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fruit growers that injurious insects were destroying their orchards and 

 vineyards. The evil increased in severity and spread over states and 

 countries of the Old World. From these facts it appears to me that 

 Australia is, and has been, the home, the birthplace, of insect life, and 

 that if insect pests have been propagated there and sent abroad, we are 

 to expect, and shall find, parasites in the same locality to follow the 

 movements of the former. 



In the early part of the nineteenth century but few Americans relied, 

 to any great extent, upon importations of nursery stock of either fruits 

 or flowers from foreign countries; but for the last forty years a kind of 

 mania has possessed people in general, and specialists in particular, to 

 vie with each other in owning the largest importations from every 

 country and every clime under the sun. With these additions to our 

 botanical gardens, we have admitted to our homes innumerable insects, 

 hitherto unknown to us, and these, too, of a questionable and in most 

 cases a decidedly objectionable character. These, like the pauper 

 element of our immigration, form the army that we are contending 

 against to-day; and it requires wise and skillful generals, and active, 

 sturdy, and faithful privates in order to win the battle. 



We come now to speak more particularly of the insects which have 

 proved to be such, a scourge to our country in more recent years, and 

 especially to our own State. 



First in the list, I will mention the Icerya purchasi (or cottony 

 cushion scale). I believe Santa Barbara claims the right of settlement 

 or colonization of this plague. It was brought from Australia in the 

 early "seventies," with a small importation of a dozen lemon trees, and 

 in a few years it had covered Southern California and threatened the 

 extinction of our fruit industry. Then followed in quick succession the 

 black scale, the red scale, the yellow scale, the San Jose, the apricot, the 

 soft orange, the hemispherical, the oyster-shell, the convexus, and other 

 scales; the orange aphis, the walnut aphis, and all the known aphides; 

 together with mealy bugs, codlin moths, and other pests, till the brain 

 is confused with the enumeration. California appeared to be doomed 

 as to her fruit culture. 



Remedies were tried, recommended, and required to be used. Thou- 

 sands of dollars were spent in the attempt to fight these evils by artifi- 

 cial means. What were the successes? Let us see. Six years ago 

 to-day, what was the condition of the six southern counties of this State 

 in regard to the Icerya f It had laid waste nearly every citrus orchard 

 and was marching with rapid strides upon all deciduous trees, shrubs, 

 and plants. Mr. Albert Koebele had been sent to Australia to discover, 

 if possible, a parasite for the pest. Not even the "oldest inhabitant" of 

 that far off land knew that such a remedy existed. Mr. Koebele, soon 

 after his arrival, observed some cottony cushion scales, and upon close 

 inspection saw some larva? eating them. He saw some pupae and "lady- 

 bugs" near by. Gathering a few of each, and caring for them a few 

 days, he watched their development, and found that the three were only 

 different conditions of the same insect, and thus he secured for us the 

 Vedalia cardinalis, the savior of our fruits and flowers at that juncture. 



Then the black scale demanded our attention, and that, too, with 

 earnestness. Seeing the defeat of its former rival, it put forth its best 

 efforts to gain the orchard, the field, and the forest, before man could 

 circumvent him. Well nigh did he accomplish his work. The "cold 



