14 APPLE. 



hedge taken from my glebe. The blight commenced on Sunday, 

 June 26th, and in three days about seventy yaids of the hedge was 

 devoid of foliage. The hedge is six feet high, and very thick ; it is 

 the work of millions of small caterpillars, as you will see by the 

 specimens. I had the hedge syringed with soft-soap and water, which 

 seems to have good effects ; but in places the blight is still going on. 

 What is it, and what is the best remedy ? . . . The blight appears 

 to be confined to my premises, with the exception of a hedge on the 

 other side of the road." — (F. A. B.) 



In reply to Mr. Bright's inquiry, I wrote, on July 7th, as follows : — 



" In the present case the remedy which is being applied of syringing 

 with soft-soap in water is very good, but a little paraffin oil well stirred 

 into it would make the mixture more effective. . . . Only it must 

 not have enough paraffin or mineral oil added to burn the tender bark, 

 and the mixture should be so constantly stirred as to keep the oil and 

 soft-soap wash thoroughly incorporated." 



On August 13th Mr. Bright was good enough to tell me that on 

 returning, after an absence from home, he found that the remedy I 

 had suggested had been in every way effectual, and the hedge was 

 as green as ever, with a superabundance of foliage. Further, on 

 October 1st, in reply to an inquiry I sent, Mr. Bright mentioned that 

 the application of the soft-soap and a little paraffin oil had been " a 

 great success." 



The success of this broadscale application seems worth recording, 

 as it is one that can be carried out at no great cost, either for material 

 or labour ; and, so far as I am aware, we have not previously had any 

 note sent of definite treatment for getting rid of these caterpillars as 

 hedge-leafage pests. 



If the a}yplication of the kerosine emulsion so much used against 

 leaf-feeding caterpillars in the United States of America and Canada 

 should be preferred, the following recipe, which is one published by 

 the Department of Agriculture of the United States of America, will 

 be found serviceable. In this the plan is to add one gallon of water 

 in which a quarter of a pound of soft-soap (or any other coarse soap 

 preferred) has been dissolved, boiling or hot, to two gallons of petro- 

 leum or other mineral oil. The mixture is then churned, as it were, 

 together by means of a spray-nozzled syringe or double-action pump 

 for ten minutes, by means of which the oil, soap, and water are so 

 thoroughly combined that the mixture settles down into a cream-like 

 consistency, and does not, if the operation has been properly performed, 

 separate again. This is used diluted with some three or four times its 

 bulk of water for a watering ; if required for a wash, at least nine 

 times its bulk is needed — that is, three gallons of " emulsion," as it 

 is termed, make thirty gallons of wash. Warning is given that care 



