THE GENESEE FARMER. 



183 



ALES AND TALKS IN THE GARDEN.-No. II 



other advantages of a settled community are obtained, 

 the bugs and worms, and beetles, and flies innumerable 

 come Tn to render increasing vigilance Still necessary. 

 This gooseberry saw-fly ia no new thing. It has been 

 known in England for centuries. It can be destroyed, or 

 rather so far kept under as to do comparatively little dam- 

 age. The most approved remedy in England is to dust 

 the bushes with Black Hillebore powder." 



"Another good plan is to train the bushes on a single 

 I stem, and then you can shake off a good many of the cater- 

 pillars and destroy them, or by putting a little tarred 

 cotton round the stem prevent them from crawling up 

 again." 



"It first attacked the currant bushes to any extent in 

 A^Things are suffering, but I tbis vic inity in 1858, and in the Genesee Farmer- tor July 

 nl it to wn t. It is a bad sign when a farmer, of that ye ar you will find a full account of tfs habits, his- 

 dlner covins of dry weather. When I firstwent tory , &c „ together with a cut of the fly and the caterp.l- 

 ted Z 1 21 aied me about my father's farm, J£ The fly emerges from her winter quarters in Apnl 

 crops we raised yield, &c. I told him it was a light, or May> accord ing to the season, and deposits her eggs 

 rm soil and produced well in wet seasons. He quietly on the leaves . These hatch in about a' week and the 

 narked ' I fear your father is a poor farmer.' 'A good cat erpillars soon commence their work of destruction, 

 mer' he said, 'always dreads a wet season.' By a 

 od farmer he meant a 'high farmer '-one who manured 

 *hly and kept a large stock feeding on oil-cake, clover, 

 I Lawes was right. Make the land rich, keep it clean 

 d mellow and drought will seldom injure it." 

 " The trouble is you can't get a gardener that likes to 

 ,e the hoe. Most of them prefer to rake and make 

 ings smooth. I sometimes feel like banishing the rake 

 om the garden. This dry weather is just what we want 

 i destroy weeds. Even this abominable chickweed will 

 e if cut off while it is so hot and dry. You can't hoe 

 ,o much unless the soil is exceedingly sandy. A rather 

 iff soil that is apt to bake in dry weather, should be 

 oed-I was going to say everyday, but that is asking 

 jo much. However, it can't be hoed too often. Those 

 rho have not tried it will be surprised to see how things 

 rill -row if the hoe is constantly used. A weed never 

 ught to be seen in a garden after the first of June. 

 Leep the ground so thoroughly hoed that they have no 

 hauce to grow. Don't let the weeds get the start of you. 

 SVeeds are like fire ' a good servant but a bad master.' 

 Chey are sent as an incentive to hoe-to stir the ground, 

 to let in the sunshine and air, and dews, and rain, and 

 thus warm and enrich, and water it. But let the weeds 

 get the start of you and it is difficult to get them un- 

 der." 



"The worms are on the currant and gooseberry bushes 

 already. Look how nicely the eggs are glued to the un- 

 dersides of the leaves. A few days of this warm weather 

 will hatch them, and then the caterpillar will soon strip 

 the bushes of foliage if not checked in some way." 



"Nonsense. A sensible man like you ought not to 

 talk of giving up the culture of anything merely because 

 it is attacked by insects or fungus. I would like to know 

 what plant, or shrub, or tree is exempt from them. In 

 the Garden of Eden there were no insects or weeds, but 

 no garden since has been exempt. In a new country 

 there are so many discomforts that nature provides some 

 slight compensation by allowing the first settlers a short 

 period of comparative exemption from insects injurious 

 to their crops. As society, good roads, good markets and 



GOOSEBERRY SAW-FEY. 



If you do not destroy the first brood, the caterpillars, 

 when full grown, descend to the earth, undergo their 

 transformations and emerge again as perfect flies to re- 

 new the work of distruction. In this way you may have 

 two or three broods in a season, and if people let them 

 alone they will spread with fearful rapidity. Go home 

 and declare war with the rascals. Hoist the black flag. 

 Give no quarters-and you shall have currants still in 



spite of the saw-fly. 



" The mildew on the gooseberry is a sorer trouble.— 

 It i« difficult to raise the large English kinds. Mulching 

 the bushes and scattering sulphur on the leaves and fruit 

 as soon as the first appearance of mildew is seen, are the 

 only preventives I know." 



« Yes. I think sulphur will check it if applied m Urn*. 

 The mildew on the gooseberry is closely allied to the 

 grape mildew, and we know that sulphur dusted on the 



