88 



CURRANT. 



extent, and tliis on the same ground year after year, gives every 

 accommodation and facility for the increase of the Mite pest that 

 possibly can be. 



There is more shelter, more breeding-ground, the spread of the 

 infestation is not nearly so much under observation as where rows or 

 plots of rows are accessible, and likewise during the weeks in the 

 summer when the ]\Iites are migrating there is great facility for their 

 transportation in the plumage of birds and on the clothes of workers 

 who move amongst the infested branches. 



Where strips of other fruit bushes or crops are grown amongst the 

 Black Currants it gives safety in many ways, and we know that the 

 plan has been found to lessen the amount of mischief. My own view 

 certainly is that where Black Currants are constantly grown in close 

 rows of large breaks, or quarters, or by fields of acres, that it must be 

 done at a deduction of percentage of labour for picking galls, besides 

 losses on the crop, and great risk of extensive failure. 



Currant (Gooseberry and Raspberry) Scale. 

 Lecanium ribis, Fitch. 



:e.c.k. 



Lecanium ribis. — Currant Scale, female, showing side and upper surface; larval 

 Scales, with legs still visible : all magnified. Infested Gooseberry twig. 



The Scale insect figured above, which from this autumn's obser- 

 vations may be now known as the Easpberry as well as the Currant 

 and Gooseberry Scale, appears to be gradually spreading. For some 

 years previous to 1893 observations were sent me of a brown Scale 

 found to infest Gooseberry bushes to an injurious amount, and in that 

 year the species was identified for me by Mr. J. W. Douglas, F.E.S., 

 as being Lecanium ribis, Fitch. He mentioned them to me as being 



