72 BIGGIE ORCHARD BOOK 



plainly to be seen through an ordinary magnifying 

 glass. The scales are about one-eighth inch in 

 length, or smaller, and they usually cluster together 

 as shown in the illustration on page 71. 



About the middle of May (later or earlier, according 

 to latitude) the eggs under the scales hatch into tiny 

 lice which appear as mere specks to the unaided eye. 

 These lice, for a few days, move around on the bark. 

 Remedies : First, give the tree a tonic and a good 

 rub-down. Fertilizers, pruning and cultivation will 

 help the tree to better general health ; and a brisk 

 scrubbing of trunk and main limbs with a very stiff 

 brush or scraper, will get rid of many of the scales. 

 An old broom with the brush cut short makes an 

 excellent scrubbing implement. Keep it wet with 

 whale-oil soap solution. Then, sometime in May, 

 watch for the hatched-out lice. When they appear, 

 get out the spray pump and thoroughly spray the 

 entire tree with whale-oil soap solution, made as 

 follows : Dissolve one pound of whale-oil soap in a 

 gallon of hot water, and dilute with about 

 six gallons of cold water. (Note : The oyster- 

 shell louse is especially fond of the lilac. ) 



SCURFY BARK-LOUSE. Another scale 

 insect, that may be classed with the oyster- 

 shell bark-louse so far as its economic 

 SCURFY importance is concerned, is the scurfy bark- 

 SCALE louse of the pear and apple. This scale is 

 NATURAL white in color, and, like the oyster-shell pest, 

 SIZE) is most apt to work on poorly fertilized and 

 poorly cultivated trees. The scurfy scale is readily 

 recognized on account of its whitish, cotton-like 



