Washes of Soft-soap in combination with Petro¬ 
leum, Paraffin, or other Mineral Oils. 
In the Report on Australian Bug, prepared by Prof. R. 
Trimen, he mentions that “ it might be worth while to 
try one of the antidotes used against the Phylloxera in 
France, viz., petroleum and water,” &c.; and since the 
date of the Report the serviceableness of mineral oils as 
insecticides, when so combined with soft-soap and water 
that they may be diluted further as may be needed for 
use without risk of the oil and ivater separating again , has 
been strongly brought forward under the direction of the 
Department of Agriculture of the United States, and 
reported on at length by Prof. Riley. 
The U. S.A. plan is to add one gallon of water, in 
which a quarter of a pound of soft-soap (or any other 
coarse soap preferred) has been well dissolved, boiling 
or hot, to two gallons of petroleum or other mineral oil. 
Idle mixture is then churned, as it were, together by 
means of a spray-nozzled syringe, or double-action 
pump, for ten minutes, by means of which the oil, soap, 
and water are so thoroughly combined that the mixture 
settles down into a cream-like consistency, and does not, 
if the operation has been properly performed, separate 
again. This is used diluted with some three or four 
times its bulk of water for a watering; if required for a 
wash, at least nine times its bulk is needed,—that is, 
three gallons of “ Emulsion,” as it is termed, make thirty 
gallons of wash. Warning is given that care must be 
taken with each new crop to ascertain the strength that 
can be borne by the leafage ; this of course varies with 
the age of the leaves, as well as the nature of the crop. 
In my own experiments with this mixture I increased 
the quantity of soft-soap, and for Hop-plants I should 
consider it would be desirable to double the proportion of 
soft-soap and lessen that of the paraffin to at least a sixth. 
An addition of some amount of paraffin to soft-soap 
wash has been shown to be serviceable by the experiments 
of Mr. Ward at Stoke Edith in 1883, and in the last 
