104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



does not head in, it heads out. You can sprinkle the outer 

 leaves and even the outermost leaves of the little head, for 

 these leaves never become a part of the cabbage as cut for 

 market. The leaves inside have never been exposed to the 

 treatment with the poison. Arsenical poisons are not as 

 dangerous as they seem to be at first thought, because the 

 cabbage grows out and not in. 



Question. Did you ever feed the leaves to your cows? 



Dr. Fernald. No, sir ; I do not keep cows to try it on. 

 These leaves, after a few rains, have been analyzed, and even 

 after a summer shower, and they could not get a chemical 

 trace of any arsenical poison. 



Mr. Smith. I rise in all seriousness, because it is not a 

 problem solved by us. Two or three years ago there were 

 great quantities of grapes dumped in New York simply 

 because they had been sprayed with something that was 

 poisonous. The color of the grapes had spoiled the market 

 for them. If it went abroad that we were using arsenicals 

 on our cabbage, would it not, in the long run, very greatly 

 cut down the sale of cabbage? I think people would use 

 some other vegetable. I notice that the lower leaves of the 

 cabbage are cup shaped, and you may go through a field of 

 cabbage after a rain, and even several days after a rain, if 

 the weather is cloudy, and you will find that these leaves are 

 full of water. I do not know what is to hinder the arsenic 

 remaining in these leaves, and thus making them dangerous 

 for cattle, if not for people. 



Ex-Secretary Sessions. This fear of Paris green for 

 cattle is all moonshine and nonsense. In the gypsy moth 

 work we had endless trouble at first from the fears of the 

 people that the extensive spraying we carried on would in- 

 jure cattle, injure hens and even children. People were 

 very much afraid of it, and we had a great deal of trouble to 

 convince them that there was no danger. We tried many 

 experiments. Among the experiments, the director was 

 accustomed, when he went about looking after the work, to 

 allow his horse to feed under the trees where the spraying 

 had been done, so the people might see that there was no 

 danger from the Paris green. His horse did not show any 

 evil effects from eating this grass. 



