604 NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



tion Avitli rhe fact that insect life is sensitively affected by the food 

 on what it lives, may lead into a new field of investigation. 



"The originator of this carbolic treatment says that it is neces- 

 sary to merely paint a band of the chemical aronnd the trunk. 

 This sounds much like qnackery, but the disinterested testimony 

 of those who have tried it and llie cheapness and ease of applica- 

 tion of the remedy makes it worthy of a trial. 



''Farmers in these parts have mostly given up their apple orch- 

 ards, but there are still quite a number of peach orchards kept in 

 condition by the lime, sulphur and salt treatment. The only peach 

 orchard I have seen, however, that looks like the old-time vigor 

 and health is the orchard of Mr, William Hoffman, near Lebanon, 

 X. J. He has used nothing but lime and sul])liur mixed without 

 boiling.*' 



^Ir. Dickerson was detailed to look into the matter and he found 

 ]\Ir. Jeremiah Hall, wlio very kindly drove him to all the places 

 Avhere the carbolic acid had been used, and showed also his own 

 trees where the original experiments were made. The publications 

 above quoted were made early in .Tune, before scale^breeding had 

 started ; the examination by Mr. Dickerson was made August 1st, 

 when the second brood was on the move, and when infestation was 

 much better marked where it existed. 



Of the trees examined, including the usual orchard fruits, some 

 kad received belts a foot wide, and from that varying to the whole 

 trunk and the bases of the branches. Crude carbolic acid, "best 

 quality obtainable," was used, and wherever it covered the insects 

 it has killed them, without apjiarent hanii to the trees in any case. 

 There was no case, hoA\e^'er, where any interference with normal 

 breeding was observed outside of the directly treated space, and on 

 most of the trees an abundance of crawling larvae and living sets 

 was seen. Mr. HalTs own trees were but slightly infested, but 

 tlierc was no evidence that they ha.d ever been worse, and seem to 

 constitute one of those curious exceptions to the general suscepti- 

 bility that are sometimes discovered. A marked instance of that 

 -was noted in Montclair, where a series of infested plum trees be- 

 came almost entirely free during the past winter, though no treat-- 

 ment whatever was made. 



In late fall, while making nursery inspections, Mr, Dickerson 

 ran aercss an apple orchard of some size in another section (^f Hun- 



