2 HE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



actually seen the ravages of the scale of the 

 seriousness of the situation. These men are 

 inclined to minimize the danger and are slow 

 about taking preventive measures. They 

 may thus allow the scale to gain a foothold, 

 after which it is almost impossible to eradi- 

 cate it. 



" In 1897, when the department of agri- 

 culture became aware that the scale was be- 

 ing imported in nursery stock received from 

 the States, steps were taken to induce the 

 Dominion Government to prohibit the im- 

 portation of stock from the infested dis- 

 tricts. Knowing that the scale had already 

 been located at several places in Ontario, an 

 act was passed called the San Jose scale act. 

 This act provided for the appointment of in- 

 spectors, and wherever the scale was found 

 the trees 'were destroyed. 



ACT WAS PASSED TOO LATE. 



" It was thought at this time that in a few 

 months all the scale in the fruit growing sec- 

 tions could be stamped out by burning the 

 trees. When the act was passed the scale 

 had been located at Kingsville and at Van 

 Home, a small postofifice near Chatham, and 

 also in the section near Burlington. Un- 

 fortunately the act was passed about three 

 years too late, as the scale had become es- 

 tablished. The first imported trees had 

 stood so long that they had become badly in- 

 fested and the scale had spread so far and 

 so rapidly that in none of these places has 

 it been possible to entirely stamp it out. I 

 would like to emphasize the fact that in no 

 cases where the scale has become thoroughly 

 established have the people been able to 

 eradicate it. All the infested trees have at 

 times apparently been destroyed, but sooner 

 or later the scale has cropped up in some 

 unexpected place. 



"The destruction of the trees was con- 

 tinued for two years, but the government 

 realized that it could not hope to stamp it 

 out and called in the inspectors and started 

 a series of experiments with the, object of 



finding some remedy for the destruction of 

 the scale. These experiments have been 

 carried on to a greater or lesser degree in 

 the infected districts and remedies have been 

 found which if properly applied will help 

 keep the scale in check. In some sections, 

 where the scale was not very thoroughly es- 

 tablished, they appear to have entirely 

 stamped it out. 



NO NEW OUTBREAKS. 



" In the early days of this fight over 100 

 places were found, where the scale had 

 started through the distribution of nursery 

 stock, that were treated in time to destroy 

 the scale. In none of these places has the 

 scale since been found. One remarkable 

 fact remains that during the last two years 

 no new outbreaks of the scale have- been 

 found. This goes to show that the work 

 done by the inspectors in these early years 

 was very thorough. 



" Scale has been found more or less all 

 through the chief fruit growing districts of 

 Ontario, but it has made some remarkable 

 skips, leaving some townships so free from 

 it that the people cannot yet be brought to 

 realize that in some districts of Ontario 

 thousands and thousands of trees have been 

 destroyed by the scale. Scale has been 

 found all along the fruit belt skirting Lake 

 Ontario from Toronto to the Niagara fron- 

 tier, where the scale is at its worst, getting 

 lighter and lighter,' with some skips, until 

 after leaving Clarkson. . No more scale Is 

 known to exist east of that point, although 

 scale has been found in young trees at sev- 

 eral points as far east as Belleville. In 

 these last cases it has been stamped out. In 

 the western fruit growing sections, quite ■ 

 badly infested sections have become estab- 

 lished at Kingsville, Rondeau, Chatham and 

 Van Horn. 



" The lime-sulphur wash is the most popu- 

 lar of all the remedies on trial. It is three 

 years since it was first introduced into 

 (Continued on page 267.) 



