ICO on the gooseberry caterpillar, J^^y 24 



ted up a handful or two of earth, and taking of the 

 earth in my hand, threw it with forca-against the bufh ; 

 this drives niost of them ofF; and 1 think, if they were 

 properly collected and destroyed after, this would 

 be a very good method ; but it will require often 

 practising. I found another very succefsful way of 

 destroying them, (but this would be too tedious in 

 large plantations,) it is looking over the bufhes, 

 and whenever you see them on the leaves, take them 

 betwixt the thumb and fingers on the leaf, and squeeze 

 them, leaving them on the bufh, as this prevents the 

 others coming to the same leaf; at the same time, 

 you fhould be careful to pick off all the leaves you see 

 full of small holes ; for they contain all the young 

 tribe in great numbers. But the most effectual me- 

 thod I have as yet found out, is this : take a brufh in 

 form of a common bottle brufh, but much larger, 

 with a stronger handle than common ; take two small 

 cloths, which will spread rather more than the cir- 

 cumference of your bufh; place one on each side un- 

 der the bufli, overlapping each other ; then take the 

 brufti and rub over all the branches, and at bottom ; 

 you will be surprised what vast quantities fall off 

 into the cloths ; then put a stone in the center of 

 each cloth, taking them carefully up by each cor- 

 ner, and fliake them up and down, which drives the 

 whole of them down to the stone : you may then 

 spread your cloths under another bufh, till you have 

 sufficient to take away and burn or otherwise de- 

 stroy. You will find on brufhing thick bufhes, a great 

 number of that fly, which your correspondent C^ 

 mentions, fall down into the cloths, and attempt to 



