48 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 



PEOFESSOR COOK. It is my pleasure to ask Mr. Cundiff to talk 



further on this subject. 



MR. CUNDIFF. In speaking of the yellow scale and the relation it 

 bears to this subject, I can do no better than to relate our experience 

 here in Riverside. When I first became attached to the horticultural 

 force of this county, something like fourteen years ago, the yellow scale 

 Vv^as not regarded as injurious, but the red scale was a very serious pest, 

 and we were fighting it as persistently as possible by fumigation. I 

 want to say now that we always regarded it as a much more resistant 

 scale to fumigation. It required a larger dose of material. 



As I remember, thirteen years ago reports came to us that there was a 

 parasite in the San Gabriel Valley that was attacking the yellow scale 

 and doing good work. Mr. Havens at that time was the commissioner, 

 and he went down and brought up a large amount, of material. With 

 that kind of an internal parasite, it was necessary to bring up the 

 branches and the leaves. I think, perhaps. I had the honor of putting 

 out the first colony that was put out in Riverside, and in orchards 

 w^here it had been costing quite a large sum of money annually to keep 

 the scale down. Many of them we have never fumigated since. It has 

 certainly been a success in the main. There are seasons when, on 

 account of conditions, climatic or otherwise, this chalcid fly does not 

 work as well as at other times. It is not as constant in its work as some 

 other insects. But where it loses out one year, it begins again the next. 

 To such an extent has it been a success that my inspectors have instruc- 

 tions not to take up yello\v scale except in new districts — districts where 

 we have never found any of the red or yellow. In cases of that kind, 

 where we find a few trees, their instructions are to mark them up, and 

 then we fumigate or spray. 



Now, this chalcid fly, being an internal parasite, has to go through 

 transformations under the scale. Take the Eiilecanium, for instance, 

 or the brow^n scale, or the apricot scale, and an insect of that nature can 

 not escape except by eating its way out and perforating the scale. But 

 it is not so with the insects of the same family that attack the diaspidis 

 or armored scales. I have seen many cases where the parasite that 

 attacks the yellow scale was planted everywhere, almost covering the 

 leaves. You could raise the scale and fi.nd a full-fledged mature insect, 

 and the nature of that scale is that after death many of the diaspid 

 scales, as far as I know, do not adhere to the twig or leaf closely, in 

 the same way that the Eiilecanium does. With the Comys fusca, the 

 Eulecanium armeniacum will hold on for months after the eggs are 

 hatched. The red or yellow scale will not do that. It loosens up and 

 gives the parasite an opportunity to emerge through the scale. 



PROFESSOR COOK. I am glad to introduce the next gentleman. 

 He has done us a large amount of good. Mr. ]Maskew is doing good 

 work, and he will discuss this subject as to whether we should continue 

 to import species. 



MR. MASKEW. Ladies and Gentlemen: To give you my opinion 

 of the present status of parasitism throughout the State of California 

 would consist simply of a resume of Llr. Pease's paper. He covered the 



