44 



TPIIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. Prof. A. J. Cook, of Claremont Colleao. 

 connected with the biological work, will lead the discussion. 



PROF. A. J. COOK. Ladies and Gentlemen: The subject of the 

 red scale and yellow scale is one of very ^reat interest. In our section 

 we have no red scale immediately around Claremont, but we have quite 

 a good many of the yellow scale. Our people feel that there is no 

 danger, that we have a parasite that is mentioned by ^Ir. Pease in his 

 admirable paper that will keep that in control. I was in a section a 

 few days ago where the orchards are seriously aifected with this yellow 

 scale, so it seems to me we ought to know something about this scale, 

 so I bethought me that Mr. Bemis, our able commissioner of Los Angeles 

 County, would tell us something about that scale. I will call upon 

 Mr. Bemis, who will give us something on the yellow and red scale. I 

 ask him to do this in about five minutes. 



MR. C. E. BEMIS. Ladies and Gentlemen: Perhaps five minutes is 

 all that is necessary for me to tell all I know about this, but still I 

 believe in my crude way of telling it perhaps I ought to have a little 

 more time. I want to preface what I say by the statement that my 

 experience with these two pests, and any other pests I have a knowledge 

 of, has been acquired entirely within Los Angeles County. As ]\Ir. 

 Pease has said to us many times, the effects of parasites on different 

 scales are quite different in different localities, so that any conclusion 

 I may have arrived at in my knowledge of these two insects might not 

 apply in every case or in other localities. But I would like to say this, 

 that this seems to be rather a new question and always open to different 

 conclusions as to Avhether there are two scales, so-called, the red and 

 the yellow, or whether they are one. 



My belief is that they are two decidedly different and distinct kinds 

 of scale, although they resemble each other almost precisely in appear- 

 ance. I believe I can safely say that they differ enough in appearance, 

 so that any of us who are careful enough in the search for them may he 

 able to determine which is Avliich. whether we ought to be much alarmed 

 about them or little. The worlc of the two scales is so different that 

 they do not come in the same class at all. One of them is practically a 

 harmless insect, and the other is the worst that is known to California. 

 The red scale, as ]\Ir. Pease has said to you, does not confine itself to 

 the fruit or the leaf, but attacks the tree directly from its limbs, and 

 not only the small limbs, but the very large ones. As it grows in size, 

 the infection will finally destroy a considerable portion of the tree, 

 particularly the lower and the northern parts of the tree, so I think 

 the tree could become entirely destroyed by it. 



You never see any such results from the attack of yellow scale — never 

 to my knowledge. I have heard of some cases in the northern citrus 

 district, Avhere they are so much worse than they are down here, that 

 possibly my predictions would not be carried out if you would go up 

 there and look at them. Still, I find men who are familiar with them 

 saying that the yellow scale is almost entirely coniined to the leaf and 

 the fruit in their attack. This being the case, your tree will suft'er 

 simply from the drain from the fruit and leaves. The tree will not 

 materially suffer from the attack of the yelloAV scale, while the red 

 scale can easily kill the tree in time. 



