NOTES FROM THE BIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, ONTARIO 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



I. More about the Home of the San Jose 

 Scale. 



'T is interesting- to note the efforts which 

 have been made, and are being- made 

 to determine the original home of the 

 i^ San Jose Scale. Ever since its dread 

 presence in the eastern portion of this con- 

 tinent was detected in 1893, entomologists 

 and practical fruit-growers have been anxi- 

 ous to secure a natural remedy — one which 

 would keep the Scale in check, as the im- 

 ported lady-bird from Australia now keeps 

 the Cottony-Cushion Scale in subjection in 

 California. Any doubt as to the realization 

 of such a wish should not prevent a search 

 for the native home of the Scale, for it would 

 appear that there the pest is kept under con- 

 trol by some agency. To determine this 

 controlling factor and to introduce the fac- 

 tor into this country is thus the object of 

 the laudable efforts to locate the home of the 

 San Jose Scale. 



For many years after the California orch- 

 ards were first attacked, it was supposed 

 that the Scale had been introduced from 

 Chili, for it was discovered in that country 

 in 1872 ; but later investigations in Chili 

 showed pretty conclusively that the Scale 

 was not a native, but an introduced insect. 

 So this theory was in time abandoned. 



Next, Prof. J. B. Smith suggested, in 

 1896, that the native home of the San Jose 

 Scale was probably in one of the Northern 

 Pacific States. This theory was, however, 

 never very seriously entertained by many of 

 our best entomologists, and was also soon 

 abandoned. 



Japan was next pronounced the home of 

 the Scale, and many evidences seemed to 

 point to its introduction from that country : 



I. The agents of the quarantine station in 

 California found Scale on nursery stock im- 

 ported directly from Japan ; 2. Mr. Kuwana, 

 a Japanese student at Stanford University, 

 California, found the Scale so widely spread 

 throughout the Japanese Empire that he 

 came to the conclusion that his native land 

 was also the native land of the San Jose 

 Scale. He announced, moreover, that the 

 Scale was there kept in check by certain 

 parasites and lady-birds. 



Following immediately in Mr. Kuwana's 

 important announcement, Dr. Howard, chief 

 Entomologist at Washington, sent Mr. Mar- 

 latt early last summer to Japan to investigate 

 the conditions there, and if possible, to 

 bring back to America some of the parasites 

 and predaceous insects which were instru- 

 mental in keeping the Scale in check. 



At a recent meeting of the Biological 

 Society at Washington, Dr. Howard stated 

 that he had just received a letter from Mr. 

 Marlatt announcing that the original home 

 of the San Jose Scale was not in Japan, but 

 in that region of China immediately south 

 of the Great Wall, and that a consignment 

 of living lady-bird beetles which were found 

 preying on the Scale in China, was on its 

 way to America. 



I am sure it is the ardent wish of every 

 fruit-grower that these lady-bird beetles may 

 arrive in a healthy condition, and begin 

 work immediately on Scale-infested orchards. 



2. The Haseltine Moth-Catcher. 



This moth-catcher has been widely adver- 

 tised as a codling-moth destroyer. To test 

 the merits of the moth-catcher, I had two of 

 them placed in the College garden among 

 apple trees. They were kept burning every 

 night, with but a few exceptions, from June 



