3S6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



chusetts. It does not appear to be very generally distributed 

 as yet in the Eastern States, but there is great danger that it 

 may soon become so through the distribution of infested 

 nursery stock, if the most active measures are not adopted 

 for its destruction. 



The dissemination of this insect in the Eastern States 

 has been traced by the entomologist of the Department of 

 Agriculture in Washington to nursery stock received from 

 Missouri and New Jersey. Prof. J. B. Smith, in " Entomo- 

 logical News," Vol. 6, page 153, and elsewhere, mentions 

 two large nurseries in New Jersey that were badly infested 

 with this scale, and from which infested stock had been sent 

 to various points in the Eastern States. One of these was 

 owned by Messrs. Parry, at Parry, Burlington County, N. 

 J., the other by the J. T. Lovctt Company, at Little Silver, 

 Monmouth County, N. J. 



Prof. L. O. Howard, entomologist to the Department of 

 Agriculture in Washington, in studying the geographical 

 distribution of this and other insects in connection with the 

 life zones into which this country has been divided, has ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the San Jose scale is not likely to 

 thrive on fruit trees in New England, for a time at least. 

 Professor Smith seemed to entertain the same opinion, based 

 on his studies of the distribution of the insect in New Jersey. 

 I had therefore felt quite easy about the matter, so far as 

 Massachusetts was concerned, till, on the 29th of March of 

 the present year (1895), my attention was called to scale in- 

 sects on several young plum trees on the grounds of the 

 horticultural department of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College. These trees, according to the record books, came 

 from the J. T. Lovett Company, Little Silver, N. J., in the 

 spring of 1894. Fearing that we had this dreaded insect to 

 deal with, I sent infested twigs to Professor Howard for 

 determination, and received the reply that they were the 

 San Jose scale, but that none of the examples sent were 

 alive. 



Wishing to determine whether any of these insects had 

 survived the winter, I had two of the trees taken up and set 

 out in the cold part of the insectary greenhouse, and the 

 remaining infested trees were burned. Scales appeared on 

 the growth of the previous year, so that the insects succeeded 



