464 [Assembly 
evening. The exact situation in which it deposits its eggs, I have 
not yet discovered. These remain, it is probable, during the autumn 
and winter, to hatch and produce another generation of worms the 
following May. 
For at least three years past, the currant and gooseberry bushes of 
particular gardens in this district, have in June, been stripped of 
their leaves by these worms, so completely, that they would be bare 
as in winter, but for the dead stems and blighted fruit adhering to 
them. The long rows of these bushes in our gardens, when thus 
defoliated, present a dismal aspect, rendered more striking by the full 
luxuriance in which all the surrounding vegetation is arrayed at this 
period of the year. A second growth of leaves begin to show them¬ 
selves within a week after the worm has disappeared, and the shrubs 
are hereby sustained against immediate decay: but no fruit is yielded 
by them, and this annual destruction of their foliage cannot but prove 
most pernicious to their health and vigor. 
My attention was first directed to these worms in June 1846, when 
on a visit to the north part of this (Washington) county. Every 
garden in the village of Whitehall, I was informed, had been equally 
devastated by them, and eight miles south, in Granville, most of the 
gardens had shared the same fate. In one enclosure was an insu¬ 
lated cluster of bushes growing in the midst of a plat of tall grass, 
remote from any others, and it had been hoped these thus shielded 
would escape unharmed; but they were at length discovered, and 
suffered to the same extent with those more exposed. Air-slacked 
lime, and similar substances, had by some been sprinkled over their 
bushes, but without any benefit. A favorite gooseberry bush was 
shown me, over which a lady had tied her gauze veil, wholly envel¬ 
oping the leaves within it. This had proved an effectual protection. 
The worms had traversed the gauze in all directions, their tracks 
still visible by the cobweb-like threads which they spun as they 
crawled over it; but no attempt had been made by them to eat holes 
through this delicate fabric, although the inclosed leaves were every¬ 
where crowded against it. 
Thirty miles distant, here in the southern section of the county, 
the moth is much less abundant; but particular gardens may be 
found which are annually suffering to the same extent as above re¬ 
lated. Two such occur upon opposite sides of my own residence, 
less than a mile distant. And although from specimens preserved 
in my collection, I know the moth has been quite common in my 
own garden for four summers past, still it has not multiplied so as 
to commit any observable injury. 
