ARSENIC IN HORTICULTURE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 5, 29 July 1908, Page 40

ARSENIC IN HORTICULTURE.

Lecturing before the members of the Edinburgh Botanical Society on the use of arsenic in horticulture, Mr. J. Rutherford Hill said he had recently been consulted to explain the death of some domestic fowls on an estate in the South of Scotland. Inquiry showed that eight months ago the pathways frequented by the fowls hadl been treated with arsenical weed-killer, containing white arsenic and caustic soda in equal proportions. The rains had washed away all the soda, but chemical analysis showed that the arsenic had been retained in dangerous proportions in the soil, and this accounted for the death of the fowls. Several similar cases had been reported from other parts of the country. Notwithstanding the presence of arsenic in dangerous quantity in the soil, the ground was now, at the end of eight months, more or less covered with a vigorous growth of weeds, on which the arsenic appeared to have no deleterious effect. He advocated the prohibition of the use of arsenic by legislation. The use of arsenic in agriculture in France had caused the medical profession to issue a warning as to its dangers. •Jt