202 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



sity of boiling the materials for from forty minutes to an 

 hour, has led to an attempt to avoid this by adding materials 

 which would continue the boiling begun by the slaking of 

 the lime for a sufficient length of time to obtain the desired 

 chemical combinations. Several of these " self -boiling mix- 

 tures " Avere tested last spring, but none of them gave as good 

 results as the lime and sulfur mixture prepared in the usual 

 way. Perhaps the best of these ^' self-boiling mixtures " was 

 that obtained by a mixture of 20 pounds of lime, l-i pounds 

 of sulfur and 10 pounds of sal-soda in 40 gallons of water. 

 Similar combinations, substituting sodic sulfid or caustic 

 soda for the sal-soda, were more expensive and gave less satis- 

 factory results. 



The Derror tree fluid was also tested in the course of these 

 experiments, but so far as could be observed failed to be of 

 the slightest benefit in any case. 



The K. L. mixture, which has been recommended by the 

 Delaware Experiment Station, also gave unsatisfactory re- 

 sults, besides being quite expensive. 



The Rex lime-sulfur solution was applied in four different 

 ways, in accordance with the suggestions of the manu- 

 facturers, but none of the four gave satisfactory results, 

 although a small proportion of the scales was killed. 



Scalecide, applied at the rate of 1 gallon to 22 gallons of 

 water, proved to be something of an insecticide, killing many 

 of the scales; but applied with the same apparatus, by the 

 same men and on the same day, as the ordinary lime and 

 sulfur mixture, it failed to give anything like as good results. 

 From reports which have been received, however, from other 

 places, it is probable that this material, used at greater 

 strength, in two ajiplications and under great pressure in the 

 pump, may prove quite effective. 



Observations for determining dates of appearance of the 

 young of the oyster-shell and scurfy scale have been continued, 

 and the same observations have been made for the white pine 

 scale, as upon the time when the young appear entirely 

 depends the time at which successful treatment can be given. 



The raising of cranberries in Massachusetts is a very im- 

 portant industry, in which a large amount of caj^ital is 



