Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1894-05-16
NEVADA AGRICULTURAL Elk.
PERTINENT STATION.
Is There Danger of Poisoning
From Eating Sprayed
Fruit.
Newspaper Bulletin No. a.

r | asked many tiUieS, anu uIluouoleuiy
the fear of possible harm has KEEP
many from using this valuable nnc tn
cd of combating insect foes. To al
lay any such fears, and thus per
} haps prevent the disuse OF insect
eide sprays in many cases where they
are really needed, this newspaper
bulletin is published. The only
sprays used as insecticides which are
at all dangerous to use are the arsen.
ic compounds, and the copper com
pounds, though these latter are much
less poisonous than the former. Both
Paris green and London purple have
been used extensively for many
years in this county as insecticides
and case of fatal poisoning has yet
| to be recorded. The great danger
lies in having the poison about the
ranch in bulk. The supposed dan
ger has developed great deal of OPP
position to the use IF Paris green,
and it has been but year or so since
the sale of American apples in Eu-
glish markets received setback from
this supposed danger of arsenical
poisoning from their consumption.
1t was shown in 1878 by McMur-
trie, of Z. S. Department of Agri-
culture, that the most rigorous
chemical analysis detects no arsenic
in the composition of plants taken
from soil so saturated with Paris
green that the plants wilted from its
influence, thus it can be safely as
sumed that plants and vegetables
can convey the poison to the consum-
er only through the very small QUE
tity of arsenic which may be J, /
from spraying on the e iible pa,
the plant. X would seem at frst
thought that the use of Paris green
on plant like the cabbage would be
very unsafe, but the absence of dan
ger has been shown by Professor
Gillette, Of the Colorado Station, as
follows:
"Where the green is busted from
bag in the proportion of one ounce
to one hundred ounces of -four, and
just enough applied to each head to
make slight show of dust on the
leaves, say, for twenty eight heads
one ounce of the mixture, the worms
will all be killed in two or three
days, while the average amount of
poison on each head will be about
une-seventh of a grain. Fully half
of the powder will fall on the out
side leaves and on the ground, and
thus a person would have to eat
about twenty eight heads Of cabbage
to consume a poisonous dose of ar
senic, even if the balance of the
poison remained after cooking"
In the case of spraying apple or
chards there is scarcely a possibility
of injury to the consumer, for where
the poison is used in the proportion
of one pound to two hundred gallons
of water the arsenic will be so dis
tributed that it will be impossible for
a sufficient quantity to collect upon
any given apple to have the slightest
injurious effect upon the consumer.
In fact an individual would have to
eat several barrels Of apples at sim
gle meal to absorb fatal dose. An
experiment showing the milute
quantity of arsenic used to one tree
in ordinary spraying was made by
Professor A. j. Cook Of Michigan
lie placed thick paper under tree
and thoroughly sprayed the tree on a
windy day so that the dripping was
excessive. After dripping ceased,
the paper Covering seventy-two
square feet), was Analysed and four
tsnths grains Of arsenic found.
In regard to the copper solutions
It may be said that the amount of l
copper found on grapes intelligently
sprayed Is rarely more than five
(0.005) per kllogram
(about tao pounds) the average is 2
to B milllgrams per kilogram. In
ether words 100000 pounds of
sprayed in the usual way
with Bordeaux mixture would con-
t lin 81 to pounds of copper. Ac-
cording to Gauthler, Professor OF
chemistry of the Faculty of Medicine
Paris, an adult can absorb daily, for
a period of several weeks without
OWL effects from twQ-tauths to five