Vol. 1, No. 6.] INSECT LIFE. [December, 1§88. 



SPECIAL NOTES. 



The notices so far published of Insect Life have been very satisfac- 

 tory indeed, and we feel very much encouraged at the manner in which 

 the bulletin has been received both by entomologists and farmers. The 

 only strictures so far made have been in reference to publication of de- 

 scriptive matter. We wish to assure our reviewers that while in the main 

 Insect Life will be devoted to the economy of insects, it is also devoted 

 to the promotion of entomology in all its branches. We do not intend 

 to print hurried, isolated descriptions, carelessly thrown together and 

 hastily published to insure priority, but where descriptions form a 

 part of some comprehensive study of any group of insects; where 

 they are based upon a broad knowledge of affinities, or where they 

 are connected with any studies in life history, we shall be glad to give 

 them place. We hope, therefore, to publish some matter of this kind 

 with almost every number of the bulletin. 



Recent California Work against the Fluted Scale. — On page 110, No. 4, 

 Insect Life, we published au extract from a letter received during 

 September from Mr. Coquillett, giving a vivid account of the condition 

 of affairs among orange-growers in southern California. One promi- 

 nent fruit grower has entirely abandoned the industry; another one 

 stated that he would cut down his trees in case he could not make a 

 success of the gas treatment; another took all the money that the 

 oranges and lemons brought him and spent it in spraying his trees 

 with "one of the best caustic washes in use" (!), and as a result his 

 trees were injured to such an extent that they will not bear this year, 

 while the scales are as abundant as ever. Other growers in the San 

 Gabriel Valley state that they were seriously thinking of abandoning 

 their citrus groves. This sad state of affairs is, as we stated eighteen 

 mouths ago in our Riverside address, by no means necessary. While 

 experiments have shown that the fumigating processes will kill the 

 insects, still they are expensive and elaborate, and our orange-growing 

 friends do not seem to have a proper appreciation of the washes which 

 we have recommended. 



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