FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 79 



Our Worst Apple Insects. 



Bv Pkok. W. r,. Brtttox, New Haven. 



In iirosonting" a paper on this snliject I wish to call your 

 attention to the fact that there are over four hundred different 

 kinds of insects which attack the apple in this countrv. It is 

 obvious that I can mention i)nl_\- a few at this time, and 1 shall 

 therefore use my judgment in selecting the worst ones. This 

 is largely a matter of individual judgment, and in various lo- 

 calities the degree of injury will vary to such an extent that 

 what may be regarded as a serious pest in one place will be 

 almost unheard of by the apple growers in another. 



I finally decided to put the San Jose scale at the head of the 

 list, because where that is present in an apple orchard I be- 

 lieve it to be the very worst pest we have. 



Sax Jose Scale, (Aspidiotiis peniiciosns Comst.) 



I think we will all agree that the San Jose scale is the 

 most serious apple pest wherever the apple orchard has become 

 infested by it. First discovered in California in 1880, this scale 

 spread throughout the Pacific coast region, was brought toward 



i-!»«\\ 



c-iiim 



San Jose Scale — Female shell, much enlarged. 



the East on nursery stock, and was probably introduced into 

 the Eastern States as early as 1888 or 1889, though not dis- 

 covered until 1893 in Virginia. It was found in Connecticut 

 in 1895. though it is reasonably certain that it had.been brought 

 into this State four of five years earlier. This insect injures 

 trees by sucking out the sap, and is found not only upon the 

 twigs and branches, but also upon the leaves and fruit. Its 



