156 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



contrast between treated and untreated portions. The fumigation had 

 been interfered with by the heavy storms which had piled up the snow 

 in such a way as to prevent practical work with the tent that had been 

 constructed to cover the plants in the trenches. In heeling in the stock 

 had been blocked in such a way as to make it convenient to cover for 

 purpose of fumigation, and I believe that the treatment, so far as applied, 

 has been successful. In the nursery rows many of the one year old shoots 

 were more or less scaly, and all these had been thoroughly treated with 

 caustic potash, every stick having been separately washed with a solution 

 of about one pound, or more, in a gallon of water. The application was 

 so severe that of some varieties a large proportion was killed, while in 

 others there seemed little or no injury. As against the scale it had not 

 been entirely successful, so there remain a number of one year old trees 

 in the nursery rows that require further treatment. The scales have been 

 so thinned down, however, that there is little chance of their spreading 

 from the points at which they now exist. Many of the worst infested 

 bearing trees, and especially those that were in the nursery plots have 

 been cut down and burnt. In the orchard close by the trees have been 

 cut back to the trunks and larger branches, and these have been so thor- 

 oughly washed, that there is no present danger of a spread from them, 

 even if destruction has not been absolute. In providing for a new supply 

 of trees the infested territory will be entirely abandoned and new land 

 distant from bearing trees has been selected. Practically the two nurser- 

 ies in New Jersey which originally distributed the scales are now the 

 safest places to buy stock, and I believe that there will be no danger from 

 any stock grown by them in the future. It will take some time to exter- 

 minate the scale completely on the Parry place; not on their nursery land 

 so much as in their orchards. The nursery land can be, and will be, en- 

 tirely cleared, leaving no scaly shoots or plants. The orchards cannot be 

 in bearing condition again for two or three years to come, and this will 

 give opportunity for the most radical kind of treatment to be applied to 

 the trunk and branches. 



Now a few words on the applications that have been made, and on the 

 success attending them. Practically the fish-oil soaps has been most 

 satisfactory, when used at the rate suggested by Mr. Howard — two 

 pounds in one gallon of water — which is also the proportion recom- 

 mended by me. I have received, within the past weeks, samples of twigs 

 from a badly infested orchard, and on these I have failed to find living 

 scales. Of the many hundreds which I turned over and examined under 

 a good dissecting microscope, I found not one that showed the least trace 

 of life. The treatment had been with a soap made by the farmer himself. 

 He writes that he used " 5 pounds of seal oil to one can of Lewis's lye, 

 mixed according to directions which came with the lye. It made soap 

 immediately. This I dissolved according to directions in Bulletin, two 

 pounds of soap to a gallon of water, and applied with a whitewash brush 

 on the 9th of this (third) month. I treated a few trees about four days 



