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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE SAN JOSE SCALE AS IT APPEARS ON THE BARK 



The small white dots are the young scale insects, 

 and the larger shell-like objects are the full-grown scales. 

 The insect lies beneath this shell-like covering, and is 

 thus protected from parasitic enemies and from any 

 except strong-killing washes. 



was due to the introduction in 

 the East on nursery stock of the 

 San Jose scale in the early cp's. 

 The failure to reach an agree- 

 ment as to suitable legislation 

 among the nurserymen, fruit- 

 growers, and entomologists pre- 

 vented anything coming from 

 this effort, although several bills 

 were introduced in Congress 

 from time to time. In the 

 meanwhile the San Jose scale 

 became so widely distributed by 

 transportation on infested nurs- 

 ery stock that quarantine against 

 this insect was no longer practi- 

 cable, and the country is now 

 being taxed, and probably will 

 be for all time, many millions of 

 dollars annually in consequence 

 of the absence of any law under 

 which strong hold could have 

 been taken of this danger at the 

 outset. 



CRIMINAL CARELESSNESS 



The present effort to secure 

 legislation resulted from the dis- 

 covery two years ago of the 

 introduction of enormous quan- 

 tities of brown-tail moth nests, 

 full of hibernating larvae, on 

 seedling fruit stock, chiefly from 

 northern France. With these 

 were occasional egg-masses of 

 the gypsy moth. During the 

 years 1909 and 1910 such in- 

 fested stock was sent to no less 

 than 22 different States, cover- 

 ing the country from the At- 

 lantic seaboard to the Rocky 

 Mountains. During the first of 

 these years no less than 7,000 

 winter nests of the brown-tail 

 moth, containing approximately 

 2,800,000 larvae, were found in 

 shipments to New York State 

 alone — seed material enough to 

 infest the whole United States 

 within a few years. 



So far as possible, this stock 

 sent to the different States has 

 been examined and the brown- 

 tail moth nests removed and de- 



