136 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



season in the unfruitfulness, and in many cases in the death, of 

 many of these branches, while the remainder of the tree appeared 

 perfectly healthy, and was loaded with fruit. 



Believing that every such application of poison is injurious to 

 the tree, whether the effects are immediately visible or not, I 

 would urge extreme caution in using no more poison than is 

 absolutely necessary to destroy the insects, and equal care in 

 spraying to distribute evenly, so that every part of the tree re- 

 ceives only its proper share. If the trees are sprayed north and 

 south the first time, by all means let the second spraying be done 

 east and west, the better to distribute the poison equally; the 

 first spraying not to be done until after the bloom has fallen, to 

 save the bees; the second, ten days later. 



Scattered as our fruit growers are all over our State, probably 

 most of them purchase their poisons of retail dealers, and when 

 everything else is so adulterated, how are they to determine 

 whether their Paris Green or London Purple has five, or fifteen, 

 or thirty per cent, of arsenious acid, or whether their arsenic is 

 fifty or one hundred per cent, pure? Until we have some definite 

 mode of ascertaining the strength of our different poisons used, 

 we need not wonder at the widely different results from the same 

 prescription. 



Instead of this haphazard mode of proceedure, I venture to 

 suggest that the members of this Society (either individually or 

 collectively) might, through one of their officers or agents, con- 

 tract with some responsible wholesale druggist for such poisons 

 as might be ordered (cash to accompany order) within a given 

 time, to be put up in five, ten or twenty-five pound parcels, 

 actual weight and exact per cent, of arsenious acid to be guaran- 

 teed in "plain English" on the outside of every parcel, and sent 

 direct by express to wherever ordered. Whether the cost would 

 be a few cents more or less to each individual would be a matter 

 of small consequence compared with the loss of his crop from 

 using an insufficient amount of the poison, or (what is more 

 likely to happen) his trees are injured by an overdose. 



In either case the mistake is discovered too late to be rem- 

 edied, and the next experiment is quite as likely to be unsatis- 

 factory for want of the same knowledge. 



Hoping these few suggestions may receive your favoroble con- 

 sideration, and that you will remember the thousands of 

 orchardists in our State who lose at least one-half of all their 

 fruit by injurious insects, I hope this season will not be allowed 

 to close without pointing out clearly how so great a loss may be 

 safely averted. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Dennis — I have seen statements with regard to foliage be- 

 ing killed late in the season when the leaves were more mature. 



