Report of the Entomologists 



By John B. Smith, Sc. D. 

 general review. 



The winter of i903-'o4 was remarkable for continuous cold 

 weather ; the temperature did not reach points as low as in some 

 preceding winters, but maintained for n long period a level far 

 below freezing and often very close to the zero mark. As a result 

 some kinds of plants and trees suffered severely and it became a 

 matter ot some interest to learn what the effect had been upon 

 insects. It is sometimes easy, but not always just, to charge any 

 abnormal appearance in plant or insect life to the weather, and it 

 is yet more difficult to prove a charge. However, practically all 

 peach blossoms were killed in the experiment orchard, a few 

 young trees died and my privet hedge was killed nearly to the sur- 

 face of the ground; so as these were chargeable to the cold, some 

 of the peculiarities of insect distribution may be equally so refer- 

 able. 



First of all, the most obvious feature of the year was a tremen- 

 dous increase in the San Jose or pernicious scale throughout the 

 State. Before the season opened there v.'ere many inquiries as to 

 whether 'the severe winter had not destroyed or severely checked 

 it. I discouraged all hopes of this kind but an unusual delay in 

 starting brought a renewal of the inquiry. It was not until after 

 the middle of June that the first larvse were seen on the trees and 

 it w'as nearer the 20th before they w^ere st all obvious ; but during 

 the early days of July I found the heaviest set of young on the 

 trees that I had ever seen. The rate of increase during July and 

 early August was not so unusual ; but in September and early 

 October it was simply phenomenal. Trees that had been consid- 

 ered reasonably clean in spring were almost incrusted in early fall 

 and some growers that had left trees untreated in the belief that 

 they would stand it safely another year, found twigs and branches 

 dying from scale attack. Nothing seemed to stop them. The 

 records of the Experiment Orchard, and of the work done in the 

 Marsh Orchard will show that out of apparently small remnants, 

 thorough infestations were built up, and our orchards as a whole 



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