46 
CURRANT. 
more or less affected, and many of them quite as thickly covered as the 
hit I send. The insects have not been noticed before, and were 
certainly not there when the bushes were shifted about two years ago. 
They are in a very exposed situation, facing the north, and have never 
been very productive in fruit. I think, however, that these insects 
must do damage. Where a bush had more Coccids on one side than 
the other, I noticed that that side would frequently have a number of 
dead branches ; some of the branches, either dead or partly dead, had 
withered leaves at the top, showing that they had leafed in the spring, 
and had been then alive. These bushes, I should say, are all black 
Currants, though where I found them at Wakefield it was on red ."— 
S. L. M. 
About the same date, specimens of Pulvinaria ribesiee with great 
quantities of eggs or young larvae were forwarded to me by Prof. 
Geddes, University College, Dundee, with a letter accompanying from 
Mr. W. Cruicksliank, 10, Clergy Street, Macduff (Co. Banff, N.B.), 
requesting information about it as a form of life unknown to him, which 
was infesting his Currant-bushes, and threatened to spread. 
On first hearing of the newly-noticed Scale, with examples accom¬ 
panying showing its vast power of multiplication, I advised burning 
the infested bushes, that the attack might be at once stamped out 
before (like the Currant Gall Mite) it established itself to a serious 
extent; but shortly after the observations began, I was favoured with 
the following valuable information as to simple measures which had 
been found to act perfectly well in extirpating the pest, without 
injuring the bushes :— 
On July 21st, Mr. Wm. M‘Kenzie wrote me from the gardens under 
his charge at Glenmuick, Ballater, Aberdeenshire, that in 1880 the 
garden was visited by this Currant pest, and, as he had never, after a 
long experience, seen it before, he first tried the common application 
of soft-soap as a remedy. This proved useless, as also did dilute 
paraffin-oil, which, as Mr. W. M‘Kenzie justly remarks, is an appli¬ 
cation not generally to be recommended, as it may do much harm 
if not judiciously used. These applications having failed, in the 
following year (1881) Mr. W. M‘Kenzie “applied a dilution of hot 
lime in the autumn, going over the bushes with a brush (the same 
process as whitewashing), occasioning the bushes to shed or throw off 
the bark, and thus effectually curing them of the pest, without in the 
least injuring the bushes.” The proportion used was “ two pounds of 
lime to one gallon of water, being the same consistency as is used for 
whitewashing walls.” This application Mr. M‘Kenzie found to be an 
effectual and permanent cure, and later on he forwarded me specimens 
of Currants gathered off the previously-mentioned bushes to show that 
the remedy had proved thoroughly effective against the infestation, 
