The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-22
Great Activity Being shown by EntO-
m~OIogists I'm Studying the
Creature.
VAST REPRODUCTIVE POWERS
SINCE FIRST APPEARANCE 1T HAS
SPREAD RAPIDLY AND WIDELY.
Recommendation of the Department
of Agriculture for Winter Work
Parasites from pan
,or-resrsndsnce Of the indianapolis Journal.

tically, for the study of trees in the United
States, has received inquiries from time
to time regarding the San Jose scale and
the best way to get rid of it. Fortunately
the Arboretum is practically free from the
pest, though the trees which it contains
have been brought from every part of the
North Temperate zone; and the director,
Prof. Charles S. Sargent, says that serious
as the ravages of the insect have been
throughout the country it has not been
found necessary for the Arboretum authori-
ties to study it's habits with the same spe-
cial care that has been devoted TO it by
state and national Investigators. TIL scale
has been found in Massachusetts as in
other States, however-as the citizens of
more deeply afflicted localities may find a
melancholy comfort in knowing-and it is
perhaps worth while to make a summary
of the more recent Investigations which
have been carried on regarding II in one
part of the country or another, and espe-
cially of the recommendations as to the
best methods Of DISCRIMINATING it.
No insect, except, perhaps, the Biblical To-
Gust, more generally represents the univer-
sal combat between mar and his insect en-
emies than the San Jose scale. Practically
every deciduous tree-that is to say. every
fruit or nut tree and a majority of the
forest and shade trees. with most of the
allied ornamental shrubs-is liable to its
attack. Its rapid spread from State to
State has been a terror to nurseries, fruit
orchards. private estates and the public
park systems. The invasion, however, has
had some good effects. The presence of
the scale, individually so small as to be
visible only ar MATURITY vet CO rand I'm
development that it has been estimated that
one female will produce 5000, 100000 pro-
geny in a single season, has been the means
of creating boards of horticulture and es-
tablishing careful inspection of trees and
nursery stock in a list of States too long
to enumerate, and has given rise to inves-
LEGATIONS that have greatly extended gen.
eral knowledge of all kinds of injurious in
them. When it is added that the insect
itself, on the authority of the latest cir
cular from Washington, may be controlled
and rendered practically harmless, it will
be seen that very possibly the horticultural
interests of the country will in the long ruiz
have been actually benefited.
IN CALIFORNIA FIRST.
The scale, it will be remembered, first at
60 aoRA 0Oo0s
Cal, in 1888, from which it received it's
present name. 1t was more scientifically
christened aspidiotus perniciosus by Prof.
j. H. Comstock, of Cornell University, who
thus classified it as the most pernicious of
all known scale insects. 1t spread rapidly
by its own power or migration-which re-
cent work at the New York agricultural
experiment station has shown to be about
TON ond a holf foot IN civ I4,,r- 80, &c nnA
times its own length, with a period of ac-
tivity lasting from six and one-half hours
to two days-and even more rapidly by the
aid of the wind in carrying infested twigs
and leaves from spot TO spot, and by the
free transportation of larvae. afforded by
birds and larger insects. Also, it moved
from one State to another in shipments of
infected stock-something which legislation
has since made almost impossible. Within
twenty years after its introduction the
scale had been found in all the Pacific
States and on the other side of the conti-
nent, in a territory that, roughly speaking,
includes Texas and Florida as its southern
and lower Ontario and Massachusetts as it's
northern corners. The intermediate district
is practically free from it. Altogether,
however, it affects more than thirty-fve
States. California, it must be remembered
was not alone responsible for it's distribu-
ton. There were two invasions. an Eastern
and a Western. which may be separately
attributed to the Importation of diseased
| stock on either coast.
The scale has been investigated by a
small army of entomologists and the re-
suits of their work point coEclusively to
a likelihood that the insect, although now
firmly settled, will in time be rendered
comparatively harmless by preventive
| measures, as seems TO have been the case
in Japan-where, too, 1t is not at all un-
likely that some parasite may be found
| the importation OF which will largely aid
| the American orchardist in combating it.
If the difficulties attending an intimate
| investigation of SO small an insect the
work recently begun at the New York
station at Geneva may be cited as an ex-
ample. Here the task of s~egregating the
| Gales for the purpose of study has been
solved by two methods. On the trunk of
small trees Or the limbs of larger ones
| bands OF cotton wool keep the insect
| within specified limits. On larger sur
faces cells are made by cementing glass
or metal rings-the ordinary half-incn
Lrass curtain ring, for example-to the
bark or fruit with melted p~aratfin, over
| which are fastened in the same manner
thin circular cover glasses, such as are
used i'm microscopic work. In such cells,
10 which minute perfOrat ions in the wax
| admit air, a single female scale can be
isolated and her offspring easily counted
and studied, or a single larva can be kept
under constant observation.
REMEDIES SUGGESTED.
In these and other ways the entomolo-
gists have been able to get at the habits
| of the scale in an unusually thorough way,
and the search for means of protection
has been greatly extended. The various
remedies proposed differ widely. In the
treatment OF nursery stock ii has been
| generally deemed wise-it is in fact the
| consensus of opinion OF the various sta
tions and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the owner to
burn all infected stock and to fumigate
everything sent out from his nursery. In
the case of large orchards and parks this
plan lacks interest. The effort TO fumigate
large trees with hydrocyanic gas. first in
| closing them in great tents. was one of the
earlier remedies in California. bat so far
il has proved expensive and uncertain.
The question has been reduced practically
to the finding of a wash which will destroy
the scale and yet not injure the tree TO
which II Is applied. or such washes two
kinds have stood the test OF practical re-
suits and are described in the latest cir
o~far 90 the Denarfrnauf Of Agriculture