212 RASPBERRY. 



buds and young shoots. I brought the enclosed specimens 

 from a plantation in Kent on Saturday. . . . We have 

 been killing great numbers by smoothing the ground round 

 the plants, and then laying a few large clods about, under 

 which we usually find large quantities the next day, and so 

 destroy them ; but this we find a costly and tedious cure, and 

 wish to know if any other remedy can be suggested." — (A. B.) 



The very worst account, however, of destruction caused by 

 this species was that of Mr. John Thomas, of Eidgeovean, 

 Gulval, Cornwall, giving an account of severe mischief over a 

 large area occurring in 1878 and 1879.* 



In 1878 the whole of the canes in the Easpberry gardens 

 (which extend over two acres of land) were stripped of their 

 shoots, and the crop consequently sacrificed, causing a loss of 

 upwards of £100. 



In the following year, 1879, Mr. Thomas, on examination 

 of his Easpberry bushes at night, found the brown weevils 

 gnawing through the succulent stems of the blossom-shoots, 

 some consequently withering, some being cut right oft". At 

 the approach of daylight the weevils went down to the ground, 

 and hid themselves just below the surface, or underneath 

 stones. 



Hand-picking, strewing the ground with lime, and daubing 

 the feet of the canes with coal-tar, were tried as remedies, but 

 found to be either insufiicient or useless. 



The observer then had a number of wooden trays con- 

 structed, the insides of which were smeared all over with tar. 

 The Easpberries were planted in clumps, and bent into arches. 

 After dark one man held a tray beneath an arch, another 

 carrying a lantern gave the bush a smart tap, and the weevils 

 fell into the tray ; the tar held them prisoners for a time, and 

 after the tray had been placed under a bush or two, the 

 weevils collected were killed by pouring boiling water over 

 them. It was found necessary that the water should be quite 

 boiling to effect this thoroughly. Mr. Thomas had thirty or 

 forty persons at this work on his grounds, and each bush was 

 treated three times in this way. 



Other Easpberry grounds were reported as being similarly 

 attacked ; and in 1878 Easpberry plots in the large fruit 

 gardens in Gulval and in part of Madron (also in Cornwall) 

 were almost totally destroyed at a loss of many hundred 

 pounds. 



The above notes show the power of this kind of beetle in 

 injuring Easpberry growth, which, though twenty years have 

 elapsed, is shown by communication of the present year to be 

 still going on, and though in these observations the harm 



* I copy the notes as I recorded them in my Annual Eeport for 1879. 



