[PW] Spam: Re: Carter's wormkiller, 1902

[Peter Macinnis]

You may indeed ask that, but I have no good answer.  The consensus of 
the scientifically-minded is that worms are good for the soil, but as I 
said, Mr Beale was a monomaniacal lumbricophobe.  To him, they were 
literally vermin, evil and slimy, the spawn, perhaps, of Grendel (who 
was, let us recall, referred to as a worm!) seizing innocent young 
plants and dragging them down to their subterranean lairs where acts of 
unspeakable depravity were performed . . .

Sorry, got carried away there.  Hang on while I mop myself.

<PUSE>
(This is a pause, at the end of which one is no longer puce)
</PUSE>

I think that perhaps he was made to eat worms as a little boy.  Who can say?

peter


Charles Early wrote:
> Peter:
> 
> May one ask why a gardener or groundskeeper might wish to kill worms, and 
> which kinds of worms he/she might wish to kill?  Aren't earthworms 
> essential to the health of a lawn?
> 
> At 06:39 PM 2/28/2007, you wrote:
> 
>>This is for me.  I am looking into the monomania of a lumbricophobe.
>>
>>In his 1931 'The Book of the Lawn', Reginald Beale (also the author of
>>"Lawns for Sports") refers to Carter's wormkiller, invented in 1902.
>>Beale was by 1931 a director of James Carter & Co., Raynes Park, S. W.,
>>a UK company that supplied all sorts of lawn needs.  I suspect the
>>wormkiller *might* have been a secret recipe, but more likely, it was
>>patented.
>>
>>The wormkiller, he explains, tastes bad, but will not harm animals or
>>birds, though it kills fish, and so should not be used on lawns draining
>>to fishponds.  Other treatments are dismissed as being poisonous.
>>
>>The application required to ensure that ". . . worms, large and small,
>>struggle to the surface in thousands to die" is half a pound per square
>>yard.
>>
>>I am curious to know what the powder may have been, given the suggested
>>level of application (though I have seen suggestions for the use of two
>>pounds of lead arsenate per hundred square yards, and the use of carbon
>>disulfide and ethylene dibromide in pursuit of the Beautiful Lawn.
>>
>>Any hints, clues or suggestions as to what Carter's powder might be?
>>Are British patents from circa 1902 available online?
>>
>>--
>>
>>   _--|\    Peter Macinnis, Manly, the birthplace of Australian surfing
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> 
> 
> Charles Early
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-- 
  _--|\   Peter Macinnis, feral wordsmith, & science gossip,
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