﻿46 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



vegetation." The truth is that many tender plants are injured by it 

 even when used as recommended, while even stout leaved evergreens 

 are seriously injured when the strength of the solution is doubled. In 

 the ''directions for use" we find brief accounts of various insects, 

 which show on their face that the authors of the circular and agents 

 for the poison know nothing about the insects they speak of, and 

 recommend their poison for species upon which it has never been 

 tried. The directions under the head "Army Worm" maybe taken as 

 a sample. The passage, with the exception of the first and last sen- 

 tences, is taken almost word for word, without credit, from an article of 

 mine (New York T^iJwyie, November 16, 1875); and in the sentences 

 excepted, we are told that the array worm belongs to the "order of 

 noctuaP'' {Noctua is an old genus of the order Lepidoptera)^ and that 

 for this insect the solution must be made of double strength, whereas, 

 thus made, it will injure most grasses. 



The special notice closes with the following paragraph : 



Furthermore, lest a prejudice .should be founded on the fears of some people that 

 the vines or crops will absorb the poison, we have before us detailed experiments 

 for several years past showinjr that not a trace of this poison has ever been found in 

 •potatoes or grain which have been watered with this solution in much greater quantities 

 than was necessary to destroj' worms or insects, and the opinion, also, of eminent 

 ■chemists, that once in the ground the poison is completely neutralized. 



Here again the circular misleads, and I very much doubt whether 

 there is a particle of truth in the statement as to the years of experi- 

 ence or the opinions of eminent chemists. Such language would hold 

 true of the Paris green mixture, but not of the poison advertised. 

 This, upon analysis, proves to be a mixture of arsenate of sodium and 

 common salt, faintly colored with rosaniline ; and as opposed to the 

 opinions ot the unnamed "eminent chemists" of the circular, I will 

 quote the opinion of Professor Wm. K. Kedzie, of the Kansas State 

 Agricultural College, who says that "the great objection to the use 

 of these compounds is their extreme solubility in water. They are 

 offered to the plant in perfect condition for absorption into its circula- 

 tion ; and while, in the case of Paris green, the minute proportion 

 dissolved is at once rendered inert by the hydrated oxide of iron in 

 the soil, it is by no. means certain that the proportion of the latter is 

 in every case sufficient to accomplish this when the arsenic compound 

 is applied in such large quantity and in complete solution." 



Last year, in my eighth lleport, I had something to say of a "Potato 

 Pest Poison," manufactured by the Lodi Chemical Works of Lodi, N. 

 J., showing that it did not work as eiiectually as the Paris green 

 mixture, and that there could be no advantage to the farmer in its 

 employment. It was composed of equal parts of salt and arsenic 

 (arseniate of soda). Experiments which I made last Summer show 



