286 



to, I will be greatly obliged if yon will give ine tlie facts or reference. — [H. G. Tryon, 

 Willonghby, Lake Couuty, Ohio, December 6, ld86. 



Replt. — * * * My opinion concerning the question of Bees vs. Fruit has for a 

 long time been identical with your own, viz, that under certain conditions bees will 

 and do injure certain varieties of fruit. This opinion was arrived at, however, with- 

 out thoroughly satisfactory experimentation upon my part, and it was with the view 

 of settling the point, so far as it was possible to settle it by experiments, that I in- 

 structed Mr. McLain to carry on the series of experiments to wMcb you refer. As 

 you seem to have seen a newspaper account only, I take pleasure in sending you by 

 to-day's mail a copy of my report for 1885, which contains on pages 336 to 339 the de- 

 tails of bis work in this direction. My own comments you will tind in tbe introduc- 

 tion on page 212. I freely admit that ray remarks upon his results migbt have been 

 more qualified and that where I state that the experiments show pretty conclusively 

 that bees do not injure fruit at first hand, I should have said "grapes" instead of 

 fruit, as the experiments were made principally with grapes. You will notice that 

 the word " conclusively " is qualified, and in reality the more I study the matter the 

 more the diflficulties of settling the question by such a series of experiments are 

 forced upon me. You must admit, however, that these experiments place the burden 

 of proof upon the affirmative side as far as grapes are concerned. — [C. V. R., Dec. 

 16, 1886. 



Hydrocyanic Acid Gas Treatment for Scale Insects. 



* ' * I again visited Mr. Oilman a few days ago, and was pleased to learn that he 

 had met with very good success in fumigating his orange trees with hydrocyanic acid 

 gas passed through sulphuric acid; we carefully examined several trees that he 

 treated with tbe gas when I was there a little over a month previously, and were un- 

 able to find any living Red Scales (Asjjidiotus aurantii), while the fruit and foliage 

 were uninjured. Mr. Gilman says that he treats on an average four trees an hour, 

 using the one apparatus which operates two tents, and estimates that the cost will 

 a,mount to about 65 cents per tree, his trees being from 10 to 14 feet high by tbe same in 

 diameter. If it will not be necessary to again treat these trees until after the lapse of 

 four years, this will reduce the cost of treatment to less than twenty cents a year for 

 eacb tree. Mr. A. Scott Chapman, of San Gabriel, in this county, informs me that 

 some of bis father's orange trees that had been treated with this gas nearly two years 

 ago are still remarkably free from the Red Scale, notwithstanding the fact that tbe 

 adjoining trees are thickly infested with them. The trees treated svith this gas, 

 however, are quite as thickly infested with tbe Icerya as they were when first treated, 

 which clearly shows the great difterencein the dispersive habits of these two species. 



While at Mr. Oilman's I picked up the following insects from beneath some of the 

 trees whicb he had just treated with the gas : one Chiloconis hivnhieriis, two Exochomns 

 pilatel, six Coccinella ahdoviitmlis, four FsyJIohora ttudafa, one Diahrotica irivittata, four 

 Largns succinctus, one Euscliistus tristigmus, two Oph'ion macrurum, six Chrysopa sp.?, 

 five Afusca domestica, two Mydea sp.?, and one spider. The next day all had recovered 

 with the exception of one Largus, the two Ophions, one Chrysopa, the five Muscas, one 

 Mydea, and the spider. Mr. Gilman says that when he leaves the tents charged on 

 the trees all night all of the Lady Bugs on these trees will be killed. The other trees 

 are each confined in the gas twenty minutes, which includes the ten minutes required 

 for generating the gas. — [D. W. Coquillett, Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 1, 1889. 



Ne-w Enemy of the Chinch Bug. 



1 notice you don'tmention, as preying on the Chinch Bug, the Casnonia pennsylvamca 

 that I found swarming in sheaves of wheat that was infested with the Chinch, while 

 assisting with harvest in Illinois. Years later I found a Casnonia with a Chinch in 

 its mouth among a scattered colony of tbe latter, at the base of a leaf of green young 



