78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the insect was less numerous than two years earlier. This con- 

 dition had evidently been brought about by natural agents, since 

 in each of these orchards there had been no marked change in horti- 

 cultural practices. There was no difficulty in finding the scales 

 here and there, showing the characteristic circular holes made by 

 the small parasites which have attracted so much notice in recent 

 years, and the probabilities are that these tiny agents have been 

 important factors in keeping the scale from multiplying unduly. 

 In this connection it should be stated that none of these orchards 

 are in what would be considered an ideal horticultural condition. 

 The best of the trees are stunted, the foliage being rather small and 

 with a deficient color, while most of them show a small to a con- 

 siderable amount of dead wood. 



There is nothing in the conditions recorded above which seem to 

 justify the abandonment of spraying for San Jose scale, especially 

 as the incidental benefits resulting from this application are, in our 

 estimation, more than sufficient to cover the cost of the treatment. 

 The parasites, if they are destined to have an important effect upon 

 their hosts, will gradually become more abundant in the smaller, 

 unsprayed orchards and here we may expect them to render their best 

 service, since it is relatively more costly and difficult for the owner 

 of a few trees to spray. The most that these scale parasites can do 

 at the present time is so unsatisfactory that we believe they are 

 practically unworthy of consideration by the commercial grower. 



Sinuate pear borer (Agrilus sinuatus Oliv.). This 

 destructive and extremely dangerous European borer became estab- 

 lished in New Jersey some years ago and is now extending its range 

 slowly in New York State where it is already known to occur in 

 several localities. The parent insects are slender, shining, bronzy 

 brown beetles about one-third of an inch long. They may be found 

 on bright, sunny days on the trunk and branches, the female deposit- 

 ing her eggs in crevices and under slightly raised bark scales. The 

 eggs hatch in early July and the slender, whitish grubs begin their 

 narrow, winding burrows in the inner bark and the outer sap wood. 

 The galleries of the young larvae have a markedly serpentine course 

 and a width of one-sixteenth of an inch or less. A badly infested 

 limb may show, upon the removal of the outer bark, series of these 

 galleries winding back and forth and seriously interfering with, if 

 not cutting off, the supply of sap. The early operations of this 

 borer do not produce conspicuous swellings, hence limbs or even 

 entire trees may be practically destroyed before there are marked, 

 outward indications of the trouble, though as time advances the 





