ENTOMOLOUIOAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 103 



by experts testing for arsenic. If it is found therein, then it may be accepted as the 

 cause of their death. Examination of stomachs of bees collected promiscuously would 

 not be satisfactory, for the statement was made at a recent bee-keepers' convention in 

 Albany that honey bees had been seen eagerly feeding on the liquid resting on the leaves 

 of a potato patch soon after it has been arsenically sprayed, and it was thought to have 

 caused the death of many of the bees. 



Up to the present, so far as I know, no examination such as above suggested has 

 been made. I hope that Prof. Webster will undertake it in the progress of his experi- 

 ments during the coming season. 



Prof. Cook desires that " everyone of the United States should pass a law making 

 it a misdemeanor to spray fruit trees while in blossom." I do not know that this, 

 although urged in some of the States, has been done in any. Such a law was passed by 

 the Ontario Legislature in April, 1890. It provides : 



Sec. 1. No person in spraying or sprinkling fruit trees during the period within which such trees are in 

 full bloom shall use, or cause to be used, any mixture containing Paris green or any other poisonous sub- 

 stance injurious to bees. 



Sec. 2. Imposes a penalty, on conviction, of not less than .?1 or more than $5, with or without costs 

 of prosecution. 



That the above law is calculated to protect the interests of both the fruit-grower and 

 honey-producer is the opinion of Prof. J. H. Panton, of the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 as given in Bulletin lxxxi, of the College, issued in November, 1892. He remarks : 



Although there has been no analysis of the bodies of the dead bees for the purpose of ascertaining the 

 presence of arsenic, still the death of the bees is so intimately associated with spraying that there seems 

 but little reason to believe otherwise than that the bees have been poisoned by Paris green used in spraying. 

 However, this will likely soon be settled by analysis of the bodies of bees suspected to have been poisoned, 

 and I have no doubt arsenic will be detected. 



There is another important question connected with the arsenical spraying of blos- 

 soms, viz , this : May uoc the arsenic blight the blossom and prevent fruit development 1 

 "The portion of pistil," says Prof. Panton, " upon which the pollen falls is exceedingly 

 tender and sensitive, so much so that the application of such substances as Paris green 

 injures it to so great an extent that the process of fertilization is aSected and the 

 development of fruit checked." No experiments known to me have been made upon the 

 effect of arsenical spraying on fruit blossoms. That its effect would be to destroy the 

 blossoms is quite probable. Thus, Mr. James Fletcher has suggested the spraying of the 

 blossoms of pear trees infested with the Pear Midge {Diplosis pyrivora, Riley) as a 

 remedy for annual attacks of the insect by depriving it of the food (within the young 

 fruit) needed for its development. 



There are, then, before the economic entomologist and the fruit-grower, at the present 

 time, these two questions relating to spraying with the arsenites during the blossoming of 

 fruit trees : First, will the poison kill the bees, destroy the young brood and affect the 

 honey 1 Second, will it blight the blossoms 1 It would not be a difficult task for an 

 experimental station, and it is specially within the province of the stations, to set these 

 questions at rest and no longer leave them subject to crude observations or individual 

 opinions. Until this shall be done, there should be an entire cessation from arsenical 

 spraying of fruit trees while in blossom, without the enactment of laws which now seem 

 prematui-e and may prove to be not needed ; and even if seeming to be needed, are still 

 fraught with evil, from the general disregard with which such laws are treated. 



It is unnecessary to say that there should be no restriction of the kind, either 

 optional or compulsory, unless it is shown to be absolutely recjuired. The arsenical 

 spraying of fruit trees has already come to be regarded as almost indispensible to the 

 successful fruit-grower, and day by day its importance is being more fully and widely 

 realized. No longer limited to the control of Codling Moth injury, it is being rapidly 

 extended to other insect attacks. For each week of early spring, I have no doubt but 

 that a calendar could be made wherein each day would stand for the incipiency of the 

 attack by some insect pest or fungous disease, to be combatted in no better way than by 

 arsenical or copper solutions used in spraying. What opportunities may therefore be 

 lost for arresting and defeating attack at the most favorable time, and possibly at its only 

 vulnerable stage, if two or three weeks' armistice is accorded to your enemies, during 



