1900] ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The Chairman : I am sure I voice the feelings of the meeting when I say we are very 

 much obliged to Mr. Dearness for his carefully prepared and interesting notes. This 

 Scale Insect is a most disobliging insect. I think with such a choice of fruit trees it 

 should leave other trees alone. 



Mr. Fisher : What progress did this scale appear to be making on those trees, 

 other than fruit trees, which had been artifically inoculated 1 



Mr. Dearness : Those that had been artifically inoculated had not had time to 

 mature when I saw them. They were only in the stage of brown and yellowish round 

 scales. 



Mr. Fisher : Have you ever found scales on trees that had not been inoculated 

 that appeared to be doing well 1 



Mr. Dearness : On the Spiraea we found it doing well. 



Mr. Fisher : Is that a forest tree ? 



Mr Dearness : That is a shrub ; and we ~ found ifcfgrowing on the elm and bass- 

 wood but not doing so well as on the fruit tree. 



Mr. Fisher : In this connection I understood there was a feeling that the Scale 

 would flourish on the shade trees in the city of St. Catharines, and we made a very care- 

 ful examination of the shade trees last year. We spent quite a number of afternoons 

 inspecting the trees, with the result that we could not find any trace of the San Jose 

 Scale on these trees notwithstanding that the neighbouring gardens were very badly in- 

 fested. This year I thought it only fair there should be a further examination made as 

 we found the Scale spreading to much more distant points, and yesterday we made a 

 careful examination of Rodman Street and Geneva Street, with the result that we found 

 no Sjale whatever on any of the hardwood trees. The trees along these streets are hard 

 maple and soft maple and elm and horse-chestnut. 



The Chairman : That would seem to say that the insect preferred fruit trees. 



Dr. Fletcher : Are there any fruit trees infested by the Scale growing in the 

 neighborhood of these trees 1 



Mr. Fisher : There are currant bushes that are rotten with the Scale. 



Mr. Dearness : In reference to that allow me to point out that Prof, Comstock 

 speaks of peach being excepted and apricot being excepted and certain kinds of cherry 

 trees being exempt. We found elm and maple surrounded by badly infested trees 

 exempt. These infeBted trees have baen infested by wind, or men working among them, 

 or by the harvesters. The insact cannot make its connection on the trunk of a tree like 

 the hard maple, but if these insects were brought by these agencies and put up on the 

 top of a forest tree, I cannot see why they would not grow there. 



Because a fruit tree is exempt while others surrounding it are affected does not prove 

 that the scale won't live on it. You will find in an orchard three or four trees badly in- 

 fested and other trae3 that you cannot see any on right in the immediate vicinity. Here 

 is a branch of a willow that is badly infested and the whole tree was infested throughout. 



Dr. Fletcher : There is no question about its attacking the elm. It is one of 

 the characteri&tics of the Ooccidae that you will find a single tree very badly infested, and 

 then touching that tree will be others perfectly exempt. That simply shows that a tree 

 in a weakened state is mora apt to be attacked than in a vigorous state. 



Mr. Fisher : I never found elm infested. 



Mr. Dearness : Here is an elm that is infested (shewing a specimen). 



Dr. Fletcher : Of course it is a new importation into Canada, and it is more likely 

 to attack the same kind of trees that it has been feeding on, but at the same time we can- 

 not argue that it will not work on other trees. In the first year of the introduction of 

 the San Jose Scale into the Niagara district we could not find it on peach trees; it was 



