102 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



very thorough spraying. To our surprise, those varieties which had 

 hitherto been badly affected by the apple maggot, last fall we found 

 almost completely exempt as they were from the codling moth. We 

 found occasionally a specimen, enough to show that we still had it, 

 but not enough to interfere with the marketing of the fruit. It is 

 said that one swallow does not make a spring, and I would not say 

 but our exemption from the maggot may be due to some circum- 

 stance that we do not understand. It is not proved yet that it is 

 owing wholly to the application of the poison to our trees, but we 

 are strongly inclined to think that that had a considerable influence. 

 If we know just how the insect feeds and the season of its appear- 

 ance and disappearance, it will be of great benefit to us. I think 

 there is something in this that we should be able to get hold of, and, 

 at present, I should say without hesitation that I have so much con- 

 fidence that the insecticide had an effect in ridding us of the mag- 

 got, that if the codling moth was entirely gone, I should still use the 

 poison lor the apple maggot, not knowing anything better to do. It 

 seems, as far as our experience is concerned, as though we had 

 nearly escaped it. 



Mr. SwEETSER. Would you recommend using the spray as late 

 as this small fly works on the apple? I find them at work on my 

 yellow transparent apple a very short time before they are ripe. I 

 think on some of these early varieties they work until they are ripe, 

 and it seems to me that it would be dangerous to spray the apple so 

 late as that ; that it might carry away the poison. 



Mr. AcGUR. That is a matter that should be thought of. I think 

 on the early fruits I should object to using the poison just before 

 ripening. And just in that line I would like to say a word. There 

 is quite prevalent among fruit growers a prejudice against the use of 

 the poison at all, lest there should be some evil results from it. Dr. 

 Jenkins, of the Connecticut Experiment Station, was present at the 

 meeting at Norwich a year ago last winter, and I asked him if he 

 would not study into the matter and give a little report on the possi- 

 bilities of poisoning from the use of Paris green or London purple 

 on fruit trees and potato vines. He made some estimates in regard 

 to it and gave this as his statement. He says, "if you use a pound 

 of Paris green to the acre every year for twent}^ years there would 

 not be enough in a square yard of the earth as far as the soil goes, 

 to be a medicinal dose for an adult person, if the whole was active ;" 

 *'but,'' said he, "in any soil that contains any admixture of iron the 



