640 NEW JERSEY STATE AGRICULTURAL 



The Nectarine was only a little infested, yet, on June 27th, 

 larvae and recent sets were already present in such numbers that 

 treatment was necessary July 8th. 



The Trellised Apple received not only the March application 

 but, on June i8th, a second spraying with caustic soda, at the 

 rate of i pound in 4 gallons of water. The foliage was severely 

 injured, but the scale began to breed normally, just the same. 



A few summer applications were made with the soda solution, 

 I pound in 4 gallons and i pound in 8 gallons of water. The 

 main object of these was to determine the effect on the foliage, 

 and this was such, in all cases, as to discourage its use altogether. 

 I may add that my chief reason for distrusting the soda as a 

 remedial agent was that it was one of the materials first tested 

 when the scale was discovered in New Jersey, and was soon 

 abandoned as useless. 



In Georgia, the material was generally used at the rate of i 

 poimd in 6 gallons of water, and the testimony was almost uni- 

 form that no benefit whatever had been derived. Mr. Newell's 

 published conclusion from his experiment plat is : "Compared 

 with untreated trees upon the check plats, no difference in degree 

 of infestation was observable." 



The applications on the Rural Grounds resulted, October 8th, 

 in the following: "The plain caustic soda solution, so' confi- 

 dently boomed in certain quarters, was extensively tested, and so 

 far as heard from has been entirely useless as a scale killer, 

 though most effective in excoriating the hands and infiaming the 

 faces of those who applied it." 



Early in the summer the clean and polished look of the bark. 

 misled some growers into the belief that their applications had 

 been effective, and that is excellently expressed in the following 

 letter, dated September 8th, while the scale was yet breeding 

 and hardly at its heighth : "After carefully examining the 

 -Keiffer pear trees, sprayed last winter with caustic soda, on the 

 farm of my brother-in-law, I can now give you a better de- 

 scription of the results obtained. Mr. H informs me 



that he used the best quality of soda obtainable, and that it was 

 98 per cent, pure, and to each barrel of about 50 gallons of water 

 he used 10 pounds of the soda, and covered the trees pretty 

 thoroughly. In the spring, several weeks after spra\ ing, he said 

 the trees looked beautiful, and he was inclined to- recommend 

 the mixture as being very effectual ; but he has since changed 

 his opinion. The trees that were sprayed with caustic soda last 

 winter and which promised so well, are now about as thickly 



