278 Transactions of the American Institute. 



known to science, and, consequently, very dangerous to handle. At 

 the same time, it is necessary that farmers, who are troubled with this 

 pest, should get a good article, and be told how to use it; also, that 

 they should be shown how to get it at the lowest prices. It usually 

 sells wholesale at twenty-five cents per pound ; now it is forty cents 

 to fifty cents. The high price is caused by the demand and the neces- 

 sity of making it in summer, when it is very dangerous. I am told 

 by Messrs. C. T. Eaynolds & Co., the largest manufacturers in this 

 country, that they would rather make and sell it at twenty-five cents 

 in winter than to make now and sell at forty cents. Men cannot work 

 at it continuously more than a week, and every one in the factory, 

 even to the partner who visits there, is obliged to take an antidote 

 against its effects. You can judge of the amount used, when I tell 

 you that this firm made and sold last week 21,000 pounds entirely to 

 the west. It is made from arsenic, potassa and copper, and is chemi- 

 cally an arsenite of copper. The potash is used merely to aid the 

 solution of the arsenic. It causes sores in the nostrils, in the arm-pits 

 and groin, and, in fact, all the tender parts of the body. If a little 

 gets under the nails, it gives great trouble. No child should ever be 

 allowed to go near it, and the cloth or sieve used in sifting it on the 

 plants should be destroyed as soon as the season for using it is over. 

 In using, the mouth and nose should be covered with a sponge or cloth, 

 the hands with gloves, and the eyes with glasses or goggles. These 

 precautions are necessary, as it is one of the finest powders known. 

 It is to be regretted that no other material will destroy these bugs; 

 but, if care is used, no hurt will result from Paris green. A gentle- 

 man in Missouri writes that he has tried everything, and that Paris 

 green alone does the work. The bugs would not touch pure white 

 arsenic or corrosive sublimate. I present you two samples. One is 

 pure Paris green, the other a mixture of lime and copper. The first 

 does the work for the bug ; the other is worthless. But large quan- 

 tities of it have been sold by parties who have not a care for their 

 reputation, and much loss has accrued to the farmers. ~No Paris green 

 is of any value unless it will show by test its arsenic. Farmers who 

 expect the bug, had best buy in winter, as it must take a considerable 

 quantity, and there is aX least fifteen cents difference in the price. I 

 am informed that the bug is traveling eastward, at the rate of 150 

 miles a year. Perhaps some western man can tell us more as to that. 

 If this be so, it becomes the farmers of New York to find some means 

 of preventing its approach, rather than depend on killing them when 

 they come. One word more, and perhaps the most important one. 



