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1893 Dr. Eiley spoke of the appearance of the insect in Virginia at 
the meeting of this association; but California and Virginia are both 
quite remote from New Jersey, and I failed to make myself acquainted 
with the appearance of the creature. In the autumn of 1893 I inves- 
tigated the appearance of the pear psylla in a Delaware Eiver nursery 
and incidentally noticed that some of the trees were very scaly. I recom- 
mended that they be scrubbed ; but again failed to suspect their iden- 
tity. It is a matter of some consolation that another station entomolo- 
gist had visited this selfsame nursery only a few days previously and 
had as completely failed to identify the species. I do not feel called 
upon to apologize for failing to identify the scale, because no one man 
(unless he lives in Washington) can know everything, and scale insects 
had not theretofore come under my notice to any extent. My only fault 
lay in that I did not seek to have the insect determined at once: but 
at the time the matter seemed unimportant. Early in 1894 a special 
circular on the San Jose scale was issued from the IT. S. Department 
of Agriculture, and on reading it I at once thought of the appearance 
noticed in the "Psylla" nurseries and wrote for specimens. These, 
when received, left me in doubt and were forwarded to Washington, 
whence Dr. Eiley soon wrote me that, while they were much dried up 
and undersized, there was no doubt as to their identity. I at once 
took measures to discover how far the trouble had spread in New 
Jersey, and the owners of the nursery seconded my efforts by every 
means within their power. In a panic, when they were first assured 
that they had the scale and before I called on them, they tore out sev- 
eral blocks of young stock valued at over $1,000 and burned them — 
a very unnecessary proceeding as I believe. I soon found that while 
many bearing trees were badly infested, the nursery stock was quite . 
free and that it was mainly old stock and preferably French stocks 
upon which the new varieties were budded that were infested, and 
that very few scales were to be found on the new wood. At my request 
the owners furnished me with a list of the persons to whom suspected 
or suspicious stock had been sold during a period of five or six years, 
and meanwhile I visited nurseries in all parts of the State and wrote 
to leading growers everywhere. Several trips were also made to lead- 
ing fruit centers, and this resulted in discovering the scale in another 
large nursery at quite the other side of the State — on the Atlantic 
coast. Here the scale was much more restricted in the territory cov- 
ered; there were only a few bearing trees, and the young stock, while 
almost uniformly was yet so sparsely infested that when sold in small 
lots the chances were all against the propagation of the insects. The 
source of supply was discovered in a row of old Bartlett pear trees 
which were completely incrusted. This lot of trees was at once taken 
out and burned and arrangements were to be made to clean all stock to 
be sent out from the infested block. A huge list of names was now at 
hand, and by the courtesy of the United States Entomologist a supply 
