New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 229 
or oil. The important constituents of a soap in relation to spray- 
ing are (a) water, (b) actual soap and (c) free alkali. In the 
case of nine samples of commercial whale-oil soap, the percentage 
of water varied from about 11 to 55 per ct.; of actual soap, from 
about 15 to 60 per ct.; of free alkali, from nothing to 1.30 per ct. 
Two different lots of soap from the same factory contained 36.79 
and 53.13 per ct. of water and 24.06 and 46.28 per ct. of actual soap. 
Therefore, in making solutions of different commercial whale-oil 
soaps, one can not be sure of having a uniform strength of solution, 
and this lack of uniformity seriously affects their value for spray- 
ing purposes. 
In order to have a soap of uniform composition, the following 
formula is suggested: Caustic soda, 6 pounds; fish-oil, 22 pounds; 
water, 1% gallons. This will make 4o pounds of soap. These 
ingredients must be very thoroughly mixed. 
Such home-made soap, when used at the rate of one pound in 
seven gallons of water, gave entire satisfaction in every way on 
the foliage of apple, pear, plum, currant, cherry and peach trees. 
The foliage was not injured and the plant lice were destroyed. 
To ascertain how much free alkali in a soap will cause injury 
to foliage, soaps were made so as to contain I, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 
per ct. of free alkali. These were used in the same strength of 
solution and on the same kinds of foliage as before. Injury was 
done when the free alkali in the soap reaches 10 per ct. Little or no 
injury was done by the use of soap containing 5 per ct. or less of 
free allcali. 
Caustic soda can be purchased at 41% cents a pound and fish-oil 
at 26 to 30 cents a gallon. On the basis of these figures, the cost 
of the materials used in making one pound of fish-oil soap is about 
234 cents. The advantages of home-made fish-oil soap are (a) 
greater uniformity of composition, (2) greater reliability, (3) 
decreased cost. 
TESTS OF SORGHUMS.* 
During five years, observations! were made on all varieties of sor- 
ghum that could be obtained, to determine which were of value in 
this State for forage, syrup and seed production. 
In 1888 sorghums were grown from 162 samples of seed found 
afterward to include about 100 distinct varities. The next season 
* Abstract by W. P. Wheeler. 
*Rpts. 7:71-84 (1888); 8:67-70 (1889); 9:162-168 (1890); 10:208-215 
(1891) ; 11:291-294 (1892). 
