54 
In the absence of the authors the following papers were read by 
title: 
NOTES ON INJURIOUS INSECTS OF FRANCE, ALGIERS, ETC. 
By PauL MARCHAL. 
[Withdrawn for publication elsewhere. } 
THE PEACH TWIG-BORER. 
(Anarsia lineatella Zell.) 
By C. L. MARLATT. 
[ Withdrawn for publication elsewhere. | 
NOTES ON INSECTICIDES. 
By C. L. Martatt, Washington, D. C. 
The following notes are in part reports of experiments which are con- 
tinuations, as a rule, of older work, some of which has already been pre- 
sented before this association, and include also some notes on insecti- 
cide operations in California, based on an examination of the situation 
and methods there during October and November, 1896. (See Year- 
book, Dept. Agric., 1896, pp. 217-236.) 
SOAPS AS INSECTICIDES. 
There is no more unsatisfactory substance to work with against 
insects than soap, for the reason, previously pointed out, of the extreme 
uncertainty of the composition and characteristics of any brand that is 
secured. ‘The most earnest efforts on our part to get manufacturers to 
make a definite brand of soap which approached our ideal, and to keep 
the stock at a uniform and reliable strength and character, have been 
entirely unsuccessful, and we have not been able to get any two con- 
secutive lots of soap having the same characteristics or value for insec- 
ticide purposes. Perhaps the best soap which has been put on the 
market recently is ‘‘Good’s No. 3.” This is a soft soap, shown by 
analysis of the sample which we purchased to be a true potash soap, 
but containing perhaps from 27 to 28 per cent of water. The amount 
of this brand of soap which Mr. Good is now making may be indicated 
from the fact that up to March 26, 1897, he had sold upward of 25 tons. 
Mr. Good tells me that in the making of it he combines at one time 8 
50-gallon barrels of fish oil and about 650 pounds of potash, or the 
equivalent of a barrel and a half more in bulk of potash, making 94 bar- 
rels of material, not including the water. From this he gets from 12 to 
13 barrels of soap. This indicates about 30 per cent water, and our 
ato tet a 
