296 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



and when dug in about the bush, they make an excellent manure. 

 I think if you once gave them a fair trial you would never be 

 tempted to try any other method. 



" Last year stems were very scarce here, and I could not get 

 enough to mulch all my bushes, so I only put a generous hand- 

 ful in the centre of a good many bushes, and they were not 

 troubled ; but I would not like to recommend that plan until I 

 experimented further." 



For the past two years the worm has attacked my bushes 

 savagely ; but, as I am very fond of currants, and relish 

 white, powdered sugar more than hellebore, I fought the 

 pests successfully by hand-picking. I kept a boy, at mod- 

 erate v/ages, whose business it was to kill insects and worms. 

 He had a lively time of it occasionally, for Nature some- 

 times appeared to take sides with the pests. 



The cautious use of lime and salt around and under the 

 bushes might prove beneficial, since the worm descends into 

 the soil before changing into a pupa. 



The currant and gooseberry are also infested with several 

 species of plant-lice. A gentleman whose bushes were at- 

 tacked by lice and the currant worm at the same time, wrote 

 to the '' Country Gentleman " that he destroyed both by a 

 strong decoction of white hellebore, applied from a fine 

 rose-sprinkling can. The bushes were turned back and 

 forth, so as to get the solution on the under side of the 

 leaves. The writer concludes : — 



" The decoction of hellebore must be strong to be effectual. 

 I make it as follows : To a gallon of boiling water add a table- 

 spoonful of pulverized hellebore. After standing; fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, add three gallons of common soapsuds. When 

 cool, apply with a sprinkler. I do not know that there is any 

 virtue in the soapsuds, excepting it makes the solution stick to 

 the leaves." 



