UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Bureau of Entomology 



Washington, D.C. 



January 19, 1910 

 The Honorable, 



The Secretary of Agriculture. 

 Sir: 



A week has been spent in inspecting the 2,000 flowering cherry trees 

 (three carloads) recently received from Japan. On account of the size of 

 the trees this inspection occupied a good deal of time. For this Bureau it 

 has been conducted by three or four experts working whenever the 

 weather conditions permitted, and has been supervised and checked by 

 both Doctor Howard and the writer. Doctor Howard left for Florida 

 today just as the final reports were handed in, and has therefore asked me 

 to transmit the several reports of this inspection to you. The documents 

 include, 1st, the report of the inspection by this Bureau as to infestation 

 by injurious insect pests; 2nd, the report of the inspection by Dr. N. A. 

 Cobb, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, for root gall worm in the roots of 

 the trees and in the accompanying soil, submitted by Dr. A. F. Woods; 

 and 3rd, the report of Mrs. Patterson, Mycologist, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, on the subject of plant diseases. 



These reports may,be briefly summarized as follows: 



Insect pests — Practically all of the trees are more or less seriously 

 infested with an important scale insect pest, the Chinese Diaspis (Diaspis 

 pentagona). A limited number of the trees are also infested with the San 

 Jose scale (Aspidiotus perniciosus ). Both of these scale pests are now in 

 the United States, the former as yet, however, not generally spread. 



The most dangerous insect pest is a wood-boring Lepidopterous larva 

 having habits very similar to the peach borer of this country. This 

 undetermined species is apparently much more dangerous than the 

 common peach borer, since it attacks the trees not only near the surface 

 of the ground but frequently at the base of the upper branches. Twenty 

 per cent of the trees are visibly infested with this insect, but it is impos- 

 sible to tell how many of the others are also infested, since discovery is 

 only possible in the later stages when the insect has burrowed to the sur- 

 face. The larvae of this insect are so deeply imbedded in the wood and so 

 thoroughly protected by the gummy exudation of the wounded bark that 

 no feasible fumigation would kill them. They undoubtedly constitute the 

 greatest insect menace of this importation, and might very easily be a 

 source of tremendous loss in later years to fruit interests. Representatives 

 of six other dangerous insects were found superficially on these trees. 



The presence of the borer referred to, together with the six other 

 insects, without other consideration warrants the recommendation which 



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