10 THE SAX JOSE OR CHIXESE SCALE. 
first sign of infestation is found. Fruit growers and others interested 
have come to accept this conclusion and are facing the San Jose scale 
problem as one to be regularly dealt with, as with other established 
insect enemies of fruits. The range of food plants of this scale is so 
great that local extermination is out of the question, and it is recog- 
nized as useless to destro} T orchards or new stock because of slight 
infestation. The San Jose scale will have so soon gained foothold on 
many ornamental and wild plants that such destruction of orchards 
would be of no avail, and new stock would be very quickly reinfected 
from near-by sources. 
ORIGIN OF THE INSECT. 
The -San Jose scale was first established in this country in the early 
seventies at San Jose, Cal., in the grounds of Mr. James Lick. 
Following the studies of Professor Comstock of this pest in Cali- 
fornia in 1880, efforts have been made to determine whence the original 
infestation came; in other words, to locate the native home of this 
insect. The importance of discovering the origin of this scale arises 
from the now well-known fact that where an insect is native it is nor- 
mally kept in check and prevented from assuming any very destructive 
features, or at least maintaining such conditions over a very long time, 
by natural enemies, either parasitic or predaceous insects or fungous 
or other diseases. Mr. Lick, in whose orchard the scale first appeared, 
was a great lover of plants, and imported trees and shrubs for the 
ornamentation of his grounds from foreign countries, and it was very 
naturally inferred that in some of these importations he had intro- 
duced this insect. Before this investigation started, however, Mr. 
Lick had died, and it was impossible to trace his importations. That 
the scale was not European in origin was evident; otherwise it would 
undoubtedly have come to this country long before with the numerous 
importations of stock from Europe. Its original home was therefore 
naturally placed in some eastern country. In the course of the inves- 
tigation it was found that the San Jose scale occurred in the Hawaiian 
Islands, in Chile, in Japan, and in Australia/' In the ease of the 
Hawaiian Islands it was conclusively shown, however, that it had been 
carried there on stock from California. The evidence relating to Chile 
and Australia was of a similar nature — namely, that it had come to 
those countries comparative \y recently on imported stock. Its occur- 
rence in Japan was not discovered until 1897, and the evidence was far 
from being conclusive that it was indigenous in that country; never- 
theless the belief that Japan was the source of this scale came to be 
rather generally accepted. The objections to it wen 1 voiced by Doctor 
Howard and the writer in an article read before the Association of 
aSee Bui. No. :;, new series, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Amir., pp. LO-12, L896. 
