1889.] PUBLIC document — No. 4. 153 



Mr. Edson. The essayist has described the little black 

 beetle exactly as I have it in the cranberry bog. I am sur- 

 prised to learn that he has got up here among the straw- 

 berries. I want to ask the essayist if he knows of any remedy 

 for that fellow. 



Mr. Wood. In my first year's experience with him he 

 made his appearance in an old bed, and not on a new bed. 

 During this spring he confined his work entirely to' the 

 old bed and left the new one untouched ; yet the new one 

 was close up to the old. I put on a heavy application of 

 Paris green, but he seemed to thrive on it, and showed no 

 disposition to relax his hold. 



Mr. Edson. I was proposing to try Paris green, but if it 

 does no good I won't try it. 



Mr. Wood. Your experience may be different. 



Mr. Cruikshanks. My first obseiwation of this beetle was 

 seven years ago. I discovered that the strawberry plants 

 were being injured in the manner described by Mr. Wood. 

 I learned from our friend, Mr. Had wen, that this beetle was 

 causing a great deal of destruction in the West, and they 

 were ploughing in their strawberry fields to get rid of them. 

 The remedy I applied was to take the plants all out and 

 turn them down, and I had no trouble with it on new plants. 

 It is a fact that none of our small fruits have suffered as much 

 as the currant. The place assigned it seems to be back of 

 some old fence where the grass and weeds try to see which 

 will get possession of the ground first, and the currant bush 

 surely has hard work to get a footing at all. There is no 

 fruit plant that responds so readily to generous cultivation, 

 or that will give better returns for the expense. The history 

 of the currant goes back of three hundred years. It was 

 then presented to the public and was called a smooth-stem 

 gooseberry. Up to 1842 there were only eight varieties. 

 Now you can find nearly a hundred in the catalogue. But 

 the Royal Horticultural Society of London has tested all 

 these varieties, and simmered them down to less than twenty- 

 five in number. Although it was introduced three hun- 

 dred years ago, it was not until the beginning of the present 

 century that the currant became a standard fruit in the gar- 

 den. But it has been cultivated in a small way. It is one 



