28 INSECTS NOXIOUS TO AGRICULTURE. 
many insects and scales, and may do the tree itself some good 
by cleaning off fungus-growths and incrustations, yet it neces- 
sarily fails to destroy all the eggs, and in consequence the work 
is only half done. Any one who wishes to extirpate Coccids must 
make certain that he has destroyed the eggs-—a fact which is quite 
ignored by numbers of those who glibly ‘talk of their own suc- 
cess, and blame the advice of others. The object being, there- 
fore, twofold, the operation should be performed with a hard, stiff 
brush dipped in one of the fluids recommended below; and care 
should be taken that there is no part of the trunk or branches 
escaping untouched. In fact, what should be aimed at is a 
kind of painting of the tree, but with a thin coating of the fluid, 
so as to close the pores as little as may be; while at the same 
time the brush clears away as many as possible of the “ scales ” 
and their enclosed broods of insects and eggs. 
Bearing in mind what has been said just now of the want of 
certainty 1 any remedy whatsoever, the tree-grower who follows 
these directions will most likely find his work successful and 
his deciduous plants cleaned of ‘“ scale” on the bark. 
A second method may be adopted—namely, the painting- 
over of the trunk and branches, without attempting to forcibly 
detach any “ scales” with the brush. This, properly performed 
and with proper fluids, is likely to be just as efficacious as the 
other, for the fluid should “run m” under the scales, surround 
the eggs, and prevent them from hatching. It gives less trouble 
than the hard brushing, and is cqually destructive to the 
Coccids. It has, however, of course, not’ the same cleaning 
effect upon fungoid growths or incrustations impeding the free 
“respiration ”’ of the plant. 
For deciduous trees, then, such as apple- or pear-trees in an 
orchard, the simple remedy is severe pruning at the dead of 
winter, and the coating of the trees with a destructive fluid, laid 
on with a brush on every part, preferably with a hard brush 
vigorously used, but leaving a thin coat of the fluid on the bark. 
It must be thoroughly understood that, a week or two after the 
first application, the “ scales”? left on the tree should be ex- 
amined, and, if the eggs are not killed, a second coating of the 
fluid should be applied. 
The treatment of evergreen plants, or of plants which are 
attacked both on the bark and leaves, is really the same as the 
above as regards its object, but it necessarily differs in its 
