The Larch Bug. 
181 
from the nurserymen it was at once introduced from England 
and Scotland — of course without the knowledge of those who 
supplied the plants. 
Plantations free from disease are rapidly getting scarce, and 
if growers follow the above advice the demand for clean plants 
will for a time greatly exceed the supply ; yet this seems the 
only way to prevent matters from going from bad to worse. 
There are still localities where the disease has happily not 
yet penetrated. Probably there are many small plantations of 
mite-free plants whose owners have regarded them as too small 
to be of any importance. It is only a matter of a very few 
years to propagate thousands of plants from such a nucleus — 
jealously guarding it at the same time from contamination by 
imported plants. In this direction, at all events, lies the only 
hope of getting rid of the disease : — in the determination to 
aim at absolute, and not only comparative freedom from the 
mite. The issue is entirely in the hands of the fruit growers. 
If they resolve to plant only mite-free (not mite-resisting) 
bushes, and to destroy ruthlessly any that show the slightest 
sign of big bud, there is the prospect of a vast improvement in 
a few years' time. But the motto must be, “ Either clean 
bushes or none.” A compromise will infallibly lead to the 
continued spread of the disease. Of course, such a measure 
would be a “ self-denying ordinance,” and would result in 
temporary reduction of the black-currant crop ; but it would, 
nevertheless, be a wise and far-sighted policy. 
Plant Lice. 
Compared with 1904 the past year has been singularly free 
from aphis disease, the conditions on the whole being adverse 
to pests of this kind, and their natural enemies having, no 
doubt, largely increased towards the end of last season and 
gained a temporary ascendancy, as is generally the case after an 
unusual visitation of any special class of insect. Nevertheless, 
two of the aphis tribe demand notice here — one, because of the 
numerous complaints received with regard to it ; and the other, 
because it is little known, and more information as to its 
powers of injury is much desired. 
The Larch Bug ( Ghermes laricis). 
The numerous complaints which have been received 
concerning this pest during the past year seem to render a 
tolerably full account of it desirable, even at the risk of 
repeating what has often been stated before and is familiar to 
entomologists, but by no means so to all the owners of larch 
plantations. 
