120 PEAR. 
infested skimmings from under Gooseberry bushes were laid in rows 
between the rows of plants. 
It should perhaps be noted with regard to this attack that the only 
connection it has with the Pear tree is with the blossom-buds for the 
purposes of egg-laying, and with the young fruit, in which the maggots 
feed until, at their maturity, they quit the fruit, and bury themselves 
in the ground to go through their changes to the complete Gnat 
Midge. Therefore the washings, or lime dustings, or scrapings of the 
trunk of the tree, which are so very serviceable in cases of various 
other Pear or Apple attacks (notably that of Codlin Moth) are of no 
use at all with this infestation. 
In the observations sent me on May 25th by a correspondent, of a 
bad attack of the Midge maggots on his young Pears at Carnforth, 
Lancashire, he mentioned that he had dusted the trees with lime, and 
also sprayed with Paris-green, without any good effects; but relatively 
to the latter application, it has been suggested that where attack is 
very bad indeed, so as almost certainly to involve losing all the young 
Pears, that it might be worth while to spray so strongly with Paris- 
ereen, or some other arsenite, as to blast the fruit, and thus prevent 
the contained maggots coming to maturity and continuing the attack. 
This would be a point for consideration of the grower. 
The best remedy of which we have information at present appears 
to be (as reported by Prof. J. B. Smith) application of kainite to 
infested ground. In an observation on infested Pear orchard land at 
New Brunswick (U.S.A.), a heavy top-dressing of kainite was applied 
in late summer, and under the infested trees it was applied at the rate 
of over half a ton per acre. The result was that in the following year 
scarcely any of the fruit was found to be infested, whilst in another 
orchard close adjoining, in which the ground had not been treated, on 
close examination, it was found that of one kind especially grown fifty 
per cent. were ‘‘ midged,” and of the other kind named not one could 
be found to have escaped. (See Bulletin previously referred to.) 
In laboratory experiment Prof. Smith found that where nitrate of 
soda was sprinkled in quantity that would represent a fair top-dressing 
in ordinary field use, on sand in which maggots had gone down, that 
not ten per cent. of the larve were alive (so far as examined) in their 
cocoons, and where a double quantity of the nitrate was applied, a still 
lesser proportion of the maggots was found to be alive. 
Muriate of potash in about the same quantities showed results of 
respectively nearly one-half or three-quarters of the maggots dead in 
their cocoons. 
But in the case of treating with a small quantity of kainite, only 
three per cent. of living larve were found in the cocoons examined ; 
and where double quantity was used, ‘‘not one-third of the larvee in 
