PATE PLANT BOARD 
March 1949 ET-264 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Agricultural Research Administration 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 
A LEAF PUNCH FOR SAMPLING 
INSECTICIDE RESIDUES ON FOLIAGE 
By Jack E. Fahey and Harold W. Rusk 
Division of Insecticide Investigations 
For studying residues of insecticidal dusts or sprays on foliage it is 
desirable to have a simple, easily operated device for obtaining a known 
area of leaf. Several such implements are described in the literature. 
Fulton (1) gives specifications for a leaf punch employed in the study of 
sulfur residues on citrus foliage. Lathrop et al. {2) have described a 
method of cutting known areas of leaf surface for residue analysis. A. W. 
Cressman of this Bureau has described in personal correspondence a leaf 
punch which he has used for studying oil residues on foliage. It was de- 
signed by L. H. Dawsey and is very similar to that employed by the 
authors. It is therefore with no thought of originality, but rather to de- 
scribe a useful tool that has not been described in the literature, that this 
paper is prepared. A leaf punch has been designed which will cut a leaf 
disc 0.75 inches in diameter and will deposit the disc in a sample- 
collecting bottle. The punch with sample-collecting bottle attached 
weighs approximately 1 pound and can be easily operated with one hand 
leaving the other free to guide the leaf to be sampled into the cutting area. 
The sampling device was constructed from a pair of pliers with 
parallel- action jaws (Bernard pliers). To the jaws of these pliers were 
attached (by brazing) l/4-inch steel plates 1 1/2 inches by 2 1/3 inches which 
had previously been fitted, one with a 3/4 -inch, punch and the second with 
a die plate. Alignment of the punch and die plate is maintained by two 
guides between the plier jaws; these guides also act as retainers for coil 
springs which provide a return action for the pliers. Attached to the 
bottom of the plier jaw carrying the die plate is a screw cap for a 2-ounce 
sampling bottle which catches and retains the leaf discs cut by the punch 
and die. 
Two views of the punch are shown in figure 1 . 
The advantages of this device over similar apparatus are primarily 
simplicity and convenience. The steel punch and die plate cut perfect 
leaf discs and, when made of tool steel, will wear indefinitely. The leaf 
disc is forced through the die plate by the punch and falls automatically 
into the sampling container, which is readily attached to or removed from 
the punch by a simple twist. 
