62 The Spraying of Plants. 



neglected, however, he says that " strong washes, such as Paris 

 green water, or suds made from the whale-oil soap, thrown 

 upon the trees with a garden syringe, will also materially check 

 their depredations." This is the first statement which I have 

 been able to find in which the syringing, or spraying, of apple 

 trees with Paris green is recommended, and it was adopted to a 

 limited extent in Illinois in 1873. l 



This note attracted but little attention on the whole. It was 

 not until four years later that Cook advised the use of Paris 

 green for the destruction of canker-worms, and even at that 

 date its use was supposed to injure the tree at certain times, and 

 the total loss of fruit was not thought improbable. 2 In 1878 

 many orchardists in Michigan sprayed their trees with a mix- 

 ture of Paris green and water, and from that time the use 

 of this poison has been considered, in that state, as the best 

 means of destroying the pest. 3 Eastern growers, with scarcely 

 an exception, were slow to imitate the more progressive Western 

 pomologists. As late as 1877, H. T. Brooks still recommended 

 to the members of the Western New York Horticultural So- 

 ciety the use of bandages upon apple trees to prevent insects 

 from ascending the trunks ; and two years later a member of 

 the same society "had known them [the cankerworms] de- 

 stroyed by showering the trees with a solution of Paris 

 green."* 



Paris green, or some other form of arsenic, was nevertheless 

 destined to play another important part in the destruction of 

 insects that were injurious to apples. The codlin-moth, which 

 in the larval stage causes apples to be " wormy," was flourishing 

 unchecked upon this fruit throughout the Central and Eastern 

 States. Several remedies were suggested, but none appeared to 

 possess much practical value. An effectual remedy was eventu- 

 ally found, not by entomologists, however, but by practical 

 growers. The first statement that attracted attention, and 

 which was followed by close investigation, appears to have 

 been made by Edward P. Haynes, in 1878. He was then living 

 near Hess Road, Niagara County, N.Y. In the spring of 1878 he 



1 Third Bept. U. S. Ent. Com. 1880-82, 192. 



2 Bept. Mich. Pom. Soc. 1876, 43. 

 s Ibid. 18T8, 236. 



* Chapin, Bept. of West. HT. Y. Hort. Soc. 1879, 74. 



