GOOSEBERRY AND IVY RED SPIDER. 



37 



Spider,' especially where growers took no precautions." Also in one 

 of Mr. Nixon's earliest communications, he wrote : — " I am sending 

 you to-day some Gooseberry cuttings of my neighbours. I do not send 

 my own, because they are not nearly so bad." ..." I dressed fre- 

 quently and heavily last year with soft-soap, treacle, and quassia." 

 Mrs. Manning's communication from Watford also points to infes- 

 tation spreading from even one neglected bush. 



For attacks of this nature, probably there are no better applications 

 than spraying with soft-soap wash, or mixtures of soft-soap with 

 mineral oil, or with sulphur. Where these can be successfully mixed 

 at home it saves much trouble, but sometimes purchase of a ready- 

 made mixture saves both trouble and much risk, for if the mineral oil 

 and soap wash are not permanently united, they presently separate, 

 and whilst the soft-soap does not do all the good that was intended, 

 the paraffin does much harm. 



So far as reports sent me show, one of the most generally service- 

 able washes for syringing with, when attack is fairly established, is the 

 mixture sold by Messrs. Morris, Little & Son, of Doncaster, under the 

 trade name of "Anti-pest." On enquiry by myself of Messrs. Morris 

 & Co. as to the general nature of the mixture, they replied: — " We 

 have no objection whatever to your stating ' that the Anti-pest is not 

 distantly allied to the Kerosine Emulsion of the U. S.. A., but has the 

 great advantage of being easily miscible with water, &c.,' as no doubt 

 this would be somewhat in its favour." 



With regard to special observation of the effect of the dressing, — 

 on March 22nd, Mr. Nixon wrote me, after a deal of experimenting, 

 that he was then able to speak confidently regarding Messrs. Morris, 

 Little & Son's Anti-pest, and considered it undoubtedly the best 

 dressing he had tried, and at the same time he forwarded two boxes of 

 specimens of Gooseberry twigs for my examination. On those that 

 had been dressed there were hardly any " Red Spiders " remaining, 

 and such as there were appeared to be all dead ; whilst on the twigs 

 that had not been dressed the "Red Spiders" were mostly quite active; 

 and later on, on May 3rd, Mr. Nixon further reported that he considered 

 he had mastered the " Spider," and did not expect to have much 

 difficulty with it in the future. 



Amongst other correspondents much troubled with this Gooseberry 

 leaf pest, I suggested to Sir J. Stewart Richardson, of Pitfour Castle, 

 near Perth (see p. 35), that a trial of the so-called " Anti-pest," applied 

 by the Verniorel Spraying Pump, might prove beneficial, and shortly 

 after he favoured me with a note of results as follows : — " I at once 

 sent for Little's Anti-pest and a Vermorel Spraying Pump ; . . . the 

 result of the two things is most satisfactory. This afternoon I 

 inspected some of the bushes most affected, which had only been 



