88 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Pear Midge. — Then there is the Pear midge. This has been 

 very much neglected in the early days. People paid no attention to it. 

 It is gradually encroaching and bids fair, if care is not taken, to 

 become as trying a pest as the Black Currant mite. We should learn 

 a lesson from that dreadful pest. You find stunted Pears containing 

 grubs, like cheese-maggots, on a tree. You pay no attention to 

 them, perhaps you do not even know of it. What I would impress 

 upon you is, do not be content not to know whether you have this 

 pest or not, but be on the look-out for it, and if you find a single 

 tree attacked, adopt the most drastic measures to get rid of it. They 

 come out and you have no excuse for not taking measures against 

 them. If I had a tree infested, I should strip every pear off the tree, 

 good or bad, and dress the ground. 



Question : What dressing will destroy the Pear midge grub when it 

 has descended to the ground ? 



Mr. Wabbubton : Kainit is what the Americans use. 



Question : Does that suceeed ? 



Mr. Wabbubton : They say it does. 



Question : Have you tried it ? 



Mr. Wabbubton : I have tried it, and it has been generally but not 

 always successful. 



Mr. Hemsley : I have recently gone through two nurseries where 

 the Black Currants are beautiful. Would it be safe to assume that they 

 are free from infection ? 



Mr. Wabbubton : I should want to know from what plants they 

 were cut. If the parents were infested, it is almost certain that the off- 

 spring would be. Their own apparent healthfulness does not count. 



Mr. W. P. Wbight : I have a number of Black Currants sent to me by 

 Mr. Bunyard some four years ago ; they are the finest Black Currants in 

 existence at the present time. It is a magnificent variety, the Boskoop 

 Giant. 



Mr. Bunyabd : It is twelve or fourteen years ago since I introduced 

 this variety. It is of extraordinary vigour. We have found it practically 

 free from the mite, I will not say absolutely free from it, because I have 

 a few affected plants that we first imported, which are not as vigorous as 

 they might be. We can only say the Boskoop is a very strong grower, 

 much more woody than any other kind, and it may be that the cuticle of 

 the bud is harder and less easy for the mite to penetrate. I was in a 

 private garden at Oxford one day, and I said to the gardener : " Do you 

 know the Black Currant mite?" He said: "I have none here." I 

 went through his plantation of currants, and I never saw such fine bushes 

 before. I said: "You have got it most decidedly," but on the Naples 

 variety only the old Blacks are quite free. 



As to the mussel scale, you must get rid of it, you must search every 

 stem, and will find most on the weakly trees. One of the safest things 

 to use for mussel scale is common oil, whether animal or vegetable. I 

 believe scientists say that the scale breathes through spiracles or pores, 

 and you stifle them by covering up these with oil. This scale is very 

 much more prevalent than people are aware of. 



The black aphis is more difficult to kill than any other. It appears to 



