1900 ] ENTOMOLOGICA L SOCIETY. 61 



ants, Messrs. Newell and Roulebush. This petroleum was taken directly from oil wells 

 at Lodi, Southern Medina county and its chemical composition is shown in " aaalygia 

 A." Different trees vere sprayed with different strengths of the oil, varying from 10 per 

 cent, crude pretroleum and 90 per cent, water, up to 100 per cent, crude petroleum. In 

 no instance were the trees permanently injured. The effect was simply to retard the 

 development of the foliage, until about the middle of May. May 7, many varieties 

 of apples were in full bloom. The Winesap and Rome Beauty were showing their first 

 unfolding blossoms. Strangely enough, the effect was rather more marked where the 10 

 per cent, solution was used. Where we used the 40 per cent, the r itardation was less 

 than where we used the 20 and 50 per cent, crude petroleum ; the eff'act of the 40 per 

 cent, being about the same as the 100 per cent. The 30 per cent, was almost the same 

 in its eff"ects as the 10 and 100 per cent, mixtures. June 13fch, an examination of the 

 trees showed that the normal amount of foliage had been put forth, and the leaves were 

 exceedingly healthy in appearance and seemed larger than those on the unsprayed trees. 

 An examination of the trees the middle of October showed that the first sprayed trees 

 were really holding their foliage better than the unsprayed. Nearly all of the leaves had 

 dropped from the latter while scarcely any had fallen from the sprayed trees. The tree 

 sprayed with the 100 per cent, crude petroleum seemed to have held its foliage better, 

 and the colour was more fresh and vigorous than on those sprayed with the diluted 

 petroleum. 



While all this indicates that crude petroleum may be used once upon apple with a 

 strong probability of no detrimental results occurring from its use, neverttieless, the 

 question is yet to be settled as to whether one or more additional applications will remit 

 in the same way.' It seems to me that this whole matter has not yat reached the p^int 

 where we will be justified in saying to the public it will be safe to use the crade petroleum. 

 The practical que^itiou is not whether an expert ciu me this a? an insecticide witti safety, 

 but whether it can be safely trusted in the hands of inexperienced men who are not 

 trained in exactness of methods or quantities. I do not wish to be understood as in the 

 least denying that there may be something in both crude and refined petroleum that may, 

 in the future, have great value as an insecticide, but that, for the presen*}, we should be 

 content with investigations, and be exceedingly cautious in regard to recommendations 

 until we have at least found out the reason for such widely diverse results being obtained 

 from applications so nearly alike in point of materials and methods. 



It must be remembered that our experiments with crude petroleum at Wooster, 

 Ohio, were made upon seedling apple trees, which, though they might have possessed 

 different degrees of resistibility, might, on the other hand, have been less susceptible 

 than any of. the grafted varieties. The selection of these trees was not a matter of 

 choice, for they were the only ones available at the time. Next year, we shall endeavour 

 to reverse the experiment; that is, where the 10 per cent, mixture was used this year 

 we shall use 100 percent, next year, and vice versa. A large number of experiments 

 are also to be carried out upon diff'drent varieties of apple, in different parts of the State, 

 using different strengths of the crude petroleum. 



Petroleum Distillations. 



A B 



Specific Gravity 35°B 34°B 



Light Naptha, 80°t) 1.49% .14% 



Heavy " SO'' to 120«0 4 35 1.63 



Benzine, 120° to 150«C 5 03 3 82 



Light burning oil, 150° to 200°0 7.64 13 48 



Heavy burning oil, 200° to 250°C 13 54 12 03 



Residue from 250° Dist 68 70 68.62 



100.74% 99.72 

 A, from Lodi, Ohio, well. B, from Gypsum, Ohio. 

 Distillations by J, W. Ames, Asst. Chemist, O.A.E S. 

 B contains sulphur compounds. 



