80 
BLACK CURRANT. 
of good, of course taking care to work well in round the neck of the 
branches at ground-level so as to get out all harbour for the mites. 
If to this was added, smearing the lowest part of the branches for 
about two or three inches high with the material called “ Davidson’s 
composition ” (which answers excellently for keeping insect pests from 
crawling up trees or plants), it would appear impossible that attack 
could be started from mites crawling from the ground. Where bushes 
are only slightly infested, breaking off the swollen buds and destroying 
them should be carefully looked to. It is little use breaking them off 
if they are dropped about, and also good strong syringings with soft 
soap for the main ingredient would be very useful. These would run 
down and lodge in all the chinks and crannies ; under rough bark 
between buds and shoots ; in the angles of the branches; in short, 
just the place where the straggling Currant Mites harbour, and would 
kill what were there, and likewise by the greasy and deterrent 
mixtures harbouring would make their hiding-holes quite unattractive 
and unsuitable for shelters. 
The following recipe, sent me in 1885, by Mr. Arthur Bull, of 
Cottenham, Cambs.,* would be serviceable :— 
“ Two parts of sulphur and three parts lime boiled together in 
water (2 lbs. sulphur and 8 lbs. lime, 3 gals, water), which is further 
diluted at the rate of two or three pints to a large pail of water, 
applied with a syringe to the infested bushes.” 
Or, to save the trouble of boiling the lime, sulphuret of lime may 
be used—4 ozs. of the sulphuret and 2 ozs. of soft soap to each 
gallon of water. The two ingredients should be well mixed before the 
addition of the water, and be stirred as the water is poured on at 
boiling heat. This may be used as a syringing, or in thick condition 
run down at the bottom of the bushes to choke and poison what lodge 
there. 
Where bushes are badly infested they should be destroyed, but 
this should be done carefully. If the branches are just carelessly 
thrown for a while on the beds, the mite is very likely indeed to spread 
from the broken bits to the healthy bushes. The branches should be 
cut and immediately carried away and burnt; the stump should be 
grubbed out and also burnt; and the surface soil displaced in the 
operations should not on any account whatever be spread about, or it 
will probably convey the mites with it. If it is turned down again 
into the hole, and some fresh gas-lime spread on the spot, this would 
make all safe, and probably sprinklings of gas-lime under the bushes, 
or thrown in a ring round the bottom of the branches would be very 
useful. Care should be taken that it did not touch the bark, and that 
* See ‘ Ninth Beport on Injurious Insects,’ p. 35. 
