It is impossible for me at this time to give you a detailed account of my fight with this new and most formidable enemy of the horticulturist; but according to promise will try to put some of your readers on the alert for this terrible army which comes noiselessly and without banners, and ere we know it the foliage is gone.

The curculio has nearly discouraged us in the cultivation of plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and some varieties of pears and peaches, having proven to be entirely too smart for us, notwithstanding the boasted patents and nostrums for his destruction. It is barely possible that some good may grow out of the loss of the above-named fruits. It is stated that all things are permitted for some wise purpose, but one could hardly imagine any good thing resulting from the destruction of this antibilious and corrective fruit, the currant.

These worms undoubtedly are of very recent origin. We first heard of them but a few years ago; we must therefore conclude that creation is not ended. If this is true, and there is no good resulting from the destruction of this variety of fruit, it would suggest that the wise Creator has had nothing to do with it. About the middle of May they begin to appear on the lower leaves near the ground, and what afterward proves to be many hundreds may be found on a single leaf. They travel slowly until they attain considerable size, which gives ample time to destroy them before they have done much damage. By the 1st of June small black skins, with the worm's head attached, may be seen on the ends of the branches, and in a very few days no worms are to be seen. I have seen hundreds of worms on the top of a bush in the evening, and in the morning each one had left behind it its skin, and disappeared.

Whether in one night the larva changes into a fly, unlike other insects, or whether it goes through the regular transforming process of a chrysalis' life in a cocoon, in the earth beneath the bush, I have not ascertained, but intend to remove a bush, sift the soil, and learn the facts, if possible. I placed three sizes of the worms, from one third to fully grown, in a glass vessel, and put in with them some currant leaves; each of the sizes immediately concealed themselves at the bottom of the glass under a cocoon. This leads me to think that they enter the earth as above conjectured; but why they should leave their old suits behind them on the ends of the branches seems to be a mystery. It is about two weeks since the larvae were placed in the vessel, and it is now swarming with beautiful yellow flies, in size and shape somewhat similar to the house-fly, a little more slender, with large abdomen, and prepared to deposit an innumerable number of eggs, which they are now fastening upon leaves put in the glass for this purpose.

We may therefore suppose that the eggs of the new installment are already upon the foliage, and I am watching daily for their reappearance, which at the farthest will not be longer than a week, as they have been gone from the bushes two weeks; thus they appear and disappear three times during the season, and each time they come in greater numbers.

The bushes should not be allowed to touch each other; if they do, the larvae will continue to eat and grow until they get to be an inch long. They do not in any case leave one bush and creep on the ground to another, but always leave when they reach the top, not being particular about their Size or age, if the branches of another bush do not intermingle. I have had many bushes uninjured, with others standing on either side entirely defoliated, when they did not touch each other. I find white hellebore a perfect remedy, and the De La Vergne sulphur bellows the most convenient instrument we have used. All sprouts and rubbish should be cleared away, that the worms may be readily seen. A slight puff with the bellows will kill them in twenty minutes. I think that this bellows should be in the hands of every person owning a garden, not only for applying the hellebore to the currant and gooseberry bushes, but for the application of sulphur and Cayenne pepper mixed to destroy the rose bugs, thrip, and other insects, on grapes, roses, etc.

I use it weekly, with success, on valuable varieties.

The druggists who retail hellebore usually charge more than double the first cost. One of them, of my acquaintance, paid 30 cents per pound, and remarked that he ought to retail i£ at 75 cents. Last season I paid 50 cents at retail. I bought 100 pounds this year at 35 cents, and was offered it by other parties at 30 cents, and it is quite likely that these wholesale dealers did not pay more than 15 or 20 cents per pound; and "unless this article is so regulated that the consumer can get it at a fair valuation, it can not be used to any extent by horticulturists. As to its being poisonous, I can only say that I have inhaled it for two hours at a time, this season and last, and so have other members of my family. It is very unpleasant to the olfactory organs, and causes sneezing. This may be avoided by keeping to the windward side. The bellows should not be used when the bushes are wet, as the wires soon fill with the dampened powder.

A. J. Caywood.

The Currant Worm #1

I must watch daily and carefully for the first appearance of this destructive insect, and at once use powdered hellebore. Neglected it this year, and had my bushes nearly stripped of all their foliage. E.

Currant Worms #1

As usual, these pests have re-appeared this spring in many places, but mostly in the Northern and Middle States. One cultivator says, " he tried whale ail soap, but the worms grew fat upon it; tobacco soap rather subdued them; strong soap-suds were only a grateful shower, and water made strong and dark with droppings from the hen roost had much more effect upon the user than upon the worm".

The editor of the N. E. Fanner, says, "white hellebore" proved the most effective of all methods he tried, still there are some objections to it. In the first place, it is a poisonous article, and in careless hands might be the means of much suffering, or prove fatal to human life. In a small way, in private gardens, its cost might not prove burdensome, but where currants are raised for market, it would be objection-able. Again, it is a slow, disagreeable, and tedious task, to apply it to the bushes so as to prevent the ravages of the worms. The fly comes from the ground and deposits its eggs on the under sides of the leaves, and at first usually on that part of the foliage near the ground. If the hellebore is sifted on the foliage it must pass down into the centre of the bush quite freely, and cover most of the leaves, or the worms will continue their work. We made careful use of it last year, and found it efficacious in some degree, but not a certain preventive. Carefully searching for the leaves containing eggs or worms, picking them into boxes and crushing them under feet, accomplished more than anything else resorted to. But that process was tiresome, and to some is a disgusting one, and unless the bushes were quite vigorous, the leaves could not well be spared.

Carbolic acid in solution was tried, but did not prove satisfactory. That is also poisonous, and therefore a dangerous article to have about.

The carbolate of lime is another article used to destroy the currant worm. It is in the form of a fine flour, has a disagreeable odor, and we should think would be quite objectionable if any portion of it should touch the fruit. Dr. £. Worcester, of Waltham, Mass., informed the editor of the Boston Journal of Chemistry, that " he tried this powder in many instances last summer, and found that while it was fully as effectual as hellebore, it was less disagreeable, less costly and perfectly safe. The method of using it is to sprinkle it over the vines as soon as the worm makes its appearance. One or two applications was found sufficient. Neither the foliage nor the fruit, he stated, was injured by the carbolate of lime".

In the Religious Magazine for March, 1871, the Rev. E. H. Sears, after relating several experiments to destroy the currant worm, which proved ineffectual, says:

" Soon after these disastrous experiments, I was on a visit to a friend who is an amateur gardener. I was surprised to find his currant bushes green and flourishing, and pretty well loaded with clusters; while looking over the fence into his neighbor's garden, the bushes were stripped entirely bare. * How in the world did you save them ?' was a very natural, and in my case a very eager inquiry. Take a pound of copperas and dissolve it in seven gallons of water, and sprinkle it over the bushes with a watering pot. My bushes were getting covered with the worm, but one application dosed him effectually. I advised my neighbor over the fence to do the same, but neighbor's wife objected, fearing the copperas would poison the currants, and so he sprinkled them with lime; and you see the result. My friend found a second application necessary a few weeks later when the pest re-appeared; and the result was a large and beautiful crop of ripe currants".

The Currant Worm #1

A writer in the Ploughman, after a trial of various plans for the destruction of the currant worm, finds nothing so effectual as air-slacked lime or wood ashes. In fact, he thinks any dry substance of a dusty character will destroy them. The application must be made when the foliage is wet either with dew, rain or sprinkling. A half dozen applications usually clear them out.