FIGHTING THE SAN JOSE SCALE WITH LADY BEETLES 



(^ REAT interest was manifested when 

 -J it was announced, over a year ago, 

 that the United States Department of Agri- 

 cuhure had made an importation of Chinese 

 lady beetles, the natural enemy of the San 

 Jose scale, to ascertain if the beetles could 

 be utilized as a remedy for the scale. Since 

 then little has been heard in regard to the 

 importation. 



Hearing that Prof. C. F. Hodge, of Wor- 

 cester, Mass., had been conducting some 

 tests with the beetle The Horticulturist 

 recently wrote him asking for information. 

 The following interesting reply has been re- 

 ceived : 



" My experience with the Chinese lady 

 beetles has been so limited that I fear I can 

 not be of much assistance to you. In May, 

 the Department of Agriculture sent me 25 

 of the beetles to colonize here, but all but 

 nine were dead on arrival. We released 

 them on an infested tree in the middle of 



Three Methods of Protection 



FRANCIS WAYLAND GLEN, BROOKLYN, N. Y^ 



THROUGH the columns of The Horti- 

 culturist I observed last spring that 

 the fruit growers of Ontario suffered heav- 

 ily from the depredations of field mice. 

 From 1846 to 1861 I was engaged in the 

 nursery business at Rochester, N. Y. In 

 that climate the snow often covered the 

 ground before the surface was frozen. The 

 mice then burrowed under the snow and 

 attacked the trees. 



We had three ways of dealing with the 

 field mice problem. First, we tramped the 

 snow very hard about the trees ; 2nd, we 

 wrapped waxed paper about the base of the 

 trees with poison in the wax ; 3rd, we sawed 

 some pine timber, i}i square and six inches 

 long, and bored holes in them i^ inches in 

 diameter, 5 inches deep, and filled the holes 

 with dry Indian meal mixed with arsenic. 

 We packed tne meal very hard and laid one 

 of these blocks bv each orchard tree and in 



an orchard of several acres, and I have 

 always been able to find, some of the beetles 

 on the tree on my weekly visits. I have 

 seen no evidence, however, of breeding, and 

 fear the season has been too cold and wet 

 for them to do well. Possibly all the fe- 

 males were lost. However, the trees are 

 large and old and the beetles hard to find, 

 but I still have hopes that a colony may 

 show up later. 



" August 4 I received six more from Dr. 

 Marlatt, all in good condition. I have seen 

 these mate, and so can tell the males and fe- 

 males apart, I think. I already have a num- 

 ber of eggs from these last, and hope to rear 

 a colony in confinement. The beetles cer- 

 tainly eat the scales like "a devouring fire. 

 We have been tracking them on the tree by 

 the paths of scales scraped off. If we can 

 only get them acclimatized here I think they 

 will prove of great value." 



the corners of the fences. In this way we 

 saved our trees from destruction bv mice. 



Transplanting Evergreens 



PROF. II. L. HUTT, ONT. AGRI. COLLEGE;, 

 GUELPH, ONT, 



EVERGREEN trees may be planted 

 later in the spring and earlier in the 

 fall than deciduous trees, but our experience 

 with both classes of trees is, that they are 

 best planted early in the spring before 

 growth starts. The ground is then usually 

 in a moist condition and most suitable for 

 the reception of roots. Trees properly 

 planted at this time seldom fail. The later 

 transplanting is done the more care is re- 

 quired to avoid injury from drought and ex- 

 posure to hot sun and drying winds. 



The circulation of the sap in e-^rgreens 

 is practically the same as that in deciduous 

 trees. Roots take in soil moisture from the 

 ground which is transferred from cell to 

 cell, through the sap wood, to the branches 



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