3J:8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
aborted at a very early stage, so that neither flowers, fruit, nor fohage are 
produced. The drying-up of the infested buds is completed by July, and 
previous to that event, probably from the time when the supply of nutri- 
ment from the tumid tissues (and perhaps also oily fluid from the yellow 
scent glands) ceases, the mites come forth and wander about to find fresh 
food. They seek the proper quarter, specimens being found at the bases 
of the leaf- stalks when the buds there are still very small. It is probable 
that the buds when still quite young are already so lax as to permit the 
microscopic travellers to enter between the scales, and ultimately to reach 
the centrally situated tissues, which are the goal they instinctively have 
in view, for provender and protection. 
The iDOwer of locomotion possessed by the mites is considerable, and 
it is likely enough that they pass from the old to the new wood and from 
branch to branch by creeping ; but, being so minute, it is hardly conceiv- 
able that they can cover the distances between widely planted bushes by 
way of the ground. When contiguous bushes touch at any point, a 
bridge is formed by which they can pass in hordes. While, however, the 
mites cannot of themselves accomplish aerial flight, they (and the eggs 
also) may quite readily be blown from bush to bush by the wind, or be 
carried in the feathers or on the feet of birds, on the bodies of insects, or 
on the hands and clothes of people pruning the bushes or gathering the 
fruit. Further, the dried remains of infested buds may often be the 
vehicle of distribution when carried along by the wind or other agent 
There seems to be nothing to hinder the mites from escaping from the buds 
at any time. 
The removal and destruction of the buds is of course an evident 
means of killing multitudes of the enclosed mites, but it gives no more 
than a temporary check to the disease, and is too expensive to carry out 
in large plots. 
Spraying with insecticides cannot aflect the mites when ensconced in 
the buds. This would be of service when the mites have left the dead 
and dying buds, and are moving on to new ones ; but if fruit were present 
it would be liable to be damaged by the fluids applied. 
No natural enemies of the mites with which we could ally ourselves 
have been discovered. 
Cutting back the bushes so as to get fresh clean shoots has seldom 
been found satisfactory. This practice has proved fairly successful 
occasionally when the bushes have been cub close down, so as to cause 
them to bud and send up new branches from beneath the surface of the 
soil, quicklime being spread pretty thickly over the stumps and the ground 
around them. The removal of the surface soil, and the substitution of 
fresh earth, might be suggested as an additional safeguard. 
We do not hear for certain of any variety of Currant being less subject 
to attack than others ; nor has it been shown that special cultural 
conditions v/ould induce constitutional peculiarities in the plants tending 
to render them immune or less readily attacked. 
We are thus in the meantime left with only one reliable course of 
action, viz. eradication and destruction by burning of the infested 
bushes. 
It would be a wise precaution to apply gas lime to the ground after 
