86 THE COXXECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of soda that could be used in place of the liver of sulphur. 

 Such a product was found to be on the market in two forms. 

 One form in crystals contains about thirty per cent, of sulphide, 

 and can be purchased for one and three-fourths cents per pound, 

 f. o. b., at New York. The other comes in a fused form, con- 

 tains nearly 60 per cent, of sulphide and costs two and three- 

 fourths cents per pound. This, of course, needs to be pul- 

 verized or ground before it can be used to advantage as it will 

 not dissolve readih' in the lumps. When pulverized it is very 

 readily soluble. We h^ve used some of this sulphide on a few 

 trees, in the following quantities : 



Lime 20 pounds. 



Sulphide of soda 20 pounds. 



Water 40 gallons. 



The sulphide was broken up into small pieces no larger 

 than hickory nuts, and added to the lime before slaking. These 

 were wholly dissolved in the process of slaking the lime. This 

 mixture seemed to stick fairly w^ell upon the trees and is appar- 

 ently killing the scales. One fault of this mixture is its strong 

 caustic properties, making it bad to handle — even worse than 

 the lime and sulphur mixtures. But we can reduce the caus- 

 ticity of the sulphide of soda solution by using it as a solvent 

 for flowers of sulphur. In it the sulphur dissolves quite readily 

 even without heat. You have heard about dissolving sulphur 

 by means of caustic soda, but when cold the sulphide of soda 

 will dissolve considerably more sulphur than the caustic soda. 

 When hot, however, the caustic will dissolve more than the 

 sulphide. But we are trying to find a mixture that we can 

 prepare entirely without hot water or boiling. The sulphide 

 of soda is certainly a promising material, but we cannot recom- 

 mend it as }'et — it must be given further trial. We expect to 

 test it in several difterent ways the coming season. 



It has been suggested that possibly the crystallized form may 

 be used instead of the fused, though it contains much less 

 sulphur, but in a small test made in December this did not seem 

 to adhere as well as the fused. 



Lime, Sulphur and Caustic Soda. 

 This preparation has been developed at the Xew York Experi- 

 ment Station at Geneva, and is the result of attempts to make 



