REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS AT TRENTON, NEW 
JERSEY. 
By Thomas Bennett. 
Trenton, N. J., June 15, 1885. 
Sir: Under your direction I have tested the insecticide value, to a 
limited extent, of five of the six vegetable substances you gave me to 
experiment with. These were as follows: Jamestown weed ( Batura 
stramonium ); tomato leaves (Lycopersieum esculentum ) ; Elder ( Sambu - 
cus) ; Ailanthus; mandrake root (Podophyllum peltatum) j and Tansy 
( Tanacetum ). 
At this date I have not been able to procure tomato leaves in suffi- 
cient quantity to experiment with; the others I have. The first insect 
that I found requiring attention was the green Aphis, or plant louse 
(Myzus persicce), of the Peach, which was collected in great numbers ou 
six young xieacli trees in my garden. They were only on the ends of the 
branches of the present summer’s growth. I marked one tree, and pre- 
pared a decoction and also an infusion of tansy in the following manner: 
Tansy . — June 5: weighed a handful of tansy, weight £ pound ; put it in 
three quarts of water; set ou to boil; let it simmer an hour, then set 
away to cool. At the same time, made an infusion of 4 pound tansy by 
pouring on three quarts of boiling water, and set away to cool. This ex- 
tract I found much the stronger of the two. 
The leaves of the peach trees were so curled that I could not apply 
the liquid by other means than by dipping ; besides, I wished to save my 
liquid. I dipped one side of the tree in the decoction, the other side in 
the infusion or extract. I found the liquid in both cases would wet the 
leaf but not the insects. They seemed covered with an oily substance 
wffiicli prevented the preparation in both cases from adhering to them ; 
and it would roll off as water rolls from an oiled flag or piece of polished 
marble. Then I thought, as lye has an affinity for oils and grease, I 
would try lime-water and also urine, in the proportion of first one-quarter, 
then one-half; but although each proportion and each sort did some 
good, they were not satisfactory. However, the insects did not increase 
any, and 1 dipped them every day, for four days, and at this writing 
(June 15) there are few to be seen. 
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