On the Gooseberry Caterpillar. 435 



in separate heaps in a back shed on the floor, to be in readiness 

 in case of another attack of the caterpillar the following spring. 



The gooseberry bushes were attacked again the following- 

 spring, and the above remedy applied with but very indifferent 

 success ; and as they were not very numerous, and were soon 

 picked off", no farther notice was taken of them. 



I never forgot the successful application of the soot and wood 

 ashes, and, as seasons have passed on, I have continued using 

 it ; sometimes with tolerable success, at others without any. I 

 have often noticed the great improvement it made in the luxu- 

 riance and growth of the trees afterwards, if it happened to be 

 showery weather. In 1841, the gooseberry bushes in Bicton 

 gardens were attacked by multitudes of the caterpillar; and 

 making it a rule at all times to keep soot and wood ashes by me, 

 and having a quantity at the time in a shed, I tried it without 

 success, and was obliged to put all hands day after day hand- 

 picking them. They got so numerous that they attacked cur- 

 rants as well. In 1842 they came more numerous than ever; 

 every thing was tried that could be thought of; all other work 

 getting behind by attending to them. A host of boys was em- 

 ployed to pick by task, and some men and a woman. One batch 

 was no sooner cleared than another was attacked : with all the 

 exertion we could make, a great quantity of trees were com- 

 pletely stripped of their leaves, exposing the fruit to be shriveled 

 by the sun. 



Last autumn I was much perplexed every time I passed the 

 trees in so deplorable a condition. It struck me all at once, one 

 evening, that the properties of the soot and ashes were lost 

 to some extent by lying on the floor, or possibly by getting 

 a little damp in some way. I so well recollected, as if had hap- 

 pened only the day previous, that in the year 1817 I had seen 

 it destroy and expel the whole. I recollected too that the soot 

 was fresh cleaned out of chimneys where coal was burnt, that 

 the wood ashes were fresh and dry from under the furnace where 

 different kinds of wood were burnt, such as oak, elm, Scotch 

 fir, larch, some birch, and Spanish chestnut ; for I saw the 

 brewing-men sawing and taking it from a large stack under a 

 row of large high yew trees. This last winter, in collecting soot 

 and wood ashes, I had it put into old dry boxes and cement 

 casks, keeping the bottoms clear from the floor by bricks or logs 

 of wood, and covering it down so that no dampness could get to 

 it ; and on the bushes being attacked this spring again by thou- 

 sands of the black army, as my men call them, as they do also the 

 turnip caterpillar, we set to dredging the bushes early of a morn- 

 ing when they were damp, or after a shower, and by perseverance 

 we soon completely cleared them of the whole in their infant 

 state, without their doing any mischief whatever. At the same 



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