42 
GOOSEBERRY. 
was decidedly serviceable, but could not be used after the fruit was 
ripe.” —T. H. Hart. 
Autumn or Winter removal of surface-soil from under the bushes. 
For prevention of all attack, excepting wliat may be borne on the 
wing by stray Sawflies blown from elsewhere, I believe the above plan 
to be the most certain. 
The caterpillars go down in autumn a little below the surface, the 
depth varying from about two inches to somewhat more, according to 
nature of ground. There they lie in small brown cocoons, like little 
pellets of earth, during the winter; and when the leafage comes out 
in the spring, so do the Sawflies from their cocoons under the bushes, 
and lay their eggs to start attack on the leaves. If the earth is 
removed, with the cocoons in it, and got rid of in any way the amount 
of attack is enormously lessened. 
“ For twenty years Gooseberry Sawfly-caterpillars have not occurred 
in the gardens under treatment, in any quantity. The surface-soil 
under the bushes is annually removed in winter, a deep hole is dug in 
one of the quarters, and in this the removed soil, with whatever may be 
in it, is buried. The soil under the Gooseberry bushes is replaced 
by that out of the hole, with the addition of some manure.”— Alex. 
Anderson. 
“ When there is reason to fear an attack [i. e., when there has 
been bad attack the previous year, Ed.] the soil should be removed to 
the depth of two inches round the bushes in the early spring, and a 
good sprinkling of lime dusted round each bush; by this means the 
caterpillars are cleared away and destroyed.” —George McKinlay. 
“ Caterpillars not nearly so injurious as last season. During the 
winter I removed all the surface-soil from under the bushes.”— John 
Matheson. 
“ Gooseberry bushes in my garden, from beneath which the earth 
had been scraped a few inches deep in the previous autumn and 
replaced by manure, &c., were free from attack.”— Ed. 
I have also a note from a gardener in this district near Isleworth, 
where Gooseberries are largely grown, that one method of treatment 
is to scrape all the surface from beneath them in the autumn and to 
form it into a line between the rows of Gooseberry bushes, and there 
dig it in. 
In this way a great amount of attack is prevented, but it is neces¬ 
sary to be careful as to having the scraped-off surface-soil dug in 
thoroughly. On one occasion I saw the first part of the operation 
carried out on a large scale,—the earth was scraped from under the 
bushes and formed into lines between them,—but there work stopped; 
consequently the cocoons lay just as safely as if nothing had been 
