242 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [VoL 2 



soil is a sandy loam and the water plane at the shallowest point is 

 eight feet below the surface. I have met with cases of arsenical 

 poisoning as described in Bulletin 131 at points where the water was 

 75 feet below the surface on a mesa 150 feet above the river bottom. 

 All of the doctor's statements may be entirely true for what he has 

 seen in Utah but have no application to the facts set forth in the bul- 

 letin which he attempts to discuss. 



Another point which he makes is that the readers of my bulletin 

 are left to infer that arsenic is the only cause of death among our 

 orchard trees. At the bottom of page 6, Bulletin 131, I make this 

 statement, "I have already clearly indicated my conviction that the 

 cause of the trouble is arsenical poisoning. That there are some trees 

 suffering from other causes is quite certain, but the cause of the 

 greater portion of the trouble is the arsenic which has accumulated in 

 the soil." I marked this passage and sent him the bulletin and yet 

 he says, "In fact nowhere in the bulletin can we find a statement that 

 would lead us to believe that he knows of any cause of trees dying 

 where no arsenical sprays have been used." I did not attempt to de- 

 scribe all sick or dead trees but only some for whose condition our 

 station had been unable to find any cause known at that time. 



Doctor Ball further states: "He (Headden) then examined the 

 soil under the trees that had been sprayed and found arsenic present 

 in considerable quantities, but in an insoluble form." The inference 

 to be drawn from this statement is clearly that there is no soluble ar- 

 senic in the soil. This is wholly wrong, and if the doctor does not 

 know it, he has utterly failed to get one of the most important points 

 in the bulletin. On the first page of Bulletin 131 I state, "The pro- 

 tection against arsenical poisoning in the case of our orchard trees is 

 the insolubility of the arsenical preparations used in spraying, and, 

 further, that these preparations shall not be changed or becom-e soluble 

 in the soil." Again on page 8, "We find in fact ^hat was from the 

 beginning patent, namely that the arsenic does accumulate in the 

 soil -aod is «li»eatly present in our orchards in dangerous quantities, 

 if it by any means should become soluble. ' ' On page 22 I state : 

 "We have then direct proof that the alkali salts in the soil are capable 

 of bringing the arsenic, even when present as lead arsenate, into solu- 

 tion and consequently making it a source of danger." Again in the 

 summary I state : ' ' The insoluble arsenical compounds are being 

 converted into soluble ones in the soil. ' ' 



Doctor Ball suggests that the Grand Kiver water may be the source 

 of the arsenic in the trees. He says: "This may possibly be the 

 source of some of the arsenic found by Doctor Headden rather than 



