192 



Brown Eot of the grape (^Peronospora viticola), in the vineyard of Mr. J, Lowe; and 

 where, in the year 1890, hundreds of pounds of grapes were destroyed, this year, 

 when treated three times, there were not 10 lbs. of diseased grapes. The use of the 

 Bordeaux mixture in the treatment of the Potato Eot has proved also satisfactory, 

 and I hope duiing the present season to have facilities for proving to farmers the 

 good effects of this simple remedy. 



I have the honour to he, Sir, 



Tour obedient servant, 



JAMES FLETCHER, 



Entomologist and Botanist 

 to Dominion Experimental Farms. 



DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



SPRAYING WITH THE ARSENITES. 



The great improvement in the quality of American and Canadian fruit, con- 

 sequent on the adoption of spraying with the arsenites, is very remarkable. Two 

 years ago, through the efforts of Miss E. A. Ormerod, largely helped by the sudden 

 appearance of vast numbers of caterpillars in the orchards of the south of England, 

 the English fruit-growers learnt and quickly adopted this method of fighting leaf- 

 eating insects. Anything so successful as this at once proved to be was naturally 

 taken up leadily, and now Miss Ormerod informs me there are numberless spraying 

 machines and patent remedies in the market, all of which owe their existence to the 

 introduction of Paris Green. Mr, C. D. Wise, the manager of the large fruit farm at 

 Toddington, Winchcomb, Gloucestershire, England, writes me under date 19th 

 May, 1890 : " We have tried many experiments this season with various insecticides, 

 including Paris Green and London Purple, and we have found that Paris Green is 

 undoubtedly the best. London Purple is inclined to scorch the foliage. Our 

 prospects for fruit this season are on the whole very good, and I think we have fairly 

 overcome the catei'pillar, thanks to greasing the trees in the autumn and the use of 

 Paris Green for the past three or four weeks." 



Quite recently a London, England, paper, which styles itself a " high-class 

 weekly review," has gained for itself an unenviable notoriety by publishing some 

 untrue and very absurb sensational articles under the heading '* Arsenic in 

 American Apples." The first of these was widely copied in the English press and 

 commented upon by the pi ess of this country. It is possible that these articles, 

 having been so widely copied, may have affected temporarily the sale of American 

 apples in the English maiket ; but the English are not as a rule a very gullible race, 

 and particularly is this the case when by such credulity they would be deprived of 

 the very best quality of a commodity which they wish for, and which their common 

 sense will assure them may be safely indulged in, until such time as the safety is 

 proved to them positively by chemical analysis. In a later issue this paper makes 

 it very clear that its whole object in issuing these articles was to get cheap adver- 

 tisement from its contemporaries. The following headings in this very article speak 

 for themselves: " Our allegations as to the poisonous nature of American apples 

 arrest the attention of dusky fruit-growers in the banana groves of India." — " Our 

 articles appear and are commented upon by the press of every country under the 

 sun." — " We have no doubt we shall be able not only to claim but to prove that our 

 articles hnye encircled the earth." — "We claim that we have a world-wide cii-culation." 



There are several misstatements made, such as the following : " The use of 

 poisonous insecticides by American fruit-growers is upon the increase. They apply 

 them to all kinds of fruits grown, and to such an extent that the authorities have 

 again and again protested " — (N.B — We are not told where) — "against the If^nger 

 of the nature of the compounds used. Why, only recently, the New York City 



