your report of 1868. Dr. Martin, in the early 

 spring of 1870, cut down the Sweet June apple tree, which seemed at 

 that time to be the only tree much infested, and carried it into an open 

 space, forty or fifty yards from his orchard, and burned it up, after 

 leaving it lay there for several days. He cut it down about four feet 

 from the ground, at the lirst branches, then scraped the trunk or stump 

 well, and destroyed the eggs scraped off, after which he made a sort 

 of thick wash or paste, as follows: 1 quart soft soap, 1 quart fresh 

 slaked lime, and ^ pound tobacco, boiled together in 1 gallon of water. 

 With this wash he painted every every part of the stump, then grafted 

 it with healthy scions. This treatment was effectual on that tree, and 

 it now has a nice young top again, six to eight feet high, and no lice 

 on it. 



The trees near this tree just described had but few lice on them 

 when the Dr. cut down the Sweet June; therefore, he scraped off all 

 the scales or eggs that he could find, before the time for them to hatch, 

 and washed or painted their trunks and branches (there were only two 

 others) with the same compound used on the stump. But he discov- 

 ered last spring that. they were not all killed, as lie had thought, but 

 were multiplving very fast, and extending to other trees on his lots. 

 (He lives in tow^n, and has only a few dozen trees on his lots, con- 

 sisting of apple, pear, cherry, plum, apricot, etc. He informs me that 

 there are none on the trees in his young orchard on his farm, adjoin- 

 ing town, nor any of his neighbors' trees, that he can learn of). He says 

 that the lice, after hatching out last spring, spread to his pear, plum 

 and apricot trees — all being close by — and killed one young apricot 

 tree, and injured a dwarf pear tree very much, by sucking the sap out 

 of the leaves from the under side, where they were so abundant as to 

 completely cover the under surface of every leaf, causing them to dry 

 up as if parched by fire. 



To-day I examined many of the trees on his neighbors' grounds, 

 but found none, except on one apple tree in Mr. Matthew Woodruff's 

 orchard, about thirty-five or forty rods north-east of Dr. Martin's in- 

 fested trees. They are quite abundant on this tree of Mr. Woodruff's. 

 Of course I refer to eggs at this season of the year. I examined the 

 eggs with a microscope of 45 diameters in power. The eggs were all, 

 with two exceptions, out of thousands, perhaps, clear, white, and per- 

 fectly sound. 



