vating in its sympathies for the struggles and suffering of
others. Our standard should be high--the pursuit of knowledge for the
advancement of agriculture. No official entomologist should lower it
by sordid aims.

During the recent political campaign the farmer must have been sorely
puzzled to know whether his interests needed protection or not. On the
abstract question of tariff protection to his products we, as
entomologists, may no more agree than do the politicians or than does
the farmer himself. But ours is a case of protection from injurious
insects, and upon that there can nowhere be division of opinion. It is
our duty to see that he gets it with as little tax for the means as
possible.

* * * * *

POTASH SALTS.

[Footnote: By John B. Smith, entomologist. Potash as an insecticide is
not entirely new, but has never been brought out with the prominence I
think it deserves.--_N.J. Ag. Col. Exp. St., Bulletin 75._]

My attention was attracted to potash salts as an insecticide, by the
casual remark of an intelligent farmer, that washing his young pear
trees with a muriate of potash solution cleared them of scales. The
value of this substance for insecticide purposes, should its powers be
sufficient, struck me at once, and I began investigation. It was
unluckily too late in the season for field experiments of the nature
desired; but it is the uniform testimony of farmers who have used
either the muriate or the kainit in the cornfields, that they have
there no trouble with grubs or cut worms. Mr. E.B. Voorhees, the
senior chemist of the station, assures me that on his father's farm
the fields were badly infested, and replanting cornhills killed by
grubs or wire worms was a recognized part of the programme. Since
using the potash salts, however, they have had absolutely no trouble,
and even their previously worst-infested fields show no further trace
of injury. The same testimony comes from others, and I feel safe in
recommending these salts, preferably kainit, to those who are troubled
with cut worms or wire worms in corn.

EXPERIMENTS.

A lot of wire worms (_Iulus_ sp.) brought in from potato hills were
put into a tin can with about three inches of soil and some potato
cuttings, and the soil was thoroughly moistened with kainit, one ounce
to one pint of water. Next morning all the specimens were dead. A
check lot in another can, moistened with water only, were health