SPRAYING WITH ARSENICALS. 179 
of Berlin, Wis., to the St. Joseph, Mich., Horticultural Society in the 
fall of 1870,‘ in the article which follows, which is the earliest recom- 
mendation we have seen: 
My method of destroying the little Turk is to give the trees a judicious sprinkling 
of Paris green. My plum trees are living witnesses of the excellence of this treatment, 
for they are for the first time loaded with fruit and some of them overloaded, and not 
a mark of the curculio can be found. This is the third season in this region that we 
have used the Paris green for destroying the Colorado potato beetle, and I find it 
effectual not only for them, but for all insects that feed on the foliage of trees or plants. 
No other preparation, as I am aware, has yet been used that is so inexpensive and 
easily prepared and applied as this. It is a perfect protection to the melon and squash 
vines against the ravages of the striped bug, to rose bushes from the slug, and the 
currant and raspberry from the worm. This is as far as my experience extends, but 
I see no reason why the cankerworm and the caterpillar could not be destroyed by 
this preparation. Last season I applied the Paris green to my trees, and I wassatisfied 
that it had its effect on the curculio, but the season was so cold and wet here, and 
insects generally were so scarce and the fruits rotted so badly, I could not fully decide. 
But this season the unusual warm weather brought them out early, and on noticing 
their marks on the fruit I made an application of the green to my trees and repeated 
it every week or ten days. The fruit that was stung dropped off, but it is the last I 
have seen of the curculio, although in other localities where it has not been used they 
have been constantly at work. My manner of using this poison is to mix 30 parts 
of flour or fine middlings to one of the Paris green (this is the same proportion that we 
use on our potato vines); take a two or three quart tin pail and perforate the bottom 
and fasten to a pole, and while the dew is on shake it over the tree, standing on the 
windward side and not inhale any of the dust. A slight dusting is sufficient, and it 
will be found strong enough for all practical purposes. 
The value of Paris green for this insect was questioned by Dr. 
Riley in the American Entomologist and Botanist for October, 1870, 
and the paragraph which appeared there also appeared in his Third 
Missouri Report, published the same year. Riley states: 
Even if the uniform application of such a poisonous drug on large trees were true, 
it would never succeed in killing one curculio in a hundred. Paris green kills the 
leaf-eating beetles by being taken internally with the larvee, but the curculid, with 
its snout, prefers to gouge under the skin of the fruit, and only exceptionally devours 
the leaves. Yet, notwithstanding the palpable absurdity of the remedy. it is very 
generally passed from one journal to another without comment. 
It would seem that the suggestion by Mr. Smith in 1870 was very 
generally copied in the horticultural and agricultural journals of the 
day. The writers, however, have not been able to find references to 
the subject during the interim from 1870 to about 1880. The recom- 
mendation had apparently not made much impression, for in an 
extended article on the plum curculio, dealing especially with reme- 
dies, Mr. B. Gott, in the Annual Report of the Entomological Society 
of Ontario (1879), makes no mention whatever of Paris green or 
other arsenicals. 
1 Moore’s Rural New Yorker, vol. 22, p. 45, 1870. 
