HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 129 
The CuarrMan. Yes; they do. 
Mr. Woops. Yes; the whole point is to get this valuable organism 
into condition where it can be useful. The total amount that we want 
for these two lines of work—that is, the propagating of these organ- 
isms for leguminous crops and the scientific study of these other 
organisms, and their testing, is $2,000 additional. Weare using about 
$3,000 on that work altogether now. 
One other problem which this laboratory is working on is this: For 
a long time we have been able to tell the man who grows crops on land 
how to get rid of diseases that attack those crops; but there is a con- 
siderable amount of food material, and especially such stuff as water 
cress and things of that kind, which is raised under aquatic condi- 
tions, in places where the crops are surrounded by water. For 
instance, here is one of the biggest cress-raising concerns in Georgia, 
and all up and down through the Allegheny region there is lots of 
water cress raised. 
A few years ago they were contaminated with green slimes and stuff 
of that sort, commonly known as frog spittle, and there was no way 
to get that cleaned out which we had discovered. So we took this man 
who had been working on the nitrogen-organism problem and sent him 
down to see what he could do in the matter, and he found a cheap pro- 
cess by which he could clean that organism out. He has not published 
the result of his work, but it is simply the use of what is known as 
the Bordeaux solution in the water. We find by putting this in the 
water it has no bad effect upon anybody that drinks it and has no effect 
upon the cress that grows in there, and the amount we use is so small 
that the most expert chemists can not detect its presence in the water. 
It is only one part in ten million parts of water. Anybody can drink 
as much as 1 per cent solution of copper without very much injury. 
It is so small that we have turned it over to our chemist and to other 
expert chemists in other places and they have not been able to find it 
in there. They have said that there was nothing in the water. But 
the fact is this, that when these tests are present this Bordeaux solu- 
tion unites with the parasite or whatever it is that combines with it, 
and the thing dies and settles at the bottom, and the water is then 
pure and clear as crystal, and there is no taste which is disagreeable or 
anything of that kind. This is applicable to all water supplies that 
are contaminated with alge, and there are a great many of them. We 
are now spending about $1,000. 
Mr. Grarr. What is that word? 
Mr. Woops. That is alge, the green slimy substance we see on ponds, 
the green coating we see on stagnant water. Mosquitoes feed on that 
stuff, and we find by this treatment that the food the mosquitoes eat is 
destroyed, so this is a means of getting rid of mosquitoes and thereby 
getting rid of malaria. 
We want $1,000 to make some tests of this on a larger scale than we 
have been able to do up to this time. 
Mr. Gattow4y. One point that might be mentioned in this connec- 
tion is the value of this thing in cleaning out city water supplies. Of 
course that is not directly connected with agriculture, and yet at the 
same time it has a bearing upon it. We have cooperated with boards 
of health, especially in Massachusetts, and we find that in this way we 
can remove this green slime or alge on water. We can do it at very 
small expense. f 
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