635 A. EF. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 293 
All imported nursery stock should be at once carefully inspected, 
to prevent the introduction of other and perhaps still more destruc- 
tive scale-insects. Any infected stock should be burned or else 
fumigated at once, with hydrocyanic acid gas.* 
I could find no evidence in Bermuda of the presence of many of 
the most pernicious scale-insects that infest the Florida and California 
citrus trees. Therefore, there are good reasons for special laws to 
keep out these dangerous species, some of which attack various 
other fruit trees as well. 
So little careful attention has been paid to the study of these 
small but pernicrous insects in Bermuda, that little can now be learned 
of the species that caused the former destruction of the trees. It is 
natural to infer that those still found on the surviving trees are the 
same, but ‘this is not certain. 
It is recorded that Governor Reid, about 1844-48, introduced new 
and choice varieties of oranges, which flourished for a time. Possibly 
he introduced the destructive scale-insects on those plants, for they 
became abundant and destructive soon after that date. Had effective 
measures been promptly taken, the pest might have been easily 
stayed at first. But the modern methods of destroying scale-insects 
by kerosene emulsions ; or better, by fumigating the trees with 
hydrocyanic acid gas under tent cloths, were of course then 
unknown.t 
However, it is certain that oranges had become scarce before 
Governor Reid’s time. Bishop Berkeley, in 1837, spoke of their 
decline and scarcity at that time, and attributed it to the cutting of 
the cedars, which exposed the orange trees to the blighting winds. 
But perhaps he and others overlooked the scale-insects that may 
have been at work even then. Mr. Williams, writing in 1847-48, 
also speaks of the oranges being then scarce. 
* Some American dealers in nursery stock now fumigate their plants before 
sending them out. It would be well if all were required by law to do this. 
Sooner or later those dealers who can furnish disinfected and guaranteed stock 
will gain most of the trade. Buyers should demand such stock. 
+ It is doubtful if sufficient energy or interest in the matter could then have 
been aroused in the Bermudian planters, generally, to have induced them to 
apply such remedies extensively, even if they had been known, for most of the 
smaller cultivators are inclined to ‘‘ take things easy” and trust to ‘‘ Providence ” 
in such cases. Trusting to prayers and Providence against infectious diseases 
and insect pests is, at the present day, only an excuse for laziness or ignorance, 
or both. 
