88 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



week, we have the daily ones on hand from which to make a new one without 

 loss to any one, thus there is no chance for a picker to lose pay, or for us to pay 

 only just what is due. 



Picking, except for local markets, should not begin till the dew is off in the 

 morning, and not continue through the heat of the day, if pickers enough can 

 be had to gather the crop without it — from four o'clock until dark is much the 

 best time. The packing shed should be a cool airy place, convenient to the 

 field, and here all the fruit should be taken as fast as gathered. A general 

 inspection of the fruit should be given by the person in charge, and packed 

 according to its grade, each variety by itself. 



RASPBERRY SAW-FLY. 



SiK, — My red raspberry bushes have suffered during the last two years from a slug- 

 gish green worm from ^ to f of an inch in length. Could you give me a remedy through 



the HOBTICOLTURIST ? 



C. Curtis, Leamington, Oni. 



We have had no personal experience with any such worms upon the rasp- 

 berry bushes ; our chief difficulty in growing raspberries arising from the rust 

 and from the ravages of the tree cricket. We would infer from what our su b 

 scriber says of it, that the insect referred to 

 is a raspberry saw-fly, the larva of which is 

 shown in the accompanying illustration in 

 its natural size, with some segments magnified 

 to show the arrangements of the spines upon 

 the back and side. The perfect insect of 

 this saw-fly is four-winged, and belongs to 

 the order Hymenoptera. It appears in the 

 latter part of May, just as the young leaves of 

 the raspberry are coming out. The eggs, 

 according to Mr. Saunders' " Insects 

 injurious to fruits," are buried beneath the 

 skin of the raspberry leaf near the 



ribs and veins, and are placed there by means of the saw-like apparatus with 

 which the female is provided. When newly hatched, the larva is about i )^ of 

 an inch long. Its body is at first nearly white, but afterwards becomes green, 

 indeed, very much the color of the leaf upon which it feeds ; and on this account 

 it would not be very easily discovered were it not that it riddles out the leaves, 

 by eating all the softer tissue between the veins. When fully grown it measures 

 ^ of an inch in length. Towards the end of June, the larva leaves the bush 

 and forms its cocoon beneath the surface of the soil, where its transformation is 

 affected, and from which place of concealment it issues forth in the early spring 

 to continue its depredations. 



Fig. 21 — raspberry saw-fly. 



