Show insecticides OF HIGHER QUALITY As a result of the insecticide act of 1910 farming communities in particular are now receiving a much higher grade of insecticides and fungicides than formerly according to the annual report of the insecticide and fungicide board just issued by the united states department of agriculture the improvement pro in the quality of these articles says the report encourages cou rages their use by farmers and is of great assistance in com batting plant aisea disease e and insect pests As an instance of the effect of the itlie law lav in raising the general standard of insecticides and fungicides the report gives some statistics in regard to interstate ter state shipments of lead arsenate paris green lime sulphur solution and bordeaux mixture either alone or in combination with insecticides all of these preparations are in common use as sprays in the fiscal year ending june 30 1912 98 per cent of the samples of bordeaux mixture and bordeaux mixture combined with insecticides collected failed to comply with the provisions of the law in 1914 this percentage had fallen to 49 41 during the same period the percentage of samples of lime sulphur solution which did not comply with the law was reduced from 94 per cent to 27 per cent lead arsenate from 60 per cani cant to 20 per cent and ana paris green from 28 per cent to 19 per cent in the year ending june 30 1915 the board collected 1117 samples of which were turned over to the attorney general with recommendations that proceedings ce be instituted for alleged violations of the law in addition to its regulatory work I 1 the chemists of the board have done much work in connection with the properties of the various lead ar senates and have i ascertained that in many cases the injury done to foliage by di lead arsenate is due to decomposition by salts contained in the waters used for its application tests are now being conducted by the bureau of entomology with a view to preventing this evil new methods of analysis have also been perfected for use in examining some of the samples collected in accordance with the provisions of the law many field tests have been made to determine the efficacy of various in gradients entering into the composition of insecticides and studies have been made of the action of naphthalene sodium fluoride pyrethrum powders tobacco powders vegetable oils etc on insects when used as dusts sprays or fu migrants |