140 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



Mr. HoTvard : How strong a solution of soft soap and water can you use 

 safely ? 



Mr. Moody : Half soap and half water. 



Prof. Cook : You can safely use clear soap. 



Mr. Shaw read from p. 331 U. 8. Report Department of Agriculture for 

 1884, as follows : 



It can not be too strongly impressed upon all who use kerosene as an insecti- 

 cide that it can be considered a safe remedy only when properly emulsified. 



The formula for the kerosene and soap emulsion as found most satisfactory 

 by Mr. Hubbard is as follows : 



Kerosene 2 gallons — 67 per cent. 



Common soap or whale oil soap i pound ) oo j. 



Water "^ .'^.... 1 gallon [ "^^ P«^ ^«^*- 



Heat the solution of soap and add it boiling hot to the kerosene. Churn the 

 mixture by means of a force pump and spray nozzle for five or ten minutes. 

 The emulsion, if perfect, forms a cream which thickens on cooling and should 

 adhere without oiliness to the surface of the glass. 



Dilute, before using, one part of the emulsion with nine parts of cold water. 

 The above formula gives three gallons of emulsion and makes when diluted 

 thirty gallons of wash. 



The kerosene and soap mixture, especially when the latter is warmed, forms 

 upon very moderate agitation, an apparent union; but the mixture is not 

 stable, and separates on standing or when cooled or diluted by the addition of 

 water. 



A proper emulsion of kerosene is obtained only upon violent agitation. It 

 is formed not gradually, but suddenly ; in short, to use a familiar phrase, " it 

 comes" like butter. The time required in churning depends somewhat upon 

 the violence of the agitation, but still more upon the temperature, which how- 

 ever need not be much above blood heat. 



Prof. Cook : We have never found that a proportion of one part kerosene to 

 five parts of water would hurt foliage at all if a perfect emulsion was made. 



Mr. Morse : I would like to ask what will kill the cut worms that attack our 

 corn fields? 



Prof. Cook: I wish we knew better than we do. The wire worm and cut 

 worm are tough customers. London purple or Paris green would kill them if 

 we can persuade them to eat it. I would recommend the trial of this plan just 

 as the corn is sprouting. Cultivate the ground very clean, and then spread 

 here and there bunches of freshly cut grass sprinkled with the poison, I 

 believe that it would do the work. I know that on a clean garden soil such 

 Avads of grass cause the cut worms to gather in large numbers under them. 



Mr : Would it not be well to invert the bunches of grass after sprink- 

 ling the poison on them, so as to bring it where the worms are? 



Prof. Cook: Probably. The eggs from which cut worms are hatched are 

 always laid in sod, and cut worms are always worse in corn that is planted 

 where a sod has been plowed under. Perhaps fall plowing would be useful — 

 not to freeze the worms, for that won't hurt them. I have frozen them as hard 

 as an icicle, and when they warm up they are as lively as ever. But fall plow- 

 ing and spring harrowing exposes tiiem to the birds. Why not plant corn by 

 drill, using a good deal of seed — two or three for the blackbirds, three or four 

 for the crows, five or six for the cut worms, and three or four to grow. Then 

 go around, and where you find the corn cut off the creature is there, just under 

 the surface, dig him out. 



