38 



and on the other hand the desire to save a few pennies has induced 

 men from the very State where warnings against New Jersey were 

 most urgent to buy largely of the most discredited of all our dealers. 



I can speak of the effect of the scale only as I have seen it in New 

 Jersey. We have had it with us as long as it has been anywhere in 

 the East, perhaps longer, if we have distributed it so generally as it is 

 charged. It is certain that some of the orchards now infested have 

 been scaly for nearly ten years. I speak for New Jersey only; but, 

 except in the case of youug plum and pear and peach trees generally, 

 many of these are very little the worse for their infestation. Some 

 hedges of Japanese quince at Moorestowii are simply swarming with 

 the insects, yet they were up to this spring, when I last saw them, 

 quite as nourishing as those that are free; and a number of other plants 

 show little or no ill effects. 



It seems also to be almost probable that the scale is to some extent 

 losing vitality with us. It is not nearly so bad on some old infested 

 trees that have never been treated as it was three years ago. Whether 

 this is due to the fact that the trees themselves are developing a resist- 

 ing power, or that the climate is taking hold of the insects, it is certain 

 that a smaller proportion of them survive, and also that the broods are 

 decreasing in number. This was marked to some extent last year, and 

 it is still more marked during the present season. 



Heretofore the second brood was found hatching in great abundance 

 before the middle of July. This year it was rare to find a full-grown 

 scale of the first brood ready to reproduce before the 20th. In fact, a 

 careful examination made of a badly-infested orchard on August 5 

 showed that there was not, even then, any general hatching that would 

 cover a tree with a mass of the second brood of young. There was 

 quite a number of larvae and there were a few recently set scales, but 

 there was none of that general hatching that was noticeable in previous 

 seasons. In fact the August 5 status in 1898, with much more favor- 

 able weather, was behind that of July 15, 1897. Another feature that 

 deserves some attention in this connection is that where an orchard is 

 treated at all it seems to check development as well as to kill a very 

 large percentage of the larvas that set on a treated tree. This is par- 

 ticularly true where kerosene has been used, for here the majority that 

 survive the treatment never get beyond the white stage. 



The subject of remedies is not a part of my present essay. The sub- 

 ject of distribution carries with it the question of increase or decrease, 

 and I am happy to be able to say positively that there is a very general 

 decrease in the amount of scale in New Jersey as compared with the 

 two years last passed. I do not mean to say that at any one point 

 where many large trees were badly infested the scale has become en- 

 tirely exterminated. I do mean to say that a number of heretofore 

 badly infested orchards have been so far cleared that the scale does no 

 mischief, and that their owners understand the subject sufficiently well 



