56 The Spraying of Plants. 



the first of any importance which were undertaken in England, 

 yet they were not begun until four years after the value of the 

 copper compounds had been known there. Messrs. Button and 

 Sons undertook a similar work. These first trials were not so 

 successful as had been hoped, and undoubtedly prevented, to a 

 certain extent, the more general adoption of the remedies. 



The French authorities were almost exclusively quoted until 

 1891. By this time the work in America had assumed such 

 proportions that much information of a very varied character 

 was continually appearing. This was freely abstracted by the 

 English journals, and during 1890* and 1891, doubts regarding 

 the value of the copper compounds as fungicides were partially 

 removed from the minds of English gardeners. But faith came 

 slowly. The Highland and Agricultural Society made ex- 

 periments which were discouraging in their results, 1 and as a 

 rule the first trials were not followed by such marked benefits 

 as were reported from continental Europe. As the methods of 

 making the application improved, however, the growers became 

 encouraged, and during the last two or three years potatoes have 

 been very generally treated with copper compounds for the 

 blight by the more progressive growers. The successful issue 

 of experiments made in the United States has, no doubt, ma- 

 terially assisted in bringing about this result. 



The new insecticides have been adopted by English gardeners 

 even more slowly than were the fungicides. Although the value 

 of kerosene for the destruction of insect life has long 2 been 

 known there, its use is still very limited. This, in all probabil- 

 ity, is due to the fact that the remedies already at hand are so 

 effective that little demand is felt for others, a condition of 

 affairs upon which English gardeners are to be congratulated. 



The arsenites also are very rarely applied, not only in England 

 but throughout Europe. Their use is not so imperatively de- 

 manded as in America, and as there is a certain amount of 

 danger in having them upon the premises, they have not been 

 looked upon with favor. The use of arsenic for the destruc- 

 tion of insects is by no means a novelty in England. Mr. 

 Gordon, the superintendent of the ornamental department of the 



1 The Garden, 1892, Feb. 6, 133, based upon an article appearing in the 

 Morning Post. 



> Oard. Chron. 1882, July 15, 85. Also known as Paraffine in England. 



