928 
Annual Report of New York 
CURRANT-WORM. REMEDIES. WHITE HELLEBORE. 
important remedies for destroying it and saving the currant and 
gooseberry bushes from its ravages. 
The remedy which transcends all others in its efficacy for destroy¬ 
ing the larva of the Currant Saw-fly, is the root of the white helle¬ 
bore, Veratrum album , either dried and ground into an impalpable 
powder, or a decoction made by boiling it in water and when cold 
sprinkling the leaves therewith from a watering pot. Words fail 
us for suitably expressing the value of this substance. In the 
whole round of remedies for injurious insects we know of no other 
one that is so efficacious, we know of no other one that possesses 
such virtue for destroying any insect as does this substance for 
destroying this larva. It is a sovereign cure for the evil. It is a 
specific. It operates like a charm. Easy of application and cer¬ 
tain in its effects, it is all that can be desired. The larva does not 
require to eat it. It kills the moment it touches. In the words of 
B. Lymburn, “ wherever a particle, reaches a caterpillar, it collapses 
as if stabbed,” yes, as if stabbed to the heart. Every one who 
notices this powder as it falls upon a worm will confirm the literal 
truth of this statement. The worm is instantly convulsed with a 
death spasm, rolls off the leaf and drops lifeless to the ground. It 
is “ a spectacle wonderful to behold.” But it standing on the 
underside of a leaf where the powder does not touch it, when it 
afterwards comes to eat a particle of it, its doom is sealed with 
equal certainty. 
In addition to the statements of the efficacy of this remedy, which 
have incidentally been made in the foregoing pages, a few others 
may here be presented. 
D. G. had 3,000 gooseberry trees so covered with caterpillars 
that in a few days not a leaf would be left. He got six pounds of 
the white hellebore powder, and dusted the plants over from a large 
pepper box, and it completely killed all the caterpillars upon them. 
( Gardener's Chronicle, 1842, p. 365.) 
The Ithaca Journal says: “ We luiow from repeated experiments 
that powdered hellebore sprinkled on the bushes in quite limited 
quantities, will clear the worms in double quick time. We have 
succeeded in completely eradicating them from ours, and have the 
promise of a superb crop .” — (Rural New Yorker, vol. xv, p. 207.) 
S. Edwards Todd, of Auburn, states that he has found that pul¬ 
verized white hellebore will effectually destroy ever 1 ' worm in less 
