[Cablegram.]
December 28, 1889.
Is not “Paris-green” the same as “Scheele’s-green,” that is, arsenite of Copper, not arseniate? With us arseniate of copper is a bluish powder; please write.[[72]]
January 20, 1890.
I am exceedingly obliged to you for so kindly and promptly replying to my enquiry about the arseniate. I thank you most heartily, and Professor Saunders also, for so very kindly taking the trouble to make me sure how the matter stood.
I have been taking a great deal of pains to make my paper on the Paris-green as plain and sound as I can, but whether I can induce the growers to use it is yet to be seen. If any of your orchard operatives accustomed to application of it should chance to be in England, I believe that the best way to start affairs would be for his services to be engaged at Toddington, and from a proper method of spraying (and, without any doubt, its good effect), we should then, I quite believe, make progress. If you should know of any orchard workers being likely to come over, I should be very glad if you would give me a line, and then if none of my orchard applicants were disposed to engage him, I would myself ask for a lesson and a lecture, and he “should not lack his fee,” as the old ballads say. Unless something is done to rouse the good folks they will go on smearing and smearing until their trees are one mass of grease, and swarming, nevertheless, with caterpillars of all kinds.
Now, I want to mention to you and to Professor Saunders that I have felt obliged to tell Mr. Whitehead, as gently and courteously as I could, that I must decline to continue the assistance which I have given since 1885 to the Entomological part of his work as Agriculture Adviser to the Board of Agriculture. I have recommended professional helpers who can aid him in the technical identifications, and if he needs more aid on general matters I have suggested that he should apply to Professor Harker, who has a great deal of strictly technical entomological knowledge, and of late years has given much attention to the agricultural application of it.
Even if the post of “Entomologist” should be offered to me, I should not think myself justified in accepting, for my great wish in my work is to be of immediate use, and if I had to wait for permission from boards and committees, &c., &c., before I came down on pests that want attention by return of post, I should not feel in the right place. Please forgive my telling you this story about myself, but though of course it is only meant for private friends, I thought I ought to let you know. My own work has steadily increased to such an extent that, with this sort of underground (unacknowledged) Government work in addition, I did not feel able to do full justice to it, and especially I wanted more time for experiment and correspondence.
February 13, 1890.
Many thanks for your kind congratulations on my better health. I am really better now. Work was bearing me down so very seriously I was obliged to make some degree of alteration. I regretted very much indeed not continuing any help I could give to Mr. Whitehead about his entomological Government work, but it was too severe a task, and it prevented my giving proper attention to my own, and likewise when the post of Agricultural Adviser was avowedly a paid one, I felt, and my friends felt, that if aid were needed it ought to be on a business footing and obtained from professional helpers.