56 THE SAX JOSE OR CHINESE SCALE. 
MEANS OF DISTRIBUTION. 
From an economic standpoint the important considerations in the 
means of spread of this insect are those which affect its wide distribu- 
tion from one part of the country to another. The transportation by 
nursery stock or scions or budding and grafting material, as indicated 
in the foregoing account of this insect, is unquestionably the usual 
and principal means of carrying the insect to a distance. The impor- 
tance of this means of distributing various insects has only been fully 
realized in this country in the last few years, but the present instance 
and some other notable ones of like nature have emphasized the great 
danger incurred not only in the indiscriminate introduction of plants 
from foreign sources, but also in the carriage of plant- from one part 
of the country to another without competent inspection. 
The San Jose scale is also frequently carried about on fruit, par- 
ticularly of the apple and pear. The young scale insect goes out on 
the fruit, and in the case of badly infested trees there is usually a good 
deal of scale on the fruit particularly, massed at the blossom and stem 
ends. The scale may go on breeding on such fruit and the young may 
be found crawling about on the fruit and in the boxes. Such fruit is 
commonly shipped to remote points, and infested fruit may be found 
quite commonly in the markets of this country; and when attention 
was drawn to the San Jose scale by its first developing in the East, 
infested fruit from California could be found in almost any of the 
fruit markets of the principal eastern cities. 
The shipping of infested fruit from California had been going on 
for a great many years, and in spite of its wide dissemination in this 
country, and to some extent abroad, there is not. so far as the writer 
know-, a -ingle authenticated instance of the scale having been estab- 
lished from such material. The possibility of it. however, undoubt- 
edly exists, but the danger seems to be inconsiderable. The fruit is 
eaten in such places and the parings and waste material are usually 
disposed of in such a way that it would be very exceptional indeed for 
such fruit, or the young scale that might hatch on them, to get access 
to trees on which the scale could make lodgment. It would practi- 
cally be necessary for the parings to be tied to a tree, or the fruit to 
be placed in the crotches of the tree, to secure infestation, and it is 
the belief of the writer that infestation from this source can be prac- 
tically ignored. This has an important bearing on the Legislation 
against American fruits enacted by various foreign countries, and cer- 
tainly the history in this regard in the United State- i- well worth 
considering where such fruit wa- shipped about for years prior to the 
San Jose scale -care without restrictions. The wide distribution. 
therefore, of the San Jose scale is substantially limited to it- carriage 
on Dursery stock and cuttings. 
