66 



shoots, and are now alive and healthy. The tree was about 6 or 7 inches 

 in diameter at the butt, and probably about one-tenth part of it was 

 operated upon in this manner. In several other trees that I treated on 

 the same system, the results were similar, it being uniformly only such 

 branches as were completely coated over with scales, that subsequently 

 perished. 



Dr. Mygatt in 1854 gives the following testimony: "Lard was 

 used on three bearing trees soon after the eggs hatched out; every 

 insect touched with the lard perished ; the limbs are now clear, except 

 the spots missed. The trees grew finely, with no apparent injury to 

 them. * * * J applied lard to several bearing trees in August; 

 those scales are all dry and apparently dead, and no insects to be seen. 

 * * * One tree, thickly covered with the white variety," [Har- 

 ris's Bark-louse; see chap. 9] "was oiled over from the ground to the 

 minutest branch. This was done in April; not an egg hatched. The 

 Jxa^^.- growth was luxuriant; and the tree is now clear of lice, and does 

 not appear to be injured by the oil." — {Transactiojis Illinois State 

 Agricultural Society, I. p. 516.) 



In 1856, Dr. Fitch writes as follows: "Now at last it is pretty 

 well ascertained, that anointing the trees with grease or oil is an 

 effectual remedy [against the Oyster-shell Bark-louse.] I am assured 

 of this by Dr. Hoy, of Eacine, Wisconsin, and other correspondents, 

 and by several communications in the Prairie Farmer, and other ag- 

 ricultural periodicals." {New Yorh Reports, II. § 15). 



Mr. Sherman, of Waukegan, Lake Co., Illinois, is reported in 

 1861 as using a mixture of equal quantities of linseed oil and tar, to 

 destroy the Bark-louse in the perfect scale state. "These articles," 

 it is stated, "are mixed over the fire by a gentle heat to dissolve the 

 tar. The mixture is put on with a brush at any time during the win- 

 ter or early spring, and has the appearance of a varnish. It has the 

 advantage over the alkaline washes, used on the young insects, that it 

 can be applied to all parts of the tree without the least injury to the 

 shoots or buds, while it is death to the insect. His trees are nearly- 

 free of the insect, and have becomes vigorous and fruitful." {Trans- 

 actio7is Illinois State Agricultural Society, V. p. 190.) The tar is 

 probably inert here, except so far as it dilutes the oil, and it is in 

 reality the linseed oil that kills the eggs. 



In 1866 Mr. Cavanach, a market-gardener residing at Brooklyn, 

 ^New York, said that he '^lad succeeded in destroying the scale-insect 

 by the use of kerosene, without injury to the trees." {New York 

 Sem. Tribune, March 16, 1866.) And subsequently he states as fol- 

 lows : — "We use kerosene regularly every year to kill the scale-insect 



