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the spread of this insect in the several States infested. In only one 

 instance, and that the small State of Delaware, did I find that there 

 has been* a systematic inspection of the State, and New Jersey has 

 doubtless been much better inspected than any of the States of consid- 

 erable size in the East. So it would appear that our present knowl- 

 edge of the infested areas in the several States has come largely 

 through reports of its injurious occurrence either in nurseries or 

 orchards and not from critical inspection. This suggests, in the first 

 place, that Ave are even yet, after all the literature that has appeared 

 upon this subject, quite in the dark as to the probable damage which 

 agriculture may suffer in the near future from this pest. We, in fact, 

 are not yet in position to speak at all of its probable or possible occur- 

 rence in a large number of isolated places over the Eastern States 

 where it has not yet been reported as injurious. 



To illustrate how easily a whole neighborhood may be infested with- 

 out having come to the knowledge of entomologists, I may cite a few 

 instances which have come under my observation. One of these was in 

 the lower valley of Virginia, near Winchester, one of the best cultivated 

 and most prosperous sections of the State, where a considerable orchard 

 had become infested and some of the trees were already dead, yet this 

 infection was not known and had not been reported at all until by mere 

 chance a party interested observed the infested trees and sent speci- 

 mens to me for determination. Another instance which well illustrates 

 this point is that of the Salem district in the upper valley of Virginia. 

 This place is less than 40 miles from the Virginia Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College and the center of a very intelligent community, 

 surrounded by highly cultivated farms and agriculturally one of our 

 most prosperous sections, yet the scale had existed there for four or five 

 years and been disseminated quite generally over the immediate 

 locality by the tree dealers. During all this time the fact of this infec- 

 tion was totally unknown, though I had constantly received from this 

 place numerous specimens of other injurious insects and fungi affect- 

 ing fruit plants; and to enforce this point more strongly I will relate an 

 incident connected with the occurrence of this scale at Salem, Va. A 

 few days prior to my official inspection there certain parties, observing 

 that many fruit trees were infested with scale insects, sent specimens to 

 Congressman P. J. Otey of that district, and he submitted them to Mr. 

 Howard, who in due course pronounced them to be Aspidiotus ancylus. 

 "Yet my inspection revealed the presence of the pernicious scale in 

 great abundance. In fact it was by far the most common injurious 

 species in the community, yet by a strange chance a common native 

 species was sent to Washington, and these people were congratulating 

 themselves on being free from San Jose scale. 



Less than two days' work in this community revealed to me the pres- 

 ence of the San Jose scale in ve^ serious numbers at ten different 

 points in and about Salem, and I doubt not that double and treble this 

 number of premises are actually in tested. 

 5850— No. 6 



