THE SAN JOSE SCALE IN 1896-1897. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Bulletin No. 3, Xew Series, of this Division, entitled. "The San Jose 
Scale: Its Occurrences in the United States, with a full account of Its 
Life History and the Remedies to be Used Against It,'' was published 
in January, 1896, and contains a reasonably full history of the eastern 
occurrences of this insect down to the close of November, 1895. The 
demand for this bulletin has been so great that the first edition has been 
exhausted and a new one has just been printed. Inasmuch as the infor- 
mation contained in the bulletin is authoritative and complete down to 
the close of the year 1895, it has not been deemed necessary to publish a 
revised edition. The statements which it contains regarding life history 
and other important topics have stood the test of two years' scrutiny, and 
all that seems necessary is the bringing together of additional informa- 
tion which has resulted from two years' work on the part of a majority 
of the official economic entomologists of the country. Never in the 
history of economic entomology in the United States has a single spe- 
cies of insect excited so much interest as has the San Jose scale: and 
in view of the fact that it has aroused the whole fruit-grow ing popula- 
tion of the country to a sense of the value of entomological investiga- 
tions, that it has brought about legislation against injurious insects in 
a number of States, and has almost alone been responsible for an appeal 
for national legislation, participated in not only by the horticulturists 
of the country but by dealers in nursery stock, it may be said that its 
eastern advent has been far from an unmixed evil. Many individuals 
will have suffered, but the sum total of resulting good to the fruit- 
growing interests will eventually have placed the balance on the right 
side. The years 1896 and 1897 have been very active ones on the part 
of State authorities; so much so that further investigation by the 
National Department as to spread, exact localities, and many other 
points has been unnecessary, and it is the purpose of this bulletin sim- 
ply to bring together under convenient heads the results of the general 
work of the two seasons. 
DISTRIBUTION AND PRESBNT CONDITION, 
In the light of what we now know, our actual knowledge of the dis- 
tribution of the San Jose scale in the Mast in the fall of L895 was com- 
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