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olive orchard of Mr. A. R. Meserve, near Pomona. I found it seriously 

 attacked by the black scale. I also discovered very numerous pupse 

 and imagos, or mature beetles, of the twice-stabbed ladybird, Chiloco- 

 rus bivulnerus. I then predicted to Mr. Meserve that very soon his 

 orchard would be free of the blighting scales. The prediction was not 

 a vain one. To-day the Meserve orchard is very clean of Lecanium olede, 

 and the ladybirds are marching on. To-day the Olmstead orchard, two 

 miles east of Pomona, is just where the Meserve orchard was two years 

 •ago. I fully believe that the Chilocorus would clean it of its destroy- 

 ers, but they are too tardy to be wholly satisfactory, as the orchard 

 would surfer seriously before the scales were all destroyed. It was my 

 happy privilege to liberate in that orchard not long since over one 

 thousand of the more fecund Rhizobius ventralis, hoping and expecting 

 that the fight might be thus made more brisk and the sooner termina- 

 ted. I am happy to say that I have found these latter breeding, and I 

 expect much of them. 



We see, however, that our own native twice-stabbed ladybird is 

 enough and too much for the black scale, and if they were introduced 

 in goodly numbers, a not very difficult task, into any orchard as soon 

 as the black scale was observed, we cannot doubt the speedy discomfit- 

 ure of our foes. Is it not more than probable, then, that the wise and 

 timely distribution of Chilocorus would be hardly less a godsend to our 

 orchards than the introduction of the more prolific, and so more 

 speedily effective, Australian species of ladybirds? With an equal start 

 our own ladybirds would be sufficient. In an orchard already in full 

 possession of the enemy we need a more active soldiery. 



A few years ago, a species of Lecanium, very similar to Lecanium 

 olese and Lecanium pruinosum, attacked the forest trees of Michigan. 

 For three years their numbers and mischief grew, until it seemed that 

 many of our most valued forest trees, to wit: linden, maple, tulip, 

 hickory, etc., were surely doomed. This third year a minute Chalcid fly 

 was discovered, which was observed to be distancing its victim, the 

 scale, in the race of prolificness. In an address that autumn before the 

 American Pomological Society — the same that is to honor our State 

 with its presence the coming winter — I predicted that the scale 

 which was then menacing the very existence of our grand forests was in 

 course of speedy extinction. So well did I reckon the ability of the 

 Chalcid hosts, that two years later I could with the greatest difficulty 

 find specimens of the scale to show my class. Two years before there 

 were countless millions, now there was scarce one to be found. I have 

 wished ever since that these Chalcids might be turned loose in the 

 scale-infested orchards of California. True, they might be fastidious 

 and refuse a banquet of black scales, but I should not expect it, and I 

 confess to you that one of the chief inducements that led me to leave a 

 delightful home and work in Michigan was the hope that I -might be 

 so happy as to aid in the introduction of this scale-devouring Chalcid 

 in the manaced orchards of the Golden State. 



In the summer of 1889, the wheat crop of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana 

 was attacked by millions of the grain aphis, Siphonophora avense. It 

 seems as if the entire crop was doomed to utter destruction. All at 

 once the aphids were attacked by a minute Brachonid fly, new to 

 science, which I described as Aphidius granariaphis. In a bulletin 

 which I issued July 10, 1889, we find: "Ten days ago, June 30th, the 



