370 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



NEW VARIETY OF CUCUMBER. 



Iii " Land and Water" we have a figure and description of 

 what is called the new white-spine cucumber. This, when 

 raised on a trellis, grows to an enormous size, one vine hav- 

 ing three specimens, each of them three feet in length, besides 

 many others over two feet long. The flesh is said to be very 

 solid, with but few seeds, and the flavor very fine. This 

 method of growing cucumbers is recommended as furnishing 

 a much superior result to that of allowing them to trail on 

 the ground, as they thus grow finer, straighter, and with a 

 larger yield. This new cucumber has the skin perfectly 

 smooth. It is very short in the neck, and it is considered a 

 decided gain to the resources of the vegetable gardener. 

 2 A, December 23, 1871, 444. 



DESTROYING CATERPILLARS. 



According to Schmidt, an excellent remedy against cater- 

 pillars consists in a dilute solution (1 part in 500) of sulphide 

 of potassium, the infested tree being sprinkled with this sub- 

 stance by means of a small hand-syringe. This method has 

 been used on a large scale in Southern France, and, it is said, 

 without any injury to vegetation. 2 8 C, February, 1872,123. 



REMEDY FOR THE RAVAGES OF THE GRAPE-VINE SCOURGE. 



The alarm created in France by the increasing ravages of 

 the grape-vine louse, Phylloxera vastatrix, continues una- 

 bated, and grave fears are entertained and expressed in re- 

 gard to the future of the wine-producing interests. Numer- 

 ous remedies have been proposed; few, if any of them, how- 

 ever, of much apparent value. Among* those most relied upon 

 have been, first, the collection and destruction by fire of the 

 vine-leaves bearing the special galls of the Phylloxera ; sec- 

 ond, tearing up the diseased plants by the roots ; third, the 

 employment of various poisonous substances, among which 

 those most in favor are carbolic acid, certain essential oils, 

 and bisulphide of calcium ; fourth, the reconstruction of the 

 vineyard by grafting the vine on the American Vitis la- 

 brusca. 



There is one difficulty in regard to the first remedy. The 

 galls, which are abundant in America and about Bordeaux, 



