Worth Untold Millions

"Thcy are not much to look at, but hey do their work in good style." Alexander Crow, entomologist oí the state board of horticultura, was looking very close ly and with evident s;:tisfaeion at what appeared to the naked eye is minute species of dust on a piíee of fiase :s he made the remark, and passed ;he fjlass to a San Francisco Examiner reporter. "What s if.1' "Let me put t'ais slide ander tho mieroscope and then see for yourself." 1 (ndör the glass the tiny speek, hardly visible to the aaked eye, beeame a well leveli ! ■! fly, about as large as a horsely, with two pairs oí winys. three pairs of le;:s and a pair of antennaB. The win;;'s were covered with long, bristly ïairs, and the legfs terminated each with a pair of pincer-like claws. If small, it was evident that the little felow u;is amply prepared to do battle !or life. "It's a fly, sure, but what is it good for?" "Next to the vedolia, it is, perhaps, ;he most valuable insect known in Cali!ornia." continued Mr. C'row. "This ittle fly, for which we have yet no aamu, but wlfieh belongs to the Chalcid lamily, is the natural foe of what is inown as the yellovv or San Gabriel scale. Each female will lay probably from fifty to one hundred eggs, and ihose eg'gs develop larva; that feed upon ;he scale insect. The female is furnished with a sharp stingerlike oviposr. This ahe thrusts undur a scale insect, and deposits an eg,?, which hatches into a vpracious little grub that, assoon as hatched, proceeds to consume its adopted parent. Under the skin ofthe scale insect it passes through íts meta-' morphoses, when it eats its way out a fully developed fly, prepared to lay eg-gs for another generation of j'ellow scale eaters. " ; "It is jsuch a little speek: How dra you ever di cover it'.'" "The orange orchards in San ÍTábriel valley were badly eovered with the yellow scale. The foliage was spar.se aind the fruit ilmost valueless. Before the fruit could be marketed the growers had to put it in lon water trouglis and scrub the scale off with brooms, and then it wus nt clean. So destructive was the pest. in fact, that many orchardists talked oí giving np the business. Mr. CoggsweU ut Sierra Madre had an orchard that w;;s badly infested, and ai'ter awhile it began to improve until the trees i ecaso ■ clean and the fruit excellent. Other orchards in the vicinity showed signs of improvement, and I began t: look for the canse, when close observation showed this little i'ellow at work. Proi. Coquilette had lilso discovered it and a study of it.s habits has shown it to be the natura! remedy, and I believe the only remedy, for the destructive ycilow scale. "Why," continued Mr. Crow, becoming entnusiastic. "that minute speek is worth untold millioiió to tliis state.'"