New York AgcricutTuRaAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1 bry 
ing: Water, actual soap, free fatty acids and free alkali. What 
does this table reveal in regard to the presence of these various 
constituents in the different soaps? 
(1) Water in the nine samples various from 11.15 to 54.85 per 
ct. No. 6 and No. 8 are different lots of the same brand of soap, 
but the content of water differs over 16 per ct. 
(2) Real soap in the different samples varies from 14.90 to 
59.27 per ct., a range of difference even greater than in the case 
of the water in these soaps. In samples 6 and 8, which represent 
different lots of the same manufacturer’s material, the real soap 
is nearly twice in amount in No. 6 what it is in No. 8. 
(3) Free fatty acids varied from nothing to 17.20 per ct. 
indicating in most cases that the oil was used in amount more 
than sufficient to combine with alkali. 
(4) Free alkali was generally absent, being found in only one 
soap and then not in excessive amount, indicating that not enough 
oil was employed to combine fully with the alkali. 
It is evident, then, that these whale-oil soaps, which were 
actually found offered for general sale in the market, are abso- 
lutely unreliable for anything like uniform composition. An 
inspection of the data in the preceding table must readily reveal 
why a fruit-grower who uses a soap like No. 3, containing less . 
than 15 per ct. of soap, will fail to get satisfactory results as 
compared with the one who uses No. 1 or No. 4, which contain 
over 50 per ct. of actual-soap. A man purchasing No. 6, con- 
taining over 46 per ct. of actual soap, and using it with success 
might at the next purchase get No. 8, the same brand as No. 6, 
but containing only 24 per ct. of soap, and then be puzzled to 
know why the soap failed to destroy the insects. Some of these 
soaps when used according to the usual directions, give a solu- 
tion four times as strong as some of the other soaps. Suppose, 
for illustration, one uses No. 1 soap at the rate of one pound to 
seven gallons of water; in order to have a solution contain the 
same amount of soap, it would be necessary to use four pounds of 
No. 8 for seven gallons of water. In the case of No. 6 and No. 8, 
the same directions for use accompanied both lots and yet one 
contained twice as much actual soap as the other. 
The variation of the soaps in water content did not account 
for all the differences of actual soap. Thus, No. 3, No. 4 and 
