CITRUS FRUIT INSECTS IN MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES. 13 
coast counties in southern California, where the same scale is most 
important as a pest. The "Ribera," or section south of Valencia, is 
hilly and rolling and is separated from the sea by hills and mountains. 
The direct sea influence is, therefore, not so pronounced, and the 
black scale is not so generally injurious. The influence of the sea 
consists in moderating the effect of the summer heat, which, if too 
intense, results in a wholesale mortality of the young scales, in which 
stage the scale is largely found during the summer months. 
The black scale is also more or less abundant in localities farther 
south, as Murcia, Malaga, and Seville. But in these sections, which 
are still farther removed from the sea, the black scale is not so im- 
portant a pest as is Crysomphalus dictyospermi. 
The washing of oranges in Spain consists in rubbing each individual 
fruit, first in wet, and then in dry sawdust, the latter both to hasten 
the drying and to complete the cleaning. It is not a bad system so far 
as results are concerned, and, with the low price of labor (20 cents a 
day for women), the expense is no greater and probably much less 
than with the use of machinery as with us. The sawdust method, 
however, leaves more traces of the mold in the small depressions of 
the fruit than does our machine with brushes. When attention was 
called by the writer to the absence of any aseptic agent in the water 
used in dampening the sawdust — and it is used over and over again — 
the reply was evoked that there is no better disinfecting agent than 
ordinary sea water. But the writer was not sure that sea water was 
being used, and he was very certain it was not in many places. The 
amount of fruit receiving the sawdust treatment varied from 25 per 
cent to more than 90 per cent in most of the packing houses visited. 
The washing of the fruit, according to Spanish standards, is 
regarded simply as one of the regular practices of the packing house, 
and is not an expense generally attributed to the black scale or any 
other insect. In fact, no one was seen in Spain who considered that 
the sooty-mold fungus 1 was in any way related to the black scale. 
It was for this reason that the statement appears at the beginning of 
this discussion that the black scale is considered by the writer to be 
the most important pest in the Valencia section, ' ' according to our 
standards." According to Spanish standards it is no pest at all, 
chiefly because the insect and its important effect, the sooty-mold 
fungus, are not generally considered as in any way related. 
But the injury by the black- scale in the Valencia section is not 
due entirely to the presence of mold on the fruit. When such severe 
infestations occur as were frequently seen, the tree itself suffers. 
Small twigs are killed, and the coating of mold over the leaf, branch, 
and fruit not only interferes with the functions of the tree, but the 
fruit itself is deficient in sweetness and flavor. 
1 Spanish, Negrilla. 
