75 



Mr. Fletcher. — It would be difficult, sir, to give a definite answer to such a 

 question without seeing the specimens. If specimens can be sent to me I may 

 possibly be able to give you an answer. I have seen in Vancouver Island such a 

 disease as you mention. This is possibly a bacterial disease, such as we have in the 

 pear blight; at the same time, they have in British Columbia a species of the flat- 

 headed borer and other borers which attack the apple. They have several injurious 

 insects there. With regard to remedies for the borers, we must know something of 

 their life history, and the time that they appear in the perfect state. The beetles 

 fly to the trees and deposit their eggs in the crevices of the bark, and the borer, 

 which is hatched, undermines the bark and destroys the tree. It is a simple matter 

 to apply to the trunks of the trees, at the season of egg-laying, a weak solution of 

 soft soap, add warm water to it and keep i t stirred until it is of a convenient con- 

 sistency, and then apply it with a whitewash brush and scrub the trees. Prof. 

 A. J. Cook, of Michigan, added to this mixture a small quantity of carbolic acid, 

 and, he thought, with good results. A great difficulty I find is to get fruit-growers 

 to use the solutions and weak mixtures as I recommend them. In mixing a quarter 

 of a pound of Paris gi-een to fifty gallons of water you will be surprised to find 

 what a little this quantity is. But if you put in a little more you may do damage 

 to your trees. In the soap wash for borers, above mentioned, a small quantity of 

 carbolic acid is all that is wanted to give the odour which is found to be obnoxious to 

 most insects, and prevents them from going to the trees to lay their eggs there. 



Senator Eeesor. — Do you say that that quantity of Paris gi-een is equally effec- 

 tual upon potato bugs ? 



Mr. Fletcher — No, sir ; I believe it would answer the purpose, but it would 

 take longer to do it. I generally put a spoonful of Paris green into a tinpail of 

 water for the potato beetle. The potato is a coarse growing plant, and one not easily 

 injured by arsenic. With regard to the susceptibility to injury in certain plants, we 

 find that of the fruit trees mentioned the apple is the least susceptible to injury, the 

 cherry and plum more so, while the peach is extremely susceptible, so that in 

 some experiments made by Prof. Forbes, of Illinois, one pound to 450 gallons of 

 water left a decided injury on the edges of the peach leaves. 



Mr. Perry. — Would a solution of Paris green for the apple be sufficiently strong 

 for the plum ? 



Mr. Fletcher. — ^You must use less for the plum than the apple. 



Prof WiLLARD — Unfortunately, I did npt get th« benefit of the last paper that 

 was read or discussed, but hearing the term% Paris green and London purple used 

 reminded me so forcibly of the fact that I had had my fingers badly burned by 

 trifling with London purple, I simply wanted to warn the gentlemen present regard- 

 ing its use. I have used Paris green for a great many years, and during the last 

 two seasons I have taken to use London purple somewhat, but last year we made a 

 verv sad mistake in using it so much so that I should think the trick cost me five or 

 six "hundred dollars. I don't think I would much care to go through the same experi- 

 ence ao-ain. All I have to say is that it is much more soluble in water than Paris 

 green that its strength varies a great deal, and the man who uses it don't want to 

 let the man that he hires use it, because if he does he certainly wiU suffer. I am 

 very careful with my Paris green, and also with the London purple, to have the 

 packages put up by the druggist and weighed out precisely, so that we shant make 

 any mistakes but we all make this mistake : Last year we put up our London 

 pui'ple in four-ounce packages. We had two spraying machines, one of which 

 would hold about 100 gallons of water and another one that would hold about 50 

 gallons and the intention was to have used the one holding 100 gallons entirely upon 

 our plum trees ; but a mistake being made one day, the machine that held 50 gallons 

 was run into the field, and the eight-ounce packages were put into it, as was required, 

 and the result was the defoliation absolutely of one plum orchard, a loss which we 

 cannot quite measure yet, I can tell you next year about it. I think some of the 

 trees will die as a result of it. We certainly lost $500 worth of plums by the opera- 

 tion. We used the, machine holding 50 gallons of water that, was using four ounces. 



