14 



■Washington to nursery stock received from Missouri and New 

 -Jersey. Prof. J. B. Smith, in " Entomological 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. Lovett Company, at Little Silver, Monmouth 

 County, N. J. 



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

 ture 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 expressed 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 Massachu- 

 setts was concerned, till, on the 29th of IMarch of the present year, 

 ray attention was called to some scale insects on several young plum 

 trees on the grounds of the horticultural department of the Massa- 

 chusetts 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 determina- 

 tion, 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 well at least during the summer of 

 1S94. June 10th live scales were observed on the trees transplanted 

 to the insectary greenhouse, and on the 14th the young were swarming 

 all over them, and even extended to some small apple trees growing 

 near in t le same part of the greenhouse. As this seemed to settle 

 the question of their ability to survive our winters here in Amherst, 

 or at least the winter of 1894 — 95, which was an average one, I liad 

 all these trees very carefully burned, to prevent any further spread- 

 of the pest. 



As soon as it was discovered that the San Jose scale had been 

 received here on nursery stock from outside of the State, I feared 

 that other nurseries migiil have become infested in a similar manner. 



