142 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



-withered calyx ■within which the caterpillar is found. In this case the 

 remedy is to search for the pupce in the eyes of the bud wherever any of the 

 "web is observed. Picking off the leaves is recommended before the larvas 

 have left them, or pinching the blistered part sharply with the finger and 

 thumb. Fallen leaves should also be collected and removed at the close ol 

 -autumn ; this is also serviceable in preventing the propagation of the species 

 in the following spring. 



329. Aphides, or plant-lice, and their congeners, are indicated by an 

 unhealthy appearance ; the leaves and young shoots curl up, and multitudes 

 of ants, who seem to feed on their secretions, are seen about the tree. The 

 remedy is repeatedly syringing the leaves and stems with tobacco- or lime- 

 water, or with gas-tar water when that can be obtained ; but the plants should 

 be carefully examined in May, and the winged parent of the Psilla Pyra, and 

 its congeners, destroyed before they have deposited their eggs. Lady-birds 

 {Cocc.inelidce) render great service in destroying myriads of aphides, which 

 ought to insure them the protection of gardeners. 



330. Green Fhj. — Fumigate with tobacco the plant infected, and syi'inge it 

 well afterwards with clean water, or, if it is not possible to fumigate, wash the 

 plant with strong tobacco-water, by means of a soft brush. 



331. GoosebeiTy Cateiyillars. — These pests, of late years, have become 

 ■exceedingly prevalent, and in difi'erent parts of the country the gooseberry has 

 been nearly destroyed by them. They come principally from a saw-fly, which 

 lays its eggs in rows along the under-ribs of the leaves, and after having com- 

 mitted its ravage, falls to the ground, where it lives in the pupa state till the 

 following season. The bushes should be carefully looked over once a week to 

 watch the hatching of the eggs, when the infected leaves may be picked off. 

 To prevent the fly from setthng, the bushes should be dusted over with helle- 

 bore powder, or watered with a strong decoction of the digitalis, or common 

 foxglove. If the caterpillar has begun its ravages, the ground beneath the 

 bush should be sprinkled with new Hme, and a double-barrelled gun fired two 

 or three times under it to shake the caterpillars down into it. The most effectual 

 preventive, however, is to remove the top soil from under the bush during 

 the whiter time, and destroy the grubs in it by mixing it with salt or soot ; 

 the parings so mixed may be buried or entirely removed, and new soil placed 

 round the roots instead of it. Layers of bai-k from the tan-yard, when used 

 as a covering of the soil underneath the bushes, have been found veij useful in 

 destroying the insect in its chrysalis state. One of our very best practical 

 gardeners, Mr. Ogle, at Erridge Castle, Kent, says, "In the autumn or winter, 

 ■when digging between the bushes, sow the whole ground over vtith fresh-slaked 

 lime, using a liberal supply of lime more particularly round the stems and 

 about the roots of the bushes, forking the ground over. About the middle or 

 latter end of March repeat the application, more especially round the roots, and 

 rake the ground in, repeating it again in two or three weeks. Few caterpillars 

 will survive this treatment." No object in the garden is more exposed than the 

 gooseberry to insect depredation,— caterpillars, aphides, as the small green 



