CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES. 



3:3 



of this fruit should be very particular not to neglect the bushes 

 after the crop is gathered, for it is very important for the next 

 year's crop that they should make a good growth of wood, and 

 neglecting them at this time often allows a crop of worms to 

 mature to cause more extensive injury the following year. The 

 flies seem to prefer the foliage of native varieties of goose-ber- 

 ries, such as the Houghton seedling, for its eggs, and a few of 



these bushes may be plant- 

 ed among the currants, 

 when most of the worms 

 can be very easily de- 

 stroyed on them as soon as 

 the eggs hatch. 



Imported Currant 

 Borer (Aegeria tipuliform- 

 is) . Fig. 24. In many sec- 

 tions this insect in its lar- 

 val state causes great in- 

 jury to the stems of the 

 currant and gooseberry by 

 so weakening them that 

 they break off when loaded 

 with fruit, and by making 

 them sickly. The female 

 lays her eggs in the stems ' 

 early in the summer. In 

 a few days the eggs hatch 

 into little white grubs, 

 which work into the pith 

 of the stem where they 

 make their burrows and 

 FIG. 23. Mature form of the Currant Worm, live until the following 

 A, male. B, female. ^^ They then finish 



their transformation and appear as wasp-like moths and the fe- 

 males shortly commence to lay eggs. This insect infests chiefly 

 the red and white currant, but it also attacks the black currant 

 and occasionally the gooseberry 



Remedies. The infested stems should be cut out in the au- 

 tumn or very early in the spring and be burned at once. If the 

 growers in any vicinity will follow th.s method in united effort 

 they can keep this insect in subjection. However, it is quite 

 certain this pest will not continue for many years so very abundant 

 as it is now, but that following the natural course of events it will 

 be checked by parasites or some disease, and we may then enjoy a 

 period of comparative immunity from it for a series of years. 



Lice (Aphis ribis) are frequently very abundant on the foliage 

 of currants and gooseberries, where they cause the leaves to curl 

 up and become distorted thus checking their growth, but sel- 

 dom causing serious injury. They may be destroyed by spray- 



