Introduction of London Purple. 65 



coleophora. The first regular experiment station to publish 

 results of the use of Paris green for controlling the codlin-moth 

 was the New York State station ; 1 Goff had used it the pre- 

 ceding year also with apparently good results against the 

 squash vine borer. 2 It was in this and the following decade 

 that Paris green and London purple established themselves 

 firmly as the most valuable agents for the destruction of chew- 

 ing insects. 



London purple was early in the field as a rival of Paris green. 

 It is cheaper than the latter, contains large amounts of arsenic, 

 and can be more easily applied. But its composition is not so 

 uniform, and it is more apt to injure foliage, so that on the 

 whole Paris green has been preferred. London purple was 

 manufactured in England, and I have been fortunate in learn- 

 ing of the manner in which the poison was introduced into 

 this country. Dr. C. E. Bessey, of Lincoln, Neb., was the first 

 to use it for the destruction of the potato beetle, as a substitute 

 for Paris green, and his work and that of Professor Budd of 

 Ames, Iowa, first attracted public attention to the new insecti- 

 cide. The name "London purple" was suggested by Dr. 

 Bessey in 1878, and he has been so closely connected with the 

 introduction of the poison that a letter received from him 

 under date of Feb. 20, 1895, is here published in full : 



" In my file of letters I find that on Sept. 7, 1877, the Lon- 

 don firm of Hemingway & Co., of 60 Mark Lane, wrote me 

 their first letter enclosing a small packet of London purple (not 

 so named then) and asking me to make a trial of it, offering to 

 send one or two casks of the material free of cost. My reply 

 was returned soon enough, so that on Dec. 18, 1877, they 

 wrote again as follows : ' In conformity with your favor of the 

 22d October we have done ourselves the pleasure of for- 

 warding to your address per steamer Holland to New York, 

 thence by express of Messrs. Baldwin Bros, of that city, three 

 kegs of the substance for poisoning the Colorado beetle, and 

 shall be much obliged by your sending us as early a report as 

 you can of the results of the trial experiments you may make 

 with it.' 



i Goff, Ann. Rept. N. Y. State Agric. Exp. Sta. 1885, 246. 

 s Ibid. 1884, 318. 

 F 



