88 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



It is high time that public attention was called to this question, 

 for from every experiment station and through every publication 

 the warning against the ravages of myriad forms of insect life 

 has been repeated until there is coming a condition of dependence 

 upon the formulas presented and indications of their more 

 extended use in the future. This in itself is a matter for con- 

 gratulation, for it indicates mastery, but it may seriously be ques- 

 tioned to-day whether that mastery must necessarily be gained 

 by the use of agents the sale and use of which is considered so 

 hazardous by the State that special precautions are required to 

 advertise the deadly nature of the contents of every package sold. 



Arsenic is insoluble, and, when used in the form of spray, as 

 the liquid evaporates it remains on the leaf and fruit, also on the 

 ground, as when applied dry, to be blown about by the wind, 

 inhaled into the lungs, always a poison and never to be handled 

 without danger. Years have passed during which the trees have 

 been sprayed frequently each season, and no man can state with 

 any degree of certainty when the danger line is reached through 

 the continued use of Paris green. 



Another phase of the question is that wherever it rests upon 

 a leaf its sole action is to kill. It may be infinitesimal in quan- 

 tity and microscopical in effect, but it is there, and no one can 

 pass through an orchard or potato field where Paris green has 

 been used without finding ample evidence of its death dealing 

 power. It will be well if we remember that whatever destroys 

 or retards the perfection of the leaf, in just that ratio prevents 

 perfect fruitage as well as growth of plant or tree. "The leaves 

 of the tree are for the healing of the nation," says the good 

 book, and that the leaves may heal by and through the service 

 they render as lungs to the tree and food collectors for the per- 

 fection of fruit, they must be preserved intact to the full harvest 

 time. By the use of solutions for spraying, or dry applications 

 having arsenic as their base, this perfection of leaf-life is impos- 

 sible and, as a certain result, fruitage is imperfect. 



Because we get fruit from our trees and potatoes from the 

 ground after using these arsenical agents to destroy insects or 

 bugs we overlook the fact of injury, or reduced crops, of decreas- 

 ing vitality, of weakened life of leaf, of early decay and drop- 

 ping, and a lower grade of quality ; yet these are the conditions 

 recorded by the growers who ask whence and why should these 



