DicKERSON : John B. Smith in Economic Entomology 19 



trolling this pest with its natural enemies had been reported from 

 California, and accordingly under an appropriation made through 

 the State Board of Agriculture Professor Smith made a trip to 

 California in 1896; numerous places were visited and the work 

 there thoroughly investigated. An account of this trip appears 

 in his report for that year and was given to the State Board of 

 Agriculture in January, 1897. Briefly the conditions and conse- 

 quently the results that could be obtained were totally different 

 in California from what they were in New Jersey. 



Professor Smith was one of the first to advocate the use of 

 crude oil in its various forms as a spray against the scale. It was 

 realized that the oil varied considerably, and that some forms 

 were more harmful than others to the treated plants, and in order 

 to thoroughly investigate this subject he visited the West Virginia 

 oil field in October, 1900. He did much in the way of experi- 

 menting with crude oil insecticides and later was largely respon- 

 sible for the encouragement of the development of miscible oil 

 sprays. 



Again, after the Asiatic ladybird beetle had been introduced' 

 into this country as a possible controlling factor of the scale and 

 attempts had been made to colonize it in New Jersey, among other 

 places, in 1902 and 1903, Professor Smith made a trip to Georgia 

 in 1904. These earlier introductions had not survived as well as 

 desired, and it was in hopes of finding better results in Georgia 

 and obtaining more material for colonization in New Jersey that 

 this trip was made. The account of this work, which did not 

 prove a success, is found in the reports for the years mentioned. 



It was out of the problem of controlling the scale that there 

 arose what he called his experiment orchard. This consisted' 

 originally of fifty fruit trees of various kinds placed in the yard' 

 in the rear of his house, and upon these numerous applications of 

 various insecticides were made against the scale and other pests.. 

 Reports on the work in this orchard are found in his annual 

 reports, and in Bulletin 155 of the New Jersey Experiment Sta- 

 tion, issued in 1902, an account is given of the experiment orchard 

 since its inception in 1898. 



