ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 91 



ance of being thickly coated with lime or ashes. Even without a magnifying glass, how- 

 ever, their presence can be readily noted if the twig be scraped with the finger nai], when 

 a yellowish, oily, liquid will appear, resulting from the crushing of the bodies of the 



insects." 



The female scale is flat, almost circular in outline, dark mottled with gray color, with 

 a small elevated spot at or near its centre which is black or yellowish ; it measures about 

 one sixteenth of an inch in diameter, but under favorable conditions may attain to the size 

 of one-eighth of an inch. The fully developed female can only be observed by removing 

 the scale with which it is covered at a time when she is just about to give birth to her 

 young. She will have then lost both her legs and antennae, being now only provided with 

 a long delicate proboscis consisting of four thread-like bristles encased in a two jointed 

 sheath. The body is almost transparent, and the young can be clearly distinguished within. 



The male scale is black and somewhat elongated when fully formed. It is often oval 

 in shape, smaller than the female, and more abundant. The larval skin is covered with a 

 secretion, and its position is indicated by a single nipple-like elevation between the centre 

 and anterior margin of the scale. The fully developed male only has wings. The body 

 is of a light amber color with dark brownish markings, and terminates in a slender stylet 

 as long as the body. It is, however, too minute to be of interest to any but natu- 

 ralists, having to be always examined with a microscope. 



Such was the pest that was, as we supposed, lurking only along the Pacific coast, 

 with a vast width of mountain and desert lying between it and the fair lands and thrifty 

 orchards of the Mississippi valley and beyond. We did not for a moment dream that the 

 pest had gained a foothold along our eastern coast as well, and ' was each year being sent 

 into the heart of our land, and even the entomologists were in blissful ignorance of its 

 presence. In 1892, Professor Townsend had reported it at Las Cruces, New Mexico, but 

 that was almost as far off and isolated as California, and we still slept on in our supposed 

 security. Early in August, 1893, there came to the Division of Entomology at the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington, a small bundle of pear and peach Owigs from 

 Charlottesville, Va., the sight of which fiirly raised the First Assistant Entomologist, 

 who examined them, out of his chair, for he at on.*e recognized the San Joe scale. But 

 even yet it was thought to be only an accidental occurrence. Later investigations of an- 

 other outbreak indicated that the pest had come from a prominent nursery in New Jer- 

 sey, and on being inspected the insect was found to have become thoroughly established ' 

 and probably had been for several years, as the trees whereby the insect had been traced 

 to this nursery had been sent out in 1888. I shall here follow a pol.cy that has always 

 appeared to me to be the only just one for an entomologist to follow, and give the name 

 of the nursery, which is that of Mr. John R Parry, of Parry, New Jersey. This was the 

 first intimation that this firm had of the seriousness of a pest that they failed to recognize, 

 though on referring to their books they found that in 1887 they had ordered from John 

 Rock, of San Jo?e, California, a quantity of Kelsey's Japan plum trees, and that these trees 

 had been shipped by Mr. Rock's order from the nursery, of the Stark Brothers, of Louis- 

 iana, Missouri.* 



*Mr. Stark, of this firm, made the following explanation at the close of the reading of the paper ; — 



As Prof . Webster mentions our name, we wish to state the circumstances in hill a* we now recall 

 them : In 1885, we had the p'easure of visiting the nursery of John Keck, at 8an Jose, Call for n>a. Mr. 

 Rock is well known as one of the principal California nutserymen, and it is needless to say that the visit 

 was interesting, and instructive as well. Among other things pai tic ularly noted, was his method ot treat- 

 ing trees before shipment to destroy the San Jose scale This method he supposed to be ei.tirely effective, 

 and, remembering this, in the spring of '87, the Kelsey plum b-iug then a scarce noveby, we ordered a lot 

 of first-class Kelsey plum tre-s from Mr, Rock ; but a-i a good many of us have learned " first-class" trees 

 on the Pacific coast mean a very different thing from first-class trees in the east. On the coast, it seems 

 they sometimes go into rows of one year trees and dig about everything clean that is thrifty and two or 

 three feet in h-ight, or even less ; so when the trees arrived and the lid was removed from the b >x, show- 

 ing one year trees running from about eighteen inches in height upwards, it was apparent we could not 

 accept nor use the grade and we so wired Mr. Rock, who wired in reply to express tb> m to the New .Jersey 

 parties, and the trees accordingly were immediately expressed to Messrs. Parry and to J. T. Lovett, thus 

 quickly removing every one of thesa Kelsey trees from our grounds— a most fortunate circumstance for us, 

 as it has since appeared. 



