70 THE SAX JOSE OR CHINESE SCALE. 



which Professor Rolfs, of the Florida experiment station, identified 

 and discQst at length in Bulletin 41 of that station, published in 

 1897. This disease is common to other species of scale insects, is 

 wideh^ distributed in Florida and elsewhere in the Southern States, 

 and was found to attack the San Jose scale in Florida very efficiently. 



As outlined b}^ Professor Kolfs, a San Jose scale attacked by this 

 fungus is usually transformed into a mass of mycelia before there is 

 an}^ external appearance of change. AVhen the bod}^ of the insect has 

 been consumed a bright, orange-colored protuberance forms at the 

 base of the scale, or at times it breaks thru the protecting cover of the 

 insect. This orange-colored protuberance is the most conspicuous 

 'part of the fungus and the only portion visible to the unaided e}^. 

 It varies in size from an eighth to a fortieth of an inch. Those that 

 average about one-sixteenth of an inch are most abundant under favor- 

 able conditions. These protuberances are the spore-bearing bodies, 

 and contain spores in great numbers. These orange-colored spore- 

 bearing bodies are developed and mature within six weeks from the 

 time of infection, and countless numbers of spores are liberated from 

 them during rains and are washed down the trees and sometimes to 

 the ground. Other and smaller spore bodies are eventualh^ produced 

 from the germination of these, and are carried about by the air or 

 other means, and thus extend the infection. The biologv of this 

 fungus is rather technical and complicated, and need not be gone into 

 in detail.^' 



Professor Rolfs demonstrated experimentalh^ that this fungus could 

 be transferred from tree to tree artiticiallv. His process was to inocu- 

 late acid bread with pure cultures of the fungus, and three weeks later 

 to break up a piece of bread about an inch square in cold water, and 

 apply to a scaly tree bv means of a sponge or cloth or by spraj^ing. 

 The applications were made in midsummer, and the observations as to 

 results late in February. Out of eight experiments four were success- 

 ful, three unsuccessful, and one doubtful, the tree having in the mean- 

 time died. A good deal of interest was aroused b}^ this publication 

 of Professor Rolfs's, and experiments with this fungus were made in 

 Georgia and by entomologists to whom cultures were distributed in 

 the North and West. The results from these experiments in the more 

 northern regions were not, as a rule, ver}- satisfactory , and the fun- 

 gus has not demonstrated great practical merit outside of Florida and 

 perhaps southern Georgia. Undoubteclh^, however, it is a ver}^ valu- 

 able aid in the control of the San Jose scale thruout the Gulf region, 

 where high temperatures associated with sufiicient humidit}" occur. 



The most careful experimental work with this fungus was that con- 

 ducted by Prof. J. B. Smith in New Jersey. While nearl}^ all the 



"See Bui. Xo. 41, Florida Agric. Exp. Sta., 1897. 



