84 I'll. ( xNAlilAN 1 IwKllCUI.TURIST. 



This scare, il seems, has been iiotit ed by no less than live Inuidiid JCnghsli 

 papers, and is caK'ulated to do our country incalculable harm. That there is 

 not the slightest ground for il has been over and over proved by ( hemists. 

 They have carefully examined the mature fruit, and cannot find the least trace 

 of arsenic upon the skin, much less in the fruit. The amount used, 3 ounces to 

 50 gals, of water, sprayed in a fine mist over twenty or thirty large trees, is too 

 infinitesimally small to do harm, if the !ruit was eaten at once, skin find all ; but, 

 as at least three months elapse between spraying and harvesting, even this 

 small amount is washed off long previous to fruit season. 



Our unjust contemporary speaks of the grapes which were confiscated by 

 the New \ork Board of Health, as a proof of the ground taken. But no notice 

 is taken of the fact that the Department of Agriculture caused these grapes to be 

 analvzed, and the result was a statement by scientists that the amount of arsenic 

 found was so small that a person would need to eat 16,000 lbs. at a single 

 sitting, in order to take a poisonous dose ! 



'At the recent meeting of Western New \'ork Fruit (Irowers at Rochester, 

 Prof, ^'an Slvke, chemist of theCieneva E.xperiment Station stated that he had 

 analyzed soniQ grapes which had been heavily sprayed with the Bordeaux- 

 mixture. He found only 3'^ of a grain of copper sulphate in a pound of grapes. 

 Physicians administer one quarter of a grain at a time as medicine, hence, to 

 get a single dose one would need to eat eight pounds of such grapes at one 

 time, skins and all. At the same meeting, Mr. Perkins brought up the matter 

 of the injustice done American fruit growers by the English press, and, as a 

 result, a committee was appointed to bring the matter before the Secretary of 

 Agriculture of the United States, asking for some action to correct the false 

 impression now abroad in England and on the Continent, regarding the use of 

 American fruit. 



Pi is claimed that pyrethrum powder is growing in favor as an insecticide. 

 It is composed of the dried flowers of the pyrethrum. This plant grows in 

 L>almatia, Persia, but is now extensively cultivated in California. Hence it is 

 known as Persian or Dalmatian insect jjowder, but the California brand is called 

 bubach. It jjossesses an (jil or volatile princi[)le that kills insects by contact. 

 It maybe used* as a dry powder, as a fume, as an alcoholic extract tliluted, as a 

 tea decoction, or in solution in waliT, the latter being most et'ficient. Half an 

 ounce imparts to two gallons of water the insecticide principle so strongly, if 

 promptly applied, as to destroy all insects not protected by hard or hairy skins, 

 including cabbage or currant worms and young canker worms. 



