70 THE SAN JOSE OR CHINESE SCALE. 
which Professor Rolfs, of the Florida experiment station, identified 
and discust at length in Bulletin -±1 of that station, published in 
1897. This disease is common to other species of scale insects, is 
widely distributed in Florida and elsewhere in the Southern States. 
and was found to attack the San Jose scale in Florida very efficiently. 
As outlined by Professor Rolfs, a San Jose scale attacked by this 
fungus is usually transformed into a mass of mycelia before there is 
any external appearance of change. When the body of the insect has 
been consumed a bright, orange-colored protuberance forms at the 
base of the scale, or at times it breaks thru the protecting cover of the 
insect. This orange-colored protuberance is the most conspicuous 
part of the fungus and the only portion visible to the unaided eve. 
It varies in size from an eighth to a fortieth of an inch. Those that 
average about one-sixteenth of an inch are most abundant under favor- 
able conditions. These protuberances are the spore-bearing bodies. 
and contain spores in great numbers. These orange-colored spore- 
bearing bodies are developed and mature within six weeks from the 
time of infection, and countless numbers of spores are liberated from 
them during rains and are washed down the trees and sometimes to 
the ground. Other and smaller spore bodies are eventually produced 
from the germination of these, and are carried about by the air or 
other means, and thus extend the infection. The biology of this 
fungus is rather technical and complicated, and need not be gone into 
in detail." 
Professor Rolfs demonstrated experimentally that this fungus could 
be transferred from tree to tree artificially. His process was to inocu- 
late acid bread with pure cultures of the fungus, and three weeks later 
to break up a piece of bread about an inch square in cold water, and 
apply to a scaty tree by means of a sponge or cloth or by spraying. 
The applications were made in midsummer, and the observations as to 
results late in February. Out of eight experiments four were success- 
ful, three unsuccessful, and one doubtful, the tree having in the mean- 
time died. A'good deal of interest was aroused by this publication 
of Professor Rolfs's, and experiments with this fungus were made in 
Georgia and by entomologists to whom cultures were distributed in 
the North and West. The results from these experiments in the more 
northern regions were not, as a rule, very satisfactory, and the fun- 
gus has not demonstrated great practical merit outside of Florida and 
perhaps southern Georgia. Undoubtedly, however, it is a very valu- 
able aid in the control of the San Jose scale thruout the Gulf region, 
where high temperatures associated with sufficient humidity occur. 
The most careful experimental work with this fungus was that con- 
ducted by Prof. J. B. Smith in New Jersey. While nearly all the 
«SeeBul. No. 41, Florida Agric. Exp. Sta., 1897. 
