APPARATUS. 11 



The work of Doctor Brick and his associates, as set forth in 

 Table I, shows that an undesirable amount of scale-infested fruit 

 finds its way into our export shipments, which, from the regulations 

 in force, must be excluded from entry, entailing a considerable loss 

 to exporters. On account of the general occurrence of the scale in 

 American orchards, and the vicissitudes of spraying, the condition 

 is not likely to improve, and the desirability of some expedient to 

 obviate the objections, if possible, is apparent. The laws and edicts 

 now in force in foreign countries relative to the importation from 

 America of plants, fruits, and boxes and wrappings used for same, 

 infested with injurious insects, principally the San Jose scale, together 

 with those in effect in the United States, are given in abstract in the 

 appendix to this article. 



EXPERIMENTS Iff FRUIT FUMIGATION." 



At the instance of Mr. Wm. A. Taylor, pomologist, of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, of this Department, the Bureau of Entomology, 

 cooperating with Mr. Taylor, began in the fall of 1906 a series of 

 experiments to determine the possibility of treating scale-infested 

 apples in a manner to destroy the insects without injury to the 

 appearance and quality of the fruit. This work was followed entirely 

 along the line of fumigation and aside from certain preliminary 

 experiments hydrocyanic-acid gas was used, although limited tests 

 were made with carbon bisulphid. 



APPARATUS. 



Much care was taken to construct a fumigating apparatus which 

 would be as tight as possible and in the use of which the various opera- 

 tions of fumigation would be quite under control. Five equal-sized 

 boxes were constructed out of tongue-and-grooved lumber, using two 

 layers of boards with heavy building paper between, the whole fitting 

 tightly together. The interior of each box was given two heavy coats 

 of thick white lead paint and later treated with a shellac varnish. The 

 inside dimensions of each box were 2.5 by 2.5 by 4 feet, and after 

 deducting for certain pieces of timber used in the corners, and for plat- 

 form for packages of fruit, contained 23.776 cubic feet. The appara- 

 tus was installed in a basement room, the boxes placed side by side, as 

 shown in figure 1, A-E. The front of each box, forming the door, was 

 entirely removable, as shown in the figure, and when in place fitted 

 against a 3-inch heavy wooden rim all around, covered with thick felt 



a The writer wishes especially to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Jas. H. Beattie, 

 in the construction of the fumigating boxes; and of Messrs. Fred Johnson, E. L. 

 Jenne, and S. W. Foster, in the fumigation of fruit and in making examinations of 

 the scale insects. 



