SPRAYING WITH ARSENATE OF LEAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 20 March 1909, Page 4

SPRAYING WITH ARSENATE OF LEAD.

Another of the periodical scare? that occur in connection with spraying fruit trees with arsenate of lead has attracted a little attention in Victoria recently (says an Australian paper). Some cases of poisoning at Geelong were attributed to eating apples, said to have been picked off trees that have been thus sprayed. The Board of Public Health appeared to have fostered the alarm to some degree, and although, no doubt, it acted quite within its province, expert opinion is totally opposed to the existence of any such danger. The Victorian Government Entomologist is emphatic in expressing his disbelief in the possibility of poisoning occuring from such a source; and he is strongly supported by the Government Entomologist of New South Wales. In a letter on the matter, Mr Froggatt states that in California, where the apple trees have been sprayed three times and in many cases four times, with arsenate, of lead no one has ever heard of people being poisoned. He considered that it was nonsense to attribute the case of sickness in Geelong to this cause, as even a child would have to eat a peck to. get ‘ enough to cause an illness. Most orchard ists can endorse these opinions from their personal experiences, and it is interesting to note that in spite of careful investigation no proof could be discovered in the Geelong cases that ‘ bore out the contention made. It is perhaps only natural that these mild scares are created now and again, but it is well that they should be properly dispelled whenever possible, particularly in cases like the above, for any strong objection or hindrance to the practice of thus spraying the fruit trees for the prevention of codlin moth would be a very serious matter for fruitgrowers-