The Poison That Was Too Weak to Hurt a Child

Fruit Inspector Beck, of Yakima County, said that every commercial orchard in the county had been thoroughly sprayed with the approved lime, sulphur and salt mixture. Some smaller orchards had been sprayed in a manner suggesting a desire to get rid of the job rather than to kill the scale, but as a rule an earnest effort had been made to follow the law.

"We are getting our Paris green this year direct from a druggist who guarantees it to be pure," said Mr. Beck. "There has been a great deal of imposition in the sale of this drug, and it is a well-known fact that it has been so strongly adulterated as to be practically valueless. Why, down at the orchard of Thompson Kain last year, a child was said to have been discovered with its lips all plastered with it, and of course everyone thought the little one would die. But the drug was too weak and the child did not show any serious symptoms, because there was too much adulteration in the drug."

This story is told by Fred Thompson, who vouches stoutly for its truthfulness. Janeck Bros. is the firm ordering the Paris green, and they already have a half ton on the way. They recently returned one lot which by test proved impure.