77 



map of Asia indicates furthermore that Japan is not directly opposed 

 to China, but to Korea and what is now Russian territory and Man- 

 churia, and if she obtained any deciduous fruits from the continent. 

 they came from Korea and not China. The orange and subtropical 

 fruits were brought from the south, and in modern times whatever 

 trade has been with China through the agency of the Portuguese and 

 Dutch has been with the southern ports, where the San Jose scale does 

 not exist. 



Practically the only relations which China has had with Japan 

 anterior to the opening of the latter country to the commerce of the 

 world was the sending early in this era of certain embassies demanding 

 tribute from Japan. The reply to these embassies was to send back 

 the heads of the ambassadors. Following this, two efforts were made 

 during the reign of Kublei Kahn to conquer Japan. In both instances 

 the enormous fleets of the great Mongolian conqueror were utterly 

 destroyed by a hurricane, and every Mongolian or Chinaman that suc- 

 ceeded in escaping the waves and getting ashore was promptly decapi- 

 tated by the waiting Japanese. The Japanese made no attempt to 

 conquer China until their notably successful war of 1895. 



It will be seen, therefore, that there has been very little chance of 

 commercial intercourse between these two countries, and this explana- 

 tion seems to be the chief one in accounting for the failure of an insect 

 common in the region north of Pekin to reach Japan. Furthermore, 

 it may be said that the commercial intercourse which has sprung up 

 so actively in later years with Japan has been, so far as fruits and 

 trees are concerned, solely with the region from Shanghai southward. 

 and the introduction of fruits and the like has not been from China to 

 Japan but the other way. and it is quite possible that the San Jose 

 scale which I found at Shanghai was imported from Japan on stock 

 sent over to the local Chinese nurserymen. 



As a matter of interest it may be here noted that the native home 

 of the San Jose scale in China is a fairly well shut-off region, and this 

 accounts probably for the failure of this insect to become a world pest 

 ages ago. The district in question is the hill region leading up to the 

 mountains and Great Wall and comprises the northern and north- 

 western frontier of China proper. Beyond the Great Wall on the 

 north and west lies Mongolia, consisting chiefly of the vast desert of 

 Gobi; to the northeast and separating the region from Manchuria and 

 Korea is the little Gobi Desert; to the south and east lie the great 

 alluvial plain, the product of centuries of mud carried down by the 

 Yellow River — a region where cereals only are grown. 



These are all effective barriers, and especially so when considered in 

 connection with the political conditions of the past. The alluvial 

 plain on the southeast is not now and seems never to have been 

 devoted in the least to fruit, and farther south the climate becomes 

 unfavorable, a>> already noted. 



