138 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



water. The only reason for using Paris green or London purple, 

 instead of the white arsenic, is that they make a colored solution and 

 lessen the danger of poisoning. Label your bottles of arsenic and 

 the barrel in which you make the solution. Never handle poison 

 without ajlfibel. 



A pint^of the water would contain one and one-fourth grains of 

 arsenic. One-half a grain would be injurious. Keep everything 

 labeled. It will not poison the skin, even if broken, in such a weak 

 solution. There is no question that it kills the codling moth. We 

 must spray about the last of May when the apples are the size of 

 peas. The first brood is then on the fruit. Some one asks, ''Would 

 not killing the first brood stop the second ?" No, sir. The moth is 

 capable of long flight ; 3'our neighbors will breed it for you ; \'0U 

 must take care of your own orchard. If you will spra}' the last week 

 in May, the last week in June, the last week in Jul}' and the last 

 week in August, you will have a crop of perfectly sound apples. 

 The first moths lay their eggs just after the apples is out of bloom, 

 but they do not all hatch out in a day ; it takes nearly a month for all 

 of them to hatch, the first brood lapping over on to the second ; the 

 second on the third, etc. You spra}' every four weeks and you will 

 get all of the broods. Don't spray early fruit when it is nearly ripe. 

 It was said when the spraying remedy was first discovered, that once 

 or twice would be sufficient, but it is found better to spray four times 

 in a year. 



Now, the question arises, is there an}' danger of poisoning from 

 the arsenic left upon the fruit, or taken in through the skin? In 

 California the}' have no rain in the summer; we have rains to wash 

 it off. niehalf pound of arsenic to four hundred gall jus of water 

 is seven and one-half grains to the gallon. Allow two gallons to 

 large trees, sa}^ twenty grains to the tree. Now, is it not a very rea- 

 sonable estimate to say that nine-tenths of the spray falls upon the 

 foliage and only one-tenth upon the fruit — two grains to a large tree. 

 Say this tree has two grains, the first rain would wash nearly all of 

 it away. At the time of gathering there would not be over two- 

 tenths of a grain to ten bushels of apples. A man would have to 

 ,eat five bushels of apples at one time to be in any danger ! So, you 

 see, the risk of poisoning is infinitesimal. When you pare the apples 

 and cook them the danger is nothing. Four or five rains would wipe 

 out every vestige of the arsenic. — J)r. Goslin in Report of Mo. 

 State Horticultural Society. 



