The Portland daily press., 1878-06-11
Paris Green and e ota,o Bugs,

MR.. EDITORIAL this season, while the
Colorado gentlemen in striped busters, patient
and hungry, are from some elevated position
watching to see the tender potato shoots break
ground, it would be kindness to the farming
interest for the PRESS to republish, in a con-
spicuous place, Prof. Hayes protest of last
season, against the indiscrimnate use of Paris
green as aprotection against the potato bug,
which l send you for that purpose.
There seems to be vague impression among
farmers that Paris green is only fatal to insects,
not realizing that it is deadly poison, and has
proved fatal to persons in doses of less than
five grains, but thesr are facts Last season
many cases of poisoning, causing sickness and
in some cases death, from this compound
were reported in different parts of New EGG
land
We have no state board of health to look
after such matters, bat we may profit by the
cautions of the health officers of other states.
10 1872, before the appearance here of the
potato bug, the State Board of Health OF Nas-
sachusetts incorporated into their annual report
an article setting forth the dangers attending
the use of this same Paris green as coloring
matter for room paper. Numerous cases were
cited in which poisoning had occurred from
inhabiting rooms whose walls were covered
with panar caiored with this pigment If the
small quantity of this poison composing the
coloring matter Of paper-hangings is injurious,
and sometimes fatal, how dis agreeable and
dangerous neighbor would be potato field
covered once week with two pounds to the
acre of Paris green, liable to be blown into the
open windows of dwellings by every strong
wind from that direction, and on to the culinary
vegetables OF the garden.
The ndiscriminate sale of several kinds OF
poisonous drugs no more fatal than Paris green
is prohibited by law, while this poison is recon-.
mended by good authority to be sowed broad
cast over our fields as protection against
vermin. To do this it must bs placed in the
hands of persons of all grades of Intelligence
and all sorts of dispositions, although it con-
tains more than fifty per cent of arsenic 1t
would require large crop of potatoes to COM
pensate for the less of the life Of one member
of family.
Cannot some less dangerous weapon be en-
ployed against the bugs?
Windham, June 10. W. G.
PROTEST OF LAST SEA SON.
LdSG year TOls Ddud hdy0oS 3AdSodOuu'
setts State Assayer and chemist, called atten-
ton to the dangers attending the use of Paris
green. He said:
give or six grains of this irritant metallic
poison are sufficient to cause death 10 an adult,
and the least quantity is deleterious to health.
1t is dangerous to inhale or to handle it In any
quantity, and this is the material that
is used on potato plants. 1t is said that this is
the only efficient destroyer of the beetles
(potato bugs) known, and it has been used in
the West for this purpose without recognized
injurious effects. Nevertheless, the danger is
much too great to permit its use by New Eng
land farmers. 1t is not known that the arsenic
or copper is absorbed by the plants; they may
be; but assuming that they are not, then the
dangers attending the common mode of dig
ging and gathering potatoes, from the adhesion
of particles of the poison, in soil upon which
it has been scattered; the danger in distributing
it and in placing it in the hands of workmen;
and the danger to animals, such as poultry,
hogs, sheep, ard even dogs, who may venture
into the fields, make only part of a list of dan.
gers that may be readily brought to mind. And
when we add to this that the effects of metallic
poisoning may not be observed for months, or
years in some cases, there is certainly reason
for saying that the indiscriminate use of Paris
green on these plants may be more disastrous
in its results than the loss of several crops of
potatoes"