difficulty, of course, that obtains in the direction of fruit is found in the necessity of repelling the attacks of insects; and the plan is now being tested, on the other side of the ocean, of killing insects on fruit trees and vines by applying an insecticide to the root. I presume we may introduce an insecticide in the same way that some introduce medicine-with the food. That is to say, you take a glass of wine and have some medicine in it and I have seen chalybeate bread which contained a quantity of iron. The experiment in France is to introduce in the fertilizer an insecticide; and they propose to get an insecticide from poisonous plants, including tobacco. But the insecticide which has certainly done the most to arrest the ravages of the phylloxera-which insect, as you very well know, has destroyed a large portion of the vineyards of France-that insecticide is a liquid with which perhaps many of you are familiar, and others not so familiar; and is applied, as I endeavored to tell you in the last volume of our transactions, by a drill. There is a vessel on the drill containing the liquid. A pipe runs down just behind the shoe, and it is regulated pretty much the same as the seed is regulated. It has been so successful in ridding the ground of all pests, that the French government has taken it up; the railroads have also taken it up, and transport the liquid and the machines free; and it is regarded as the only remedy thus far which can be applied to the roots to kill the insects. I have a bottle of it here, so that those not familiar with it may become so by inspection. It is very familiar, I know, to some gentlemen present, as much so as to myself. The liquid they use is a substance that used to be called "sulpho-carbonic acid." It is now called "carbon disulphide," out on the label it is called the "bisulphide of carbon." It is a liquid which is very combustible. Mr. Landreth will probably explain experiments with coal-oil as an insecticide.

Mr. LANDRETH. The gentleman will include that subject.

Dr. KENNEDY. I might add that the introduction is attended with considerable risk. (In illustration, he then lights some of it.) You perceive now we have the odor of burnt brimstone, and this substance is used for the purpose that burnt brimstone is used for-that is, to disinfect.

But I have occupied your attention too long to-night. I am very much obliged to you for your forbearance.

The PRESIDENT. What is the next thing in order?

Mr. LANDRETH. I have used "carbon disulphide," the last few years, very extensively, somewhere upwards of a year, for the purpose of killing weevil in grain or seeds of any kind-taking wheat, for instance, and placing it in an air-tight room, and we accomplish our purpose by the fumes under the grain. You can, by the proper application of the material-and not a very large quantity, either-kill every insect and germ of insect that may be in the grain-wheat, corn, or products of similar sort. Thus I use it upon our peas and beans. It so happens that peas grown in most sections of the United States are subject to the attacks of the weevil, which, in the fly state, alights upon the pod, penetrating it, and into the pea. Taking refuge there for two or three months, until after the pea is thoroughly ripe, it comes out in the larva the following spring, or when there is sufficient heat. By taking these pods of peas or beans, or whatever they may be, and subjecting them to this material, these insects are entirely killed.

Mr. BRANSON. Is it burnt in the room?

Mr. LANDRETH. No, sir; you just let it evaporate.

Mr. HIESTER. By applying this to the root of the tree can you kill such insects as the peach borer?

Dr. KENNEDY. On that I can give no advice-I have no knowledge of any experiments on that subject. All I can state would be a matter of opinion. But I will say the use of sulphur in almost any of its forms is valuable, and perhaps the most valuable means we have of destroying insects. Sulphur can be employed in the way explained here combined with carbon. The substance is cheap, and is made very easily by passing the vapor of sulphur over incandescent charcoal, and it is transported in all the vine-growing districts of France in barrels. But as to the question which has been presented here, I am unable to answer it.

Mr. KELLER. How would it do to wash trees with it?

Dr. KENNEDY. It is too volatile for that. To wash trees, perhaps the best way would be to boil the sulphur with lime, and use it as a wash. Colonel TAGGART. That would not stay on the outside of anything, (pointing to contents of bottle.)

Dr. KENNEDY. This would not.

The PRESIDENT. Could either gentlemen suggest whether it could be used by stockmen to rid their stock of vermin?

Colonel TAGGART.

It would do away with the stock themselves. The PRESIDENT. I mean by some mixture.

Mr. LANDRETH. It can be confined to the leaf to a considerable extent. I believe it can be used in exterminating grubs, such as those that infect cantaloupes. I think it is quite practicable to use an injection, using a pump, as it were, to be worked by hand, by which the farmer could pass from hill to hill of a watermelon patch, or from grape-vine to grape-vine, at any time, or even go into his corn-field and kill the wire-worm. I think by employing a tube and running it among the leaves a few inches, and injecting a small quantity from the end of the apparatus, that sufficient material could be injected onto the leaves to entirely eradicate such insects for the time being. Of course they might make their appearance after some days, or some weeks, but I believe they could be entirely destroyed at that moment. Dr. KENNEDY. Such an instrument is in use in France. They began with a hand instrument.

Colonel TAGGART. This no doubt would be fatal to the borer, if you could get it inside of the peach tree.

Dr. KENNEDY. These suggestions can be made use of to advantage just now, and other suggestions may be made hereafter.

Mr. WILHELM. I move that the reports of the committee be received, and that Dr. Kennedy's report be received also, and all entered upon the minutes; and that the Secretary be authorized to print them in pamphlet form for distribution.

The motion was seconded by Mr. McKEAN, and unanimously agreed to. Mr. WILHELM. If not out of place in speaking on this subject of destroying insects, I propose to give my experience in destroying the weevil. When I resided in Cornwall, Lebanon county, we had some fifteen or sixteen barns. The weevil became very destructive in those barns. I saw a notice in some agricultural report that Peruvian guano was very destructive to the weevil. I had it applied in the barns, and it drove them out very soon. I had it spread on the timbers, and on the wall-flats in the stone barns, and got rid of the weevil entirely.

Dr. KENNEDY. Ammonia would probably do it.

Colonel TAGGART. Since our last meeting, a very highly esteemed member of this Board has passed away-Daniel O. Gehr. I move you, sir, that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of this body in regard to his death.

The motion was seconded by Mr. WILHELM, and agreed to.

The PRESIDENT appointed as the committee Colonel Taggart, Mr. Mackey, and Mr. Seiler..

Secretary SEILER. The Governor, in his message, has seen proper to honor this Society with a little notice, and I move that it be read for the information of the members.

Secretary McCONKEY. The extract is taken from the Evening Telegraph of January 6, 1885.

“THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY NOT A STATE INSTITUTION. "There ought to be some modifications made in the existing laws relating to that branch of government having in charge agricultural matters. The law which recognizes the State Agricultural Society as in some way connected with the public administration of this subject, by appropriating it annually twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars, should be repealed. Hereafter, there should be but one head of the agricultural interest, to wit: The State Board of Agriculture, to which all appropriations for this interest should be made, and which should have the entire charge of all matters, pertaining to this branch of the public affairs. Notably should the Agricultural Board have the exclusive control of the publication of the agricultural reports. These changes should be made for the obvious reason that the Agricultural Society is a private corporation, conducted with a view to the private profit of its stockholders, most of whom are capitalists and farmers of large wealth, who are principally concerned in the refinements of agriculture, fancy stock-raising, and the development of fleet horses, rather than the practical concerns of every-day farming. Such an institution is well enough in its sphere, and to be commended as a private enterprize; but as the State has a department of its own devoted to this subject, whatever public money is spent for this purpose should be spent through the recognized public channel. By dividing the resources intended for this interest, the State Board is deprived of a part of the means which should legitimately go to its support and the development of its usefulness.'

Colonel TAGGART. If I knew the Governor's breakfast hour, I would move that this body wait upon him at that hour and make him apologize. (Laughter.)

Mr. KELLER. I second it.

Mr. McKEAN. Let the band play!

Mr. BRANSON. How many shares have you?

Colonel TAGGART. I would like to know.

The PRESIDENT. Is there any discussion on the report of the Governor?

I think it is worthy of some discussion by this Society.

Secretary SEILER. I move that the matter be referred to a committee of three to prepare an answer to this statement of the Governor, and that the committee be appointed by the President.

The motion was seconded by Mr. BARTO.

Colonel TAGGART. If it were not that he had the veto power, I would think it unworthy of notice.

Mr. MACKEY. I think it is unfair, and untrue, and beneath the dignity of this body. We dignify it by noticing it.

Secretary McCONKEY. I think it is a good motion, for this reason: Let it be referred to the committee, and, after they have thoroughly considered it, they can refer it to this Society to-morrow at its annual meeting.

Mr. WILHELM. If the majority will accept a motion or suggestion, it strikes me that courtesy dictates that at least a majority of that committee should consist of members of the State Board who often meet the Governor and are intimate with him. I merely throw this out as a suggestion.

SHAMROCK, 1517.

Owned by R. W. Coleman's Heirs, Speedwell, Pa.

From instantaneous

photograph by Schreiber & Sons, Philadelphia.