No. 115.] 117 



With our present knowledge it seems that hops, when badly 

 infested, can only be saved at the cost of considerable labor, by 

 the methods frequently resorted to in England, viz. : washing them 

 by means of a hand engine and hose with some liquid that will kill 

 the lice. The best wash for the purpose is said to be : 100 gallons 

 of water (if hard water, with soda added) ; 4 to 5 pounds of soft- 

 soap ; 6 to 8 pounds of quassia. This is to be thrown, as far as 

 possible, on the under surface of the leaves. 



The efficacy of this washing has been clearly shown. Planters using 

 it in England grew crops of from seven to nine hundred pounds 

 per acre, while those not using it grew nothing, or next to nothing. 



It must be used as soon as the lice make their appearance, and 

 continued until they are all removed. 



It is now too late for this remedy in our New York yards. 

 Judging from the reports made, the crop is doomed for this year, 

 unless favorable weather and heavy rains come to its rescue. 

 Much may be done in preventives early in the season. 



As to the cause of the honey-dew coating the leaves, it was thus 

 explained by Dr. Fitch : u Each aphis has two little horns project- 

 ing from the hind part of the back, which horns are termed the 

 honey-tubes. From these tubes the fluid called honey-dew is 

 ejected, in the form of minute drops, like particles of dew, which, 

 falling upon the leaves beneath them, the upper surface of the 

 leaves become coated over with this fluid, more or less copiously 

 as the aphides producing it are more or less numerous." 



This opinion is pretty generally accepted, as giving also the 

 explanation of the honey-dew on our elms, which, at the present 

 time, is blackening the sidewalks* beneath these trees in many of 

 our cities. Others believe that the leaves, from some diseased 

 condition, give out the honeyed substance. As lending color to 

 this opinion, we have in the report of Mr. J. B. Smith, agent of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, in an examination 

 made of some hop-yards of our State, the following statement : 

 u July twenty-first, saw honey-dew for the first time. The current 

 belief is that this is caused by the lice, but there certainly are not 

 lice enough now to produce all this - honey-dew.' Mr. Eastman and 

 Mr. Fness think the lice have nothing to do with it. They say 

 they have seen lice without honey-dew, and honey-dew in abund- 

 ance where there were no lice." 



