Arsenical Poisoning oe Fruit Trees. 49 
Soil.’’ The third tree grew in a sandy loam, an alluvial soil, along 
the Gunnison river. The lime dissolved out of this soil by acetic 
acid was equivalent to 3.547 per cent of calcic carbonate. The sub¬ 
soil is sandy and there is no marl present in the sense that we speak 
of its occurring in and beneath the mesa soils. In the former case, that 
of the soil in which the twp trees grew, there is more 
than nineteen per cent of calcic carbonate and a still more 
many subsoil, as against 3.5 per cent calcic carbonate and a sandy 
subsoil in the latter case. This is as marked a contrast in the char¬ 
acter of the soils as is likely to be found in any county in Colorado, 
waste lands excepted. The localities from which they were taken 
are about four miles apart, so that the general conditions, climate, etc., 
are comparable. The trees taken for examination are of the same 
variety, the Jonathan. This variety was chosen because it seems to 
be the one which is most subject to these troubles. ( 
The results of an examination of the quantity and composition 
of apple tree ashes given in the Report of the Director of the New 
York Station, Geneva, 1891, are as follows, taking the average for 
three varieties, Haas, Golden Sweet and Hurlburt: 
Branches 
Trunks 
Roots 
Silicic acid 
2.30 
3-65 
26.74 
Phosphoric acid 
5-89 
4.94 
7.11 
Chlorin 
0.68 
0-43 
0.37 
Sulfuric acid 
3 .i 8 
4.19 
4.17 
Carbonic acid 
28.23 
28.65 
10.12 
Ferric oxid 
0.21 
0.00 
3-36 
Calcic ox d (lime) 
41.94 
43-76 
28.39 
Magnesic oxid 
6.99 
6-38 
8.17 
Sodic oxid 
4.86 
2.57 
5.28 
Potassic oxid 
5.71 
5.43 
5 . 7 G 
99-99 
100.00 
100.01 
The percentage of ash in these trees was as follows: in the 
Hulburt 1.6, in the Plaas 1.8 and in the Golden Sweet 1.2 per cent. 
It was not feasible for us to obtain wood from the trunks of 
bearing trees. I had to content myself with the heaviest wood re¬ 
moved in pruning. This was branches varying from one and a half 
to two inches in diameter. In the case of a dead tree I took a large 
branch, at least five inches in diameter where I cut it from the trunk 
of the tree. These samples were taken on the 10th of February, 
1910. The percentages of ash in the samples as received at the lab¬ 
oratory without drying were as follows, dead tree 0.964 per cent; 
living trees on marly soil, 2.00 per cent; and living trees on sandy 
loam on river bottom, 1.17 per cent. The dead tree had died during 
the early part of the preceding autumn. There were many leaves 
and nearly if not quite full grown apples still hanging on the tree. 
There were other trees of the same varietv and in the next row 
J 
presenting the same conditions. These conditions are mentioned 
because the ash constituents of the wood, such of them as are soluble, 
may have been used up in the effort of the tree to mature the crop of 
fruit. There is no way of telling how long the tree had been draw- 
