134 



THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



has undoubtedly been most valuable in restricting the spread 

 of pests in New York State. This work, as it is well known, 

 is under the control of the Department of Agriculture and it 

 is so arranged that each inspector is responsible for a certain 

 section which he is required to inspect prior to the shipping 

 season. At this latter time he is mostly occupied in looking 

 over shipments which come in from outside of the State. The 

 inspectors are continued from year to year and after a time 

 become familiar with their districts and so expert that they 

 have little difficulty in finding the pest even when present in 

 very small numbers. The result is that our nurseries are ex- 

 ceptionally clean, and as a consequence the danger of the in- 

 sect becoming established in other localities is reduced to a 

 minimum. Our law provides that the Commissioner of Ag- 

 riculture must be notified of the shipment of every lot of 

 nursery stock entering the State, and as a consequence the 

 inspectors are enabled to keep a close watch upon everything 

 coming in from the outside. 



Previous experience with kerosene emulsions in particular 

 led to a great many experiments with oils of one kind or an- 

 other, and the very striking results reported by Dr. Smith, in 

 1899, led to further experiments and a number employed 

 crude petroleum on a very large scale. A great deal of en- 

 thusiasm was aroused and in some cases parties applied this 

 material too freely and ven,^ serious losses resulted. Our 

 early experiments and those of the Experiment Station at Ge- 

 neva showed that it was necessary to apply this material with 

 a great deal of caution. At the outset, in the case of our own 

 work, it appeared as though crude petroleum could be em- 

 ployed with perfect safety, even upon such tender trees as 

 peach and plum. The first result of the application is to kill 

 the scale, and while the development of the foliage is retarded 

 somewhat, later there is a vigorous growth and the trees ap- 

 pear benefited by the treatment. The same results were ob- 

 served, only to a slightly less extent, the second and third 

 years. The reaction was less marked thereafter and evidences 

 of injury began to be more apparent. We found that these 

 trees had been severely injured. The bark was in a very 

 rough, unsatisfactory condition, the lenticels were enormously 

 distended and the foliage pale in color, abnormally small and 



