2?4 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



sprayed with a stronger solution, namely : caustic soda, \ pound ; commercial potash, 

 pound ; water, 1 gallon ; using this only as a drastic measure in bad cases. In either 

 case follow the winter spraying with the soft, soap, caustic soda, and sulphur solution 

 mentioned at page 260, in early summer to destroy young scale insects. 



One of the surest means of destroying scale is to brush over infested trees, whilst 

 dormant, with whale (train) oil. This suffocates the insects. Linseed oil answers equally 

 well, but there is danger of closing the pores of the bark. A method of using free oil 

 without prejudice to the bark, yet destroying scale, may be usefully mentioned. Take 

 train (whale) oil, 1 quart ; sal soda, 5 pounds ; dissolve the soda in 5 gallons of water, 

 and heat it to boiling. When boiling, pour the oil in, and stir briskly a short time. 

 Allow to cool down to 130, at which use as a spray on infested trees. Let the dose act 

 on the scale two or three weeks ; then spray the trees with the following : caustic soda, 

 powdered, \ pound ; commercial potash, \ pound ; dissolve in 6 gallons of water. This 

 alkali wash saponifies any oil that, if free, would clog the pores of the bark. Unless the 

 trees are seriously infested quite encrusted with scale the soda and potash wash is 

 sufficient ; but in bad cases use the whale oil and sal soda wash first, and the other after- 

 wards as advised, remembering that the trees must be perfectly dormant. Scale insects 

 other than those named will be treated under the different fruits ; therefore, it must 

 suffice to state here that the resin compound named at page 261 may be used against 

 scale during the growing season. 



Thrips (Heliothrips hsemorrhoidalis) (Thrips Adonidum). Many species of thrips 

 besides the one named have been described, but are so much alike that it is difficult to 

 distinguish them from each other. The species most familiar to cultivators indoors is 

 that infesting vine-leaves and other fruit trees. There may be some to whom this insect 

 is not known nor understood ; therefore the accompanying figures and description will 

 enable anyone to recognise it, if it is infesting their vines or fruit trees. It is highly 

 destructive. 



The larvee and pupse are yellowish white ; larvae wingless ; pupae have short wing 

 cases. The larvae are much like the mature insect, only smaller. The perfect insect is 

 about -fL-th i ncn long, but the size varies according to the feeding-ground ; bodies 

 black, sometimes of a rusty hue. The wings are long, straight and narrow, four in 

 number, unveined, and fringed with long hairs, dirty white. They have two horns, and 

 three pairs of legs, which end in a bladder, without claws. The mouth has an apparatus 

 for piercing and sucking the juices of the infested parts, and at the tip of the tail may 



