488 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



lime-sulphur to obtain "spread," if only it were not so expensive. At (he 

 price of crude saponin, when these tests were carried out, it would add 

 about |].50 to the expense of each fifty-five gallons of lime-sulphur wash 

 diluted ready for use against San Jose scale. The crude saponin, how- 

 ever, was just as good for the purpose as the jntrc obtained from Merck 

 at a cost of more than five times the price of the crude product. Now 

 the dry plant, Saponaria officinaUs or "hounciiig hei" was known to con- 

 tain from thirty to forty per cent of extractives and it occurred to the 

 author that perhaps the plant, itself, could be used in this connection. 

 Bouncing het grows about mauy farm yards, orchards, or gardens, com- 

 ing up year after year from underground stolons. It is quite hardy, es- 

 caping cultivation and growing by roadsides, often, quite thickly. If the 

 plant could be used, therefore, the orchardist might have a plot planted 

 to hoimcing het, and prepare his lime-suljjhur-saponin wash with only 

 the extra expense of cutting, storing and extracting — which need not be 

 great, it was thought. Accordingly, some fjlauts were cut and dried 

 in the early fall and laboratory experiments were carried out to deter- 

 mine whether ''bouncing bet hay" could be used to satisfactorily in- 

 crease the spread of lime-sulphur wasli. Stated briefly, results proved 

 that an excellent lime-sulphur spray mixture, as regards spread, etc., 

 could be obtained by the use of an extract of either the green or the dry 

 stems and leaves of houncJng het. A good method of extraction was as 

 follows: — the plant material was soaked in lime-water over night (12 to 

 18 hours, say) after which it Avas boiled about 30 minutes and then 

 pressed out and strained. Thus an extract was prepared by using the 

 dry stems and leaves of hounciiig het at the rate of 22n3S. of the plant 

 material and 151bs.* of freshly slacked lime to 50 gallons of water. This 

 extract could be used to dilute concentrated lime-sulphur (of 26° Baume' 

 and up) the required amount for use against San Jose scale; giving the 

 spray mixture a very satisfactory spread. The added lime in the extract 

 should prove useful, also, in assisting the lime-sulphur to soften the wax 

 about the margins of the scale-coverings — in addition to the fact that 

 it serves as a first class marker to show whether all parts of a tree have 

 been covered. 



When extract water from 'bouncing let, prepared as explained above, 

 was used in the place of ordinary water in the old formula (lump lime 

 20 lbs., sulphur flour 15 lbs., water 50 gallons) a homemade wash hav- 

 ing a very high degree of spread resulted. A little of such a homemade 

 wash was filtered, and the number of drops in 5 c. c. of water divided 

 by the number of drops in 5 c. c. of the filtrate equalled 0.72. One home- 

 made lot of lime-sulphur was prepared (in a smaller amount than is 

 called for by the formula) while the plant material was still in the 

 water. The formula follows: lime 20 lbs., sulphur 15 lbs., water 50 gal- 

 lons, and 22 lbs. of the dr}' leaves and stems of bouncing bet to which 

 enough water to wet them thoroughly had first been added. The mix- 

 ture was kept boiling for forty-five minutes, after which the liquid was 

 pressed out, and strained through coarse cheese cloth. The lime-sulphur 

 appeared to have cooked up in good shape and the "drop ratio" for the 

 spray solution was 0.73. 



Whether these suggestions would actually prove profitable in orchard 



•Less lime may be used. It is not absolutely necessary but it assists in softening and 

 digesting the plant and in other ways. 



