304 



SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST, 



be five to six feet apart^ if it is desirable to have them 

 grow to full size^ although they are readily kept within 

 a much less space^ but much fruit will be lost by severe 

 pruning. These coarse-growing species usually produce 

 better and larger fruit on old plants than on the young, 

 provided they are given good culture^ and all little^ weak 

 shoots are annually cut out^ so that those remaining will 

 be fully developed. 



The tree form is preferable to the bush or clump for 

 all the varieties of the species last named. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES. 



It is only within the past twenty or thirty years that 

 insects injurious to the Currant and Gooseberry have be- 

 come so numerous as to attract much attention. In 1847, 

 the late Dr. Asa Fitch, in his Eeport as State Entomolo- 

 gist of I^ew York, mentioned an insect which had become 

 very destructive to the Currant in the central part of the 

 State, and as it somewhat resembled the European Cur- 

 rant and Gooseberry moth {Airaxis grossitldriata), he re- 

 ferred this American pest to the same genus, and named 

 it Ahraxis ribearia. In figure 89, at the upper right- 

 hand side, is shown the male moth, and at the left the 

 female, while on the leaf above is shown the caterpillar, as 

 seen when feeding. Another of these caterpillars is seen 

 suspended from the edge of the leaf, as they appear when 

 letting themselves down to the ground, while below is its 

 pupa, in which form this insect passes through the winter. 

 Eecent investigations by other entomologists show that 

 this insect is a native of K"orth America, and not of 

 Europe, as at one time supposed. Furthermore, Dr. A. 

 S. Packard considers the insect to be sufficiently distinct 

 to be separated from Airaxis ; and he has placed it in a 

 genus to which he has given the name of EufitcMa, in 

 honor of its first discoverer, Dr. Fitch ; consequently its 

 scientific name becomes Eufitchia ribearia^ instead of 



