38 GOOSEBEREY. 



sprayed once yesterday morning, and I could not find a live Spider." 

 ..." I think the Vermorel Spraying Pump the most wonderful thing 

 for the money I ever came across ; it should be in every garden." ■•' 

 The good results remained, for in reply to a request of mine for some 

 more specimens of the Spider, I received a reply, sent on the 3rd of 

 June : — "I shall send you on Monday some infested sprigs of Ivy and 

 Gooseberry. My Gooseberries are cleared by the treatment, but I can 

 get plenty of specimens within a mile." 



Very likely many other of the numberless mixtures now purchasable 

 might have cleared out the Bed Spider pest equally well, but as this 

 remedy acted satisfactorily in all cases reported to me, and also at no 

 great cost, I usually suggested it, and, as noted, had good reports of 

 its success. 



Some applications were noted as doing little good, as for instance, 

 a mixture of soft-soap, quassia, and tobacco ; and Mr. J. Masters, 

 writing from Evesham, observed, " Where growers used Paris-green, 

 the bushes are most of them dead." 



For general methods of prevention, all cleaning and dressing of 

 Gooseberry bushes during winter, which would remove possible shelters 

 for the Mites, or their eggs, under loose bark, would be desirable; and 

 also (and very especially) all treatment which might destroy the 

 infestation in the ground, or prevent it creeping up the bushes from 

 the ground. One of my correspondents, who bestowed particular 

 attention on this point, observed the " Eed Spiders swarming up the 

 stems of bushes " in the early spring ; also a report was given me by 

 Mr. Nixon that where the stems of bushes, in his own orchards and in 

 about a dozen other orchards, were greased, there was, in all cases, the 

 same result, namely, the portion between the grease and ground was 

 very quickly covered with Spiders on their way up. And further, 

 during summer, a handful of mould taken up and examined through a 

 hand-glass would show as many as " fifty to one hundred Spiders 

 in it." 



* The Vermorel Knapsack Pump, or No. 1 Eclair Sprayer, is procurable from 

 the English agents, Messrs. Chas. Clark & Co., Windsor Chambers, Great St. Helen's, 

 London, E.C. The price, I believe, is 35/-, or thereabouts. This sprayer, or pump, 

 being easily portable on a man's back, is well adapted for use amongst fruit bushes. 



