94 transactions of the american institute. 



Cure for Poison Ivy. 



Mv. J. Booth, McdiciiievilU', Wayne county, Iowa, wishes to corroborate 

 the statement nuule in thi-se reports some time since, tliat soft soap will 

 cure the poison of ivy, ("poison vine.") He says: 



" Fil'ty years ag'o my father said he had used it twenty years and never 

 knew it fail to cure. I have never known it fail since that time. 



" iMy method of usinj^ it is to put it on the part alVected, wet it and rub 

 it till it becomes a white latiier, and let it dry on, and it .^eldom fails to 

 cure by fust application. It is also a preventive whenever a person is 

 exposed to be poisoned. If lu^ washes thorouj^hly with soft soap (it must 

 be «oft soap made of lye and grease) the p:irt washed will never be i>oi- 

 soned. 



" It will also prevent and cure the poison of poison sumac (which is di.s- 

 tinguihhed from sumac by the shoots being red); it grows in Xc-w Kngliind; 

 I have never seen it in the west; but it will not cure the poison from 

 parsnip. 



"All who are subject to be poisoned by cither of these plants should 

 remember this cheap, easy, convenient remedy." 



Coal Oil for Insects. 



Mr. George Bush, Little Cody, Tenn., reiterates his assertion that " coal 

 oil," " rock oil," " petroleum " and "kerosene" are eflectual destroyers of 

 insects upon trees, and the application does not work any injury, lie says 

 that it is "coal tar" that kills trees, and not coal oil, because the tar dries 

 and ftums an impervious coating, excluding water and air, while the oil 

 whether used in a crude or refined state, is mainly washed ofl' before it does 

 any injury, except to the animals that it is desirable to kill, lie earnestly 

 advises those who have any doubts upon the subject to procure a single 

 ounce (jf pctr(deum and try its effect upon a worthless tree. To apply the 

 oil, he says: " I thoroughly saturate a rag with crude petroleum and rub 

 the barU until wet, and then wipe off with a dr}- chith. I stated before a 

 siniple fact, which I had tested upon my own trees, and therefore recom- 

 mended it through your Club to others. Some of them, instead of trying 

 it, go into a dissertation about the injury that coal tar has done. 1 did not 

 recommend coal tar, nor would I recommend barn yard manure piled about 

 a tree to exclude air." 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — Mr. Bush, with his facts, has the best of tlw; theo- 

 rists. As a general rule one such fact is worth a bushel of theory, and so 

 we give another: 



Mv. .1. A. Donalson, St. Joseph, Mich., sa^'s: " A word abotit the effects 

 of petroleum on fruit trees, when used to kill the borer. An acquaintance 

 of mine tried the experiuKMit on about a dozen fine jjeach trees, which a 

 one hundred dollar legal t«Mider would not have bought, and the trees died. 

 I did not learn whethi-r it killed the worm.s or not." 



Now, is it possiljlf! that what killed in one case did no harm in th<^ 

 other ? Or did the parties use diHorent substances ? 



