30 



" The g"as can also be used in the spring" in peach, plum, and 

 apple orchards after the buds have begun to unfold. A block of 

 one hundred six-year old plum-trees at Annapolis Junction was 

 fumig-ated March 17 and 18, 1898, and up to the present time not a 

 living- scale has been found upon any trees, except those sprayed 

 with 50 and 100 per cent, g-asoline. The trees in this orchard 

 were very badly infested, the most of them being- so literally 

 covered it was impossible to see the bark at any point on the trunk 

 and larg-er branches. 



"Other experiments were conducted in scale-infested bearing- 

 orchards in May, June, and July, the results of which cannot be 

 finally reported at this time, except that no living- scales have been 

 found upon any of the fumigated trees." 



The operations reported in the present paper can scarcely be 

 called experiments, since they were an attempt to make practical 

 application in the field of methods based on the experimental work 

 and practical experience of others. Those with hydrocyanic acid 

 gas ma}' be taken, however, as a test of the fumigation method as 

 applied to common orchards and fruit plantations in southern Illi- 

 nois under conditions more favorable in some respects and less 

 favorable in others than those of ordinarj^ orchard practice. A 

 considerable series of operations was carried on over a large terri- 

 tory by a single party under the direction of one foreman especially 

 selected and carefully instructed for this work, and his manage- 

 ment was doubtless more intelligent and exact than that of the 

 ordinary foreman or owner of an orchard would have been. On 

 the other hand, the conditions which he had to meet were of course 

 much more varied than those to which any single orchardist would 

 be subject, and the limitations of time and expense were such that 

 the work must move steadily forward whenever at all practicable — 

 a fact which made it impossible to choose favorable weather and 

 to suspend operations temporarily when it was likel)' that the best 

 results could not be obtained. 



It has seemed to me, nevertheless, that the outcome of this 

 campaign is well worthy of report, since it indicates with approxi- 

 mate fairness what can be accomplished by practical work on a 

 large scale by the intelligent fruit grower so unfortunate as to 

 have become the victim of the San Jose scale. Owing to the fact 

 that these were not regarded as experimental but practical opera- 

 tions only, the notes of the work were not as full as I could now 

 desire. They were, however, carefully made bj' competent men, 

 and are entirely reliable so far as they go. 



