INDUSTRIES DEPENDING ON PLANT PRODUCTS 



1837 



In Northern Italy the average production of a cow is 700 galls ; the 

 average weight of the animals is 8 to 10 cwts., and the average price of 

 hay is 4s to 5s per cwt. so that the price per gallon is 



12 X 9 X 54 

 700 



+ 25 % 



^•3 + 25 % = 10.4^. 



In Central and Southern Italy the production is only 460 galls, the ani- 

 mals are larger and hay is scarce and dear, so that the cost per gallon is 

 frequently twice as high as in the north. 



AGRICUI^TURAI, INDUSTRIES. 



1319 - Lead Arsenate in Vine Culture (i). — Muttelet C. G., in Annates des Falsifications 

 Nos. y I and 95, pp. 2')!S-3oi. I'aris, August and vSeptember 1916. 



The use of arsenical insecticides, and especially of lead arsenate is on 

 the increase among vine growers, now that their efficienc}^ is realised. Opi- 

 nions differs as to the best period for applying them ; some say it would be 

 wiser not to treat the vines after the formation of the grapes, while others 

 say that no satisfactory results can be obtained unless the treatment is con- 

 tinued until after the flowerimg is over and the seeds are formed. 



It is entirely from the point of view of public safety that the question 

 has been examined, — to see in what proportion the poisonous salts of lead, 

 arsenic, and copper are found to exist in the produce of vines which have un- 

 dergone one or other treatment. 



The Central Laboratory for the Repression of Fraud has received wines 

 from the Clos des Pins at Cournonterral in Herault, where the vines undergo 

 an intense and prolonged treatment with arsenical insecticides. It has been 

 the custom to give them 4 dressings between the bursting of the bud and 

 the end of the flowering, a sixth when the grapes have attained a third of 

 their normal size, and a seventh before the maturation of the colour. Besides 

 the dressings with lead arsenate, the stocks were powdered with sulpho- 

 steatite containing 10 percent of copper sulphate, or with a mixture of sul- 

 phur and copper sulphate in the proportion of g to i. 



From the end of June 1915, till the vintage there was no rain, traces of 

 the sixth arsenical treatment could still be seen on the leaves, and on the 

 soil blackened by the sulphuring. 



INDUSTRIES 

 DEPENDING 

 ON PL.-VNT 

 PRODUCTS 



(i) vSee also R. July 1916. 795. 



(£</.) 



