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APPENDIX B. 



REPORTS OF ALEXANDER CRAW, 



Entomologist and Quarantine Officer of State Board of Horticulture. 



To the Honorable State Board of Horticulture: 



Gentlemen: The hostilities between China and Japan have checked 

 to a great extent the arrival of plants and trees from those countries. 

 The passenger travel has fallen off since the outbreak of the war, and 

 consequently less plants than formerly have been brought in this way. 

 The season for the introduction of nursery stock for commercial pur- 

 poses has just opened, and the last two steamers had large invoices on 

 board. It is gratifying to note a very great improvement in the freedom 

 of such stock from pests and diseases. 



The use of cyanide of potassium (98 per cent) for fumigating is very 

 much more satisfactory than with the 60 per cent. I had quite fre- 

 quently to order a third and even a fourth fumigation with the 60 per 

 cent grade, before I would release the stock. The injury by the hydro- 

 cyanic acid gas to certain stock is perceptibly lessened, and only in one 

 instance have I been compelled to order a second gasing. 



The white scale that I have found at different times upon peach and 

 plum trees from Japan, appears to be one of the most serious scale pests 

 that attack deciduous trees. So far as I am aware this pest has not 

 been found in the orchards of this State, but it has created alarm in the 

 Eastern and Southern States, because of the failure of the best known 

 washes or insecticides to kill them. Seedling peach trees in the grounds 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C, 

 were found badly affected by this scale (Diaspis lanatus, Morgan and 

 Cockerell) in 1892. Experiments conducted by the Department of Ento- 

 mology demonstrated that it is proof against the usual strength of lime, 

 sulphur, and salt, also the rosin solution and kerosene emulsion. Even 

 a very strong solution of either the above well-known remedies only 

 killed a small proportion of the pest. There is some uncertainty about 

 the nativity of this species. A gentleman at Molino, Fla., noticed it 

 upon some peach and plum trees received from California in February, 

 1888, after the trees had been planted one year. Up to June, 1893, he 

 had no doubt that he had brought the scale from California, but during 

 that month he found the scale eighty miles east of his place, and he was 

 informed that no trees had been received in that vicinity from California. 

 This would seem to settle beyond a doubt that it must have been 

 found upon some other trees and spread to the California stock at Molino. 

 However, I have written to the gentleman to ascertain where he pur- 

 chased the trees, although I feel satisfied that he was mistaken, for such 

 a serious pest would have been sure to have come under my notice before 



