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ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO 



power of increase when introduced into a new locality and the fatal effects of its attacks 

 on trees, as well as the extensive range of food plants it will attack, which includes 

 nearly every deciduous tree and shrub, added to the difficulty of treating it effectively, 

 all combine to make this insect what it is acknowledged by most to be, as stated above, 

 one of the worst insect enemies we have ever had to contend with. 



Notwithstanding this, there is always a tendency among those who are not well 

 informed, to minimize the danger and neglect the necessary precautions. On this point 

 it may be well to give the following short quotations from two of the leading economic 

 entomologists of the United States : 



Prof. Webster, of Ohio, says in his official report to the Ohio State Horticultural 

 Society : " The statement has been made that ' the scile is not a particle more destructive 

 than many of our native species of injurious insects or than those to which we have 

 become used;' but anyone who is at all familiar with this pest understands that this is 

 not at all the case, and that we have no other insect that is so deadly in its effects or 

 so difficult to detect until it has become fully established, and certainly we have nothing 

 in Ohio which, if it gets on to a tree, is as sure death. Besides, such talk as this only 

 makes the enforcing of remedial or protective measures more difficult." 



V 



Fig. 56, San Jose Scale, a, pear moderately infested ; 6, female scale enlarged. 



Dr. J. B. Smith, speaking before the Moorestown (N. J.) Farmers' Institute in 

 December, 1897, says : " The San Jose scale is without doubt the most important of the 

 fruit pests with which the fruit growers of this section must deal. I say ' must deal ' 

 advisedly, because developments during the latter part of last summer and even since 

 then have made it certain that the San Jose scale is so firmly established in our State 

 that its extermination can no longer be considered a possibility." 



After treating of the extent of the infestation in the State of New Jersey, Dr. 

 Smith says : " The scale must be dealt with, or you must abandon fruit culture. It can 

 be dealt with if intelligent effort is made. The treatment is not easy and at first is 

 expensive. It is for the fruit grower to decide whether his orchards are worth it. If 

 not, he had better destroy them at once and plant something else." 



