148 PLUM. 



at once ; and unless the application sticks to them, so as to 

 kill them, or is given so violently as to knock them from their 

 position, the labour does little good. 



For application to kill Green Fly on the Plum trees, the 

 following mixture was reported to me by Mr. C. D. Wise (the 

 Superintendent) as found serviceable in the Toddington Fruit 

 Grounds, namely : — Quassia and soft-soap in the proportion 

 of two ounces of each to each gallon of water, and Paris- 

 green added in the proportion of one ounce to ten gallons of 

 the decoction. 



A decoction of quassia chips and soap, or soft-soap, has 

 been found serviceable both for syringing infested trees and 

 also, on a smaller scale, for dipping shoots in. One recipe for 

 the mixture is — one ounce of quassia boiled for ten minutes 

 in a quart of water, and a piece of soft-soap the size of a. 

 small hen's egg then added. 



Mr. J. Masters, Secretary of the Evesham Fruit Conference 

 Committee, wrote me as follows : — " The committee consider 

 that the trees should be sprayed early, before the pest has 

 developed. I had a row of trees last year, and the foliage 

 was severely injured by the aphis. This year, before the trees 

 had bloomed, we gave them a good syringing with soft-soap 

 and a little paraffin oil, and this year we have no attack of 

 the aphis in these trees ; but other trees near, that did not 

 suffer from the aphides last year, and where we did not dress 

 the trees as ahove, we have found are severely affected this 

 season." — (J. M.) 



An addition of some amount of paraffin to soft- soap wash 

 has been shown to be of use by the experiments of Mr. Ward 

 at Stoke Edith in 1883 and 1881. The proportions used by 

 him for large quantities were twelve pounds of soft-soap and 

 half a gallon of paraffin to one hundred gallons of hot water, 

 the mixture stirred well together and used when cool ; the 

 nearer boiling that the water is used the better the paraffin 

 mixes. This wash is found to be very effective in killing 

 aphides on Hop without injuring the plant or the burr, but it 

 requires such great care in mixing, and also in use, lest the 

 mineral oil should separate from the soft-soap ivash, and also 

 lest from state of weather or any other circumstance it should 

 injure the leafage or burr, that I do not venture to recommend 

 it as a Hop application. 



The above observation of Mr. Masters as to dressing early 

 for prevention of aphides corresponds with mention made by 

 the U.S.A. Board of Agriculture ('Insect Life,' vol. iv. p. 343) 

 on the importance of destroying the first generation of P. 

 humidi "on Plum trees early in the spring with kerosine 

 emulsion." This is very similar in its nature to the mixture 



