138 HOP. 



in the ground to carry wires or strings, according to the new 

 methods of training Hops, so much adopted in Germany and 

 extending in this country, it would be M'ell, after an attack of 

 Bed Spiders, to wash these poles with a strong solution of 

 soft-soap and water, with quassia added, or with paraffin or 

 petroleum solutions brushed well into the crevices. Poles 

 should be well shaved before they are set up, as their bark 

 harbours these mites and many insects injurious to Hop- 

 plants. 



" Kaltenbach, the German entomologist, says that washing 

 with water containing solutions of sulphur and tobacco may 

 be advantageously employed. This was tried in 18G8 in 

 England without much benefit. The only effectual remedy 

 would appear to be washing the plants by means of hand or 

 horse-engines, with a composition of water, soft-soap and 

 quassia, in the following proportions : — 100 gallons of water, 

 4 to 6 lbs. of soft-soap, 4 to 6 lbs. of quassia (extract after 

 well boiling). 



" Water alone would be effectual, only it runs off the web- 

 covered leaves. The soap fixes it on them, and the bitter of 

 the quassia makes them unpleasant to the tastes of the Bed 

 Spiders."* 



Hop-growing being a very special industry I have not 

 intermixed notes of treatment of " Eed Spider" attack on 

 other crops with the above observations, but, in order to place 

 the observations on this infestation together, append some 

 notes of treatment on orchard-trees or in gardens, which were 

 given in the first edition of my ' Manual,' under the heading 

 of attacks to Plum-trees, and have likewise appended an account 

 of a severe case of infestation to Limes at Walthamstow in 

 1880. 



Prevention and remedy of Red Spider attack on Plum or 

 orchard-trees or in gardens : — 



The " Eed Spider " is most injurious to vegetation in hot 

 dry weather ; and consequently washings and syringings, or 

 drenchings by means of the garden-engine, which will render 

 the leafage and ground, and the walls to which the trees may 

 be attached, moist, will be very serviceable. The extreme 

 dryness of air and soil are thus counteracted, and a healthy 

 growth encouraged, which more or less counterbalances the 

 injury to the leaves from the suction of the mites. 



It is important to check the attack at the very beginning, 

 and for this purpose syringings morning and evening are 

 advised, sent hard at the under side of the leaves, so as to 



* ' Eei:ort on Insects Injurious to Hop-plants,' prepared for the Agricultural 

 Department, by Charles Whitehead, F.L.S., &c., p. 30, 31. 



