490 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ December 20, 1864. 



The Chaieman said the present Charter had been a 

 stumbling-block in the way of the Society, and, on putting 

 the resolution to the meeting, it was carried. 



A vote of thanks to Mr. Thring, and the rest of the Com- 

 mittee on the bye-laws, was then carried unanimously ; 

 likewise a vote of thanks to the Chairman, Mr. Godson, in 

 moving it, passing a high eulogium on the forbearance 

 of the Chairman, than whom, whenever he occupied that 

 position, no one could act with greater fairness. 



DESTRUCTION OF THE INSECT SCALE. 



I desike to draw your attention to a discovery my gar- 

 "dener has made, for even if known before, I have never 

 found it alluded to in any horticultural work, and on looking 

 through your past volumes they throw no light on the sub- 

 ject. I allude to the scale on Orange trees. 



I have a small Orange-house, in which I grow all the 

 varieties at present in England that are good for the table, 

 and until this year I have been enabled to keep the trees 

 free from scale, or, at all events, so clean that a winter 

 cleaning alone was sufficient. I always have heat in this 

 house, and this season in the month of August (the early 

 part of it), they were so dirty that my gardener took each 

 tree out of the house, and they were cleaned most thoroughly. 

 It was done by a small rose I had made for red spider on 

 Peach trees under glass. I have a pressure of more than 

 100 feet of water, and its force immediately removed every 

 scale, and when replaced in the house it would take ten 

 minutes to find one scale. To my own, and my gardener's 

 utter astonishment, the trees soon became as dirty as ever, 

 the scale breeding nearly as fast as aphides. As I was 

 going from home, I requested my gardener to do nothing 

 with all hands until he had again thoroughly cleaned the 

 Orange trees, as it really amounted to this : they must be 

 kept clean, or their culture relinquished. With clean water, 

 small brushes, and sponge, they commenced, and when I 

 returned I found the cleaaing not half finished ; the insects 

 were so numerous, that the time absorbed, with the greatest 

 industry, was immense. 



On my return, my gardener said, " I have found out how 

 the scale breeds, and can account for their rapid increase, 

 last year we had some aphides in the house, and from 

 several times fumigating we had little or no scale. I found 

 a number of small black insects running over the Orange 

 trees, and on those cleaned the day before they were as 

 numerous as on those not cleaned." We at once fumigated 

 and but slightly, and found it killed every insect. He then 

 commenced examining some full-grown scale having a dark 

 spot in the centre of the scale, with a magnifying glass. 

 He found under the scale, in different stages, the identical 

 sort of small black insects he had seen on the trees, and 

 killed by smoke. He preserved some in a bottle for me to 

 see, and he drew the conclusion that this is the male, the 

 limpet-shaped scale the female, and that if you by regular 

 fumigating kill the male, there will soon be no scale. 

 This, X believe, to be the true version of the increase of 

 scale ; but to be certain there was no mistake, I found 

 numbers of large scale on trees not yet cleaned, and with a 

 magnifying glass in hand, I removed with a pin the female 

 scale, and there found numbers (one under each scale) of the 

 small black insect. I have found in books on the subject, 

 since then that this is the male and female scale, but I have 

 not found it in any horticultural work, or any suggestion, 

 that the male is easily killed by smoke, and if you destroy 

 them you certainly must prevent any increase. 



I enclose you leaves with scale on them, and the male in 

 different stages of growth, also some perfect ones, taken 

 running about on the trees, and some from under the scale 

 (in a small bottle). I have often removed the female scale 

 when large and full grown, and with a glass seen hundreds 

 of small ones run away, but I could never account for im- 

 pregnation. 



Because I have had so much scale on my Orange trees 

 you must not imagine my place is not kept clean, as I can 

 show Peaches of all kinds, fruit trees of all kinds, under 

 glass and exposed, vineries, etc., as clean as any in England. 

 I should be glad of your reply, and you may make any use 

 you like of this communication, but I am convinced, as an 



old florist, that we have hit on the way to destroy scale, 

 and hope it will afford as much benefit to others, as I fully 

 expect to find myself. It also shows why Orange trees kept 

 out of doors in the summer get clean of themselves, there is 

 not continuous heat enough to bring the male scale to per- 

 fection, and if it hatch the cold nights either kill him or 

 prevent impregnation. Mr. Rivers whom you know to be a 

 very experienced man in these matters, finds it an entirely 

 new light to him. — James Aldkige Devenish, Eodwell, 

 Weymouth. 



[We forwarded this communication and the specimens to 

 Professor Westwood, and he replies thus : — " The preceding 

 coniniunication is another instance of investigation in the 

 right direction not carried quite far enough, and, conse- 

 quently, resulting in the not unusual error of friends being 

 mistaken for foes, and beneficial insects destroyed instead 

 of the real authors of the mischief complained of. The 

 small, black, lively insects sent by your correspondent, and 

 regarded by him as the male of the scale insects, are not 

 such, they are parasites belonging to the order Hymenoptera, 

 and genus Encyrtris, which feed in the larva state within 

 the bodies of the scales, and, consequently, destroy them. 

 Hence they are to be preserved and. not destroyed. The 

 real males of the scale insects are, as described in all works 

 of entomology, and I presume also in all good horticul- 

 tural works, minute, weak, six-legged, two-winged, creatures, 

 slow in motion, with the bodies and wings clothed with a 

 fine white powder. In out-of-door species of Coccidas these 

 males are developed at a fixed period of the year, and as 

 they are very fragile they might be easily destroyed by fumi- 

 gation attempted at the right time. In hothouse species 

 I believe the generation of scales and allied insects is con- 

 tinuous, and that there is not a fixed time for the develop- 

 ment of the males; but this fact is not proved. Inves- 

 tigation, where scales are prevalent, will easily determine 

 whether this be so or not. If the males should be proved 

 to be produced at one or two fixed periods of the year, there 

 will be no excuse for the horticulturist if he do not clear his 

 houses by destroying the males, and so preventing the pro- 

 duction of future broods of young. — J. 0. W.] 



EAELY PEAS. 



(Concluded from page 467.) 



Of the ordinary modes of sowing and planting Peas for 

 an early crop, it is needless to say much, as they have been 

 frequently detailed to the readers of The Jouenal of Hoe- 

 ticultt/ke. In general, the middle of November is as early 

 as is prudent, under any circumstances, to sow a crop, and 

 very often this is too early, a mild autumn or winter en- 

 couraging growth till the plant is so far advanced as to be 

 unable to withstand the spring frosts which follow, so that 

 it is generally better only to sow a small quantity at that 

 time, and make another sowing early in December, following 

 this up by one early in January. This is the mode we adopt, 

 but Mr. Fish, our worthy coadjutor, prefers deferring sow- 

 ing till spring, and then he does so in pots or boxes, and 

 plants the crop out after hardening off in the usual way. 

 We have adopted both plans with much the same result, 

 and where there is a difficulty in saving the autumn-sown 

 crops from the attacks of slugs, mice, and other depredators, 

 as well as when there is some drawback in the ground, it is 

 better to rely on spring sowing and planting out ; but 

 when any approach to uniform success can be depended on 

 out-door sowing is a much less troublesome mode, as the 

 earliness of the crop in each way is so nearly alike, that it 

 would be difficult to say which is the better. 



The preservation of the seed from mice and birds, and 

 the young plants from the attacks of slugs and smaller 

 enemies, are also matters worthy of attention. Covering 

 the row with coal ashes is not by any means a bad plan, but 

 they ought not to be fresh from the fire, otherwise they are 

 prejudicial to vegetation. A covering of sawdust is also 

 beneficial, as mice do not seem to like burrowing in that 

 material, while better than either as a preventive of the 

 attacks of slugs, is barley chaff, which attaches itself to, and 

 lacerates the soft bodies of the slugs, and does not seem to 

 be at all relished by mice. 



The attacks of birds, however, are not so easily prevented, 



