THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



41 



and after waiting- a number of years for them to be acclimated to our 

 drier and hotter interior climate we were forced to give them np and 

 again resort to fumigation and spraying- to relieve the orchards. 



In October of 1901 our hopes were again raised by the report that a 

 new parasite had been discovered in South Africa, and that a lot of 

 oleander cuttings were on the way to our State Commission. The cut- 

 tings arrived and the little fly was bred out — the Scutellisfa cyanca — 

 and after a little time colonies were liberated in Los Angeles County 

 and later were distributed from there over all Southern California. 

 They increased so rapidly that it was commonly thought that finally we 

 had'the right enemy for the black scale, and that the pest was doomed. 

 In two years ' time I saw in our own- county orchards where at least 

 60 per cent of the black scale was parasitized in the month of August, 

 and I, with the rest, thought that our troubles with the black scale 

 were at an end. The following April I looked for a colony, but could 

 not find one. The same results had to be recorded for May. In June I 

 could find a very few. as also in July. In the latter part of August 

 they were very numerous again, but I looked farther this time and I 

 found that while in some instances 60 per cent of the old scale was 

 parasitized, still from 75 to 90 per cent of the young, scale had hatched 

 and was out on the lea\ es and limbs of the trees. After close study of the 

 situation for a year or two I arrived at the following conclusion : The 

 Scutellista is an egg eater only, and as the black scale in the interior 

 counties are practically all hatched out by the first of September of 

 each year and do not commence laying eggs again imtil near the first of 

 May, the Scutellista starve out between September 1st and May 1st. I 

 have, however, seen some good work done by the Scutellista along the 

 coast. In Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, within one or two miles 

 of the ocean, the olive trees are the cleanest that I have ever seen, and 

 this result was accomplished by the Scutellista; but on one place I saw 

 that the olive trees were green, while just across a driveway the lemons 

 w^ere quite badly affected with the black scale. This desirable condition 

 along the coast may be, I think, attributed to the fact that the black 

 scale have in some places more than one brood a year, and that Leca- 

 Ttium hemisphaericum. w^hich is very plentiful there, breeds in the 

 same way, and thus more of the Scutellista are carried over the winter 

 and are ready to work on the first eggs produced by either the black or 

 hemispherical scales in the spring. At the present time the State 

 Commission is trying to establish a body parasite for this pest, and we 

 continue to hope that the efforts in this line will finally be rev.^arded 

 with success. 



The yellow scale {Chrysomphalus aoiniclum citrinus) was first known 

 as the San Gabriel red scale on account of its lighter shade of color. 

 In fact, until very recently it was considered by the Department of 

 Agriculture as a variation of the red scale. Its habits, however, are 

 different, as the red scale infests the leaf, limb and fruit, while the 

 yellow is seldom seen on the limb, but only on the leaf and fruit. For 

 years this scale has been credited with having a parasite that would 

 check it to the extent that it would no longer injure the orchards. 

 Individually, I have had occasion to look up this scale 'very closely. It 

 was introduced into a part of our county not infested with any other 

 scale, so that it could not be confounded with others. It was reported 



