State Aqricvltural Society. 
923 
PENETRATES FORESTS. FEEDS ON WILD GOOSEBERRIES 
larvce to continue feeding much later in the former than in the 
latter situations. 
In 1857 the flies did not appear in such force in my garden as I 
expected. The spring was wet and backward, and I did not search 
my bushes until the beginning of June, when I discovered worms 
upon them in numerous places, some of them already grown nearly 
to their full size. Through this season, whenever a worm was dis¬ 
covered the leaves around it were promptly dusted with hellebore; 
and the bushes continued in full leaf through the season, no very 
manifest defoliation being perceptible in any place. Through this 
section of the State, this year, in particular gardens the currant 
bushes were wholly denuded of their leaves. In many other gar¬ 
dens these worms were known to be present in numbers more or 
less formidable and threatening; whilst in many others it had not 
as yet been seen. Numerous inquiries were addressed to me, in 
reference to this insect. A summary statement of its history, hab¬ 
its and transformations, which I wrote in reply to oue of these cor¬ 
respondents, in which was also set forth iu the most decided terms 
the efficacy of hellebore as a remedy, was published in the Sara¬ 
tovian newspaper of June 20lh, and was copied into several of the 
other local newspapers, whereby this remedy was much resorted 
to, and with the most satisfactory results. 
The insect continued to advance, appearing this year in many 
localities beyond those which it reached the preceding year. I am 
informed by Dr. Gile, of Poultney, Vt., that it arrived in that place 
this summer, and that in a hunting excursion in the wilds of 
Northern New York, at Indian Lake, Hamilton county, in the forest 
fifteen miles distant from any other settlement, he saw the currant 
bushes covered with these worms, and twenty miles beyond this, at 
Jessup’s settlement, he noticed these same worms thronging a bush 
of wild gooseberry, which was probably the Ribes hirtellum. 
Although it is reported that it does not feed upon the wild black 
currant, R. flondum, there is no doubt but that it relishes the seve¬ 
ral species of our native gooseberries, R. laenstre , Cynosbati , hirtel¬ 
lum et rotundifolium, one or more of which are growing every where 
iu our woodlands, and it will consequently be able to advance 
through an unbroken wilderness sis readily as through districts that 
are cleared and cultivated. 
In the historical account which has now been given of the intro¬ 
duction and progress of this insect in our country, many of the 
