90 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



done by our experiment stations in the fumigation of orchards 

 for the destruction of the scale, but when you have trees of very 

 large size it is a very tedious task to fumigate orchards of that 

 character. I know of an orchard of 5,000 Japanese plums in 

 jhe heart of the Alleghany mountains infested with scale. In 

 this connection I want to say that the trees came from one of 

 those nurserymen who are so positive that they never have had 

 the scale in their nursery. This man was willing to swear that 

 there had never been one on his place. At the same time he 

 unwittingly was guilty of establishing this scale in the heart of 

 a block of 100,000 trees through the sale of those 5,000 plum 

 trees (Fig. 12) The nurseryman in this case was not respon- 

 sible, as he would have taken his oath that he did not have the 

 scale on his place. I know him personally as a conscientious, 

 straightforward and reliable business man, but, at the same time, 

 lie was guilty of establishing this pest in that enormous plan- 

 tation where so much money was at stake. Had that nursery- 

 man taken ordinary precautions, he could perhaps have prevented 

 the establishment of the scale in that particular instance. That 

 means that he should have fumigated his stock independent of 

 its condition, and irrespective of his judgment as to the freedom 

 of his particular nursery from the scale. We all make mistakes 

 at times, but in a matter of that kind it is better to be on the 

 safe side. The man who is selling nursery stock nowadays, if 

 he is up to the modern business standard, will fumigate his stock 

 so as to protect his customers and himself.* 



Many fumigating houses are being erected. They are com- 

 posed of a tight gas-chamber, in which the stock is placed and 

 exposed to the fumes of hydrocyanic acid gas. This gas, if 

 breathed, will destroy a human life almost instantly, as it is a 

 deadly poison. I have often talked to the farm hands which we 

 have in these houses in Maryland. In the south they have been 

 obliged to educate the negroes to take charge of these fumigat- 

 ing houses, and I assure you, they do the work very well. I 

 have tried to impress upon them the fact that it was a deadly 

 gas, that they should be careful and not go into the house until it 

 had been thoroughly aired, for if breathed the gas would kill 



* A complete guide on the fumigation of orchards, nursery stock, greenhouses, mill 

 ■■hips, cars and other enclosures has just heen published by Prof. Johnson. It can be 

 The Orange Judd Co., New York City. 



s, elevators, 

 gotten from 



