A NEW “BLIGHT."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1427, 8 December 1886, Page 3

A NEW “BLIGHT."

TO THE EDITOR. gjE,—ln this eveniugs’s issue of the Guardian you mention that “ some branches broken from a red currant buab, covered wi'h a roost curious species of blight,” were brought to your rffi o You describe it “ in the form of bright chocolate-colored excrescences like herds or tiny sheds, osch of which contains an insect.” As the caterpidar or grub of several smiil spaces of moths effect current bushes in this manner, and known to British entomo’ogists as “ current borers" it will, no doubt, ptoTe to be one of them. They were first noticed in New Zealand about nine years ago, having previously been introduced with currant Lushes from England, but do not appear to have made much progress. They affect the bushes in different ways, some living beneath the outer bark forming the excrescences you describe, while others devote themselves to the inner pith, and sometimes bore to the tips of the sheets The latter species is the most destructive, and also occurs in this district, occasionally killing a few branches only, of the bush, and leaving the others Intact The liny caterpillars form the email polished warts oq the bark of theenrrant withtheirsecretion, just as an insect forms the well-known o«k apples on the leaves of the English oak The only remedy I am able to “ pro scribe,” snd the only one I ever saw adopted, is to root out an * burn the affected bush as soon as possible, replacing it when convenient w : th a healthy young one.—l am, etc., W. W. Smith East Belt, December 7.