183 
There is another important question connected with the arsenical 
spraying of blossoms, viz, this- May not the arsenic blight the blossom 
and prevent fruit development f " The portion of the pistil," says Prof. 
Panton, "upon which the pollen falls is exceedingly tender and sensi- 
tive, so much so that the application of such substances as Paris green 
injures it to so great an extent that the process of fertilization is affected 
and the development of fruit checked." No experiments known to me 
have been made upon the effect of arsenical spraying on fruit blossoms. 
That its effect would be to destroy the blossoms is quite probable. 
Thus, Mr. James Fletcher has suggested the spraying of the blossoms 
of pear trees infested with the Pear Midge (Diplosis pyrivora Riley) as a 
remedy for annual attacks of the insect by depriving it of the food 
(within the young fruit) needed for its development. 
There are, then, before the economic entomologist and the fruit-grower 
at the present time these two questions relating to spraying with the 
arsenites during the blossoming of fruit trees : First, will the poison 
kill the bees, destroy the young brood, and affect the honey? Second, 
will it blight the blossoms ? It would not be a difficult task for an 
experimental station, and it is specially within the province of the 
stations, to set these questions at rest and no longer leave them subject 
to crude observations or individual opinions. Until this shall be done, 
there should be an entire cessation from arsenical spraying of fruit 
trees while in blossom, without the enactment of laws which now seem 
premature and may prove to be not needed; and even if seeming to be 
needed, are still fraught with evil, from the general disregard with 
which such laws are treated. 
It is unnecessary to say that there should be no restriction of the 
kind, either optional or compulsory, unless it is shown to be absolutely 
required. The arsenical spraying of fruit trees has already come to 
be regarded as almost indispensable to the successful fruit-grower, and 
day by day its importance is being more fully and widely realized. 
No longer limited to the control of Codling Moth injury, it is being rap- 
icily extended to other insect attacks. For each week of early spring, 
I have no doubt but that a calendar could be made wherein each day 
would stand for the incipiency of attack by some insect pest or fungous 
disease, to be combatted in no better way than by arsenical or copper 
solutions sprayings. What opportunities may therefore be lost for 
arresting and defeating attack at the most favorable time, and possi- 
bly at its only vulnerable stage, if two or three weeks' armistice is 
accorded to your enemies, during which time the army is recruited a 
hundredfold, the infant becomes a veteran, mines are run, pits are 
dug, tents are built, covered ways are constructed, insidious mycelium 
threads are permeating leaf and twig, and in many other of the arts of 
warfare your wily foes, with their rich inheritance of surprising means 
for self-protection, have planted themselves in strongholds where an 
entire park of spraying pumps with their baneful poisons will utterly 
9052— No. 2 9 
