CONFERENCE ON FRUIT GROWING. 



37 



bush somewhere or other, and that it is never in the ground that the mite 

 remains hidden. Samples of the soil have been searched to find the 

 living mites, but without success. I do not attach any great impor- 

 tance to this fact, but anyhow no one has been able to find them ; if 

 these creatures in the course of their life-history fall to the ground and 

 stay there, it really cannot be explained why you can never find them 

 behaving as though they were happy there. When watched under the 

 microscope in soil, they do not conceal themselves, or lay eggs, but 

 wander restlessly about until they die. It is certain, if your tree does 

 not thrive, you have not entirely removed the animal. Is it astonishing 

 you cannot do it ? In cases of very severe attack it is very little use 

 trying anything at all. If these investigations are worth anything, they 

 ought to save the expense of trying to save plants which are obviously 

 bound to fail. What, then, are we to do ? My belief is that salvation 

 lies only in the determination to plant none but mite-free plants. My 

 treatment is to pay every attention to those plots of Black Currants 

 which have not been attacked. There are still places left which have 

 been lucky enough to escape attack, and the only hope is to get stock 

 from them free from the mite. I have had to condemn plantations where 

 you could not see a single big bud. 



With young plants it is quite different from dealing with old bushes. 

 You cannot by simple inspection make sure they are free from the pest. 

 It needs the most careful examination, because you have to bear in mind 

 that a single mite inside a bud is quite sufficient to set up an attack ! 

 About the end of June there are hardly any mites in existence in this 

 country. Those only are alive which are in the buds. I have tried 

 much safer methods than the examination of individual buds. I have 

 taken the suspected buds, chopped them up, and placed them in a phial 

 of spirits of wine. I have shaken the phial, and. then allowed the debris 

 to fall to the bottom ; this I have examined under the microscope and 

 by a careful search I have found perhaps three or four mites — sufficient 

 to show that the buds are not immune. The recognition of the mite is 

 by no means a simple matter, and I impress upon you, do not be content 

 when a nurseryman, in perfect hona fides, tells you that a plant is free 

 from attack. He cannot tell. He may, without knowing it, be supplying 

 you with diseased plants ! You must get expert advice, or at least make 

 sure that the stock from which the cuttings are taken is free from " big 

 bud." 



Three or four years ago I was in Ireland, in the fruit-growing district 

 of Armagh. I wish I had been there two years earlier, as I could have 

 saved quite a disaster. There had been in that fruit-growing district a 

 very great boom in fruit-growing. The people had begun to enlarge 

 their fruit gardens and the Black Currants were much in demand. A 

 great many more were wanted than could be supplied, and bushes were 

 imported from England and Scotland. In these there were mites. I 

 talked to the fruit-growers in Armagh, and I hope my words put them 

 on their guard, and that they are still preserving considerable areas free 

 from attack. They know their danger. I am afraid the time has gone 

 by to be of much use in this country — the pest has spread so terribly — 

 but even small plantations are worth fostering. 



