The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-08-29
CarbOlic Acid for Insects.

Paris green has been found the most GER
tain remedy for the potato beetle, and has
been used on bugs and insects on other
plants but it is costly, and unless care is used
in its handling, is likely to be dangerous
An experiment made by q gardener ia de.
tailed in the New York Herald, with solu-
ton OF one teaspoonful of crude carbolic acid
10 pallful OF water, which he applied to p0-
tatoes about the LIST ofMay. heplants were
only six inches high, and some of the hills
were almost eaten to the ground. Heapplied
thc solution to the potatoes by dipping
small brush into the water and sprinkling the
vines plentifully, since which time he has
found no beetles, but some few hills withered
partially, although they subsequently recov-
cred The experimenter was 10th to recon-
mend the specific until he had an opportuni-
ty OF giving it another trial but finding the
same recommended in German horticultural
Journal 1.-THE Vienna Illustrated Gardeaer.) he
considers his good opinion of the plan con-
hrmed. The German experimenter says:
lie hrst experimental with solution of
one part OF the acid in twenty parts of water
Which was allowed to stand for twenty-four
hours before being used. Bv that timea law.
or of fat or oil had appeared on the surface,
the contact of which with plants speedily de-
stroycd them. This was consequently with
drawn by means of pipette, and the clear
lluid below alone used. This proved an
equally dangerous application for some beds
OF saVoys and adishes, which were Watered
with it in order to free them from the ground
lleas, with which they were infested, were to-
tally destroyed by it. A weaker solution,
consisting of one part of acid in fifty of water
proved scarcely less injurious to vegetation.
Inc application was now tried in the still
more diluted form ofone part in one hundred
the supernatant oil being carefully removed
before use. In these proportions it answer
Ell admirably as an insecticide, without caus-
ing the slightest injury to even the tenderest
plants. A single application effectually freed
the beds from ground lice and similar destruc-
1--WE yermin A very small quantity intro
dliced into an ant hill so disturbed its busy
inhabitants, that, contrary to all the habits of
thesc insects they abandon their pupe in their
hurried flight. A cherry tree whose ripe fruit
Afforded favorite hunting ground for these
ants, was at once protected from their visits
by slight application of the solution to its
stem, though they returned to the attack in
four or five days when the pungent smell of
the acid was lost Their further depredations
were once for all checked, however, by cir
dle OF cottonwood impregnated with the
strong acid being bound round the trunk
Many other varieties of insects were kept Mt
Day, or driven from their haunts by the same
means, which also formed q most valuable
protection against mildew, with which the
rose and peach trees in the garden were sadly
troubled. In one instance rose tree which
had borne no flowers for five previous years,
IN consequence of mildew attacking the
young stems ofthe buds, Immediately rs they
were formed was observed to bear a magnif-
cent crop the first season that u timely ap-
pllcaton of the solution was made