300 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



portion of the crop is stung each year, this method might be 

 used advantageously, but to depend on this alone will not be 

 likely to prove very satisfactory to those who expect fruit without 

 any care or labor. 



Another means used to prevent the destruction of the fruit is 

 by the application of poison or some offensive substance to the 

 tree at the time the eggs are deposited. Instances have been 

 given where the application of Paris green and arsenic has been 

 followed by a full crop of plums. Some entomologists claim that 

 this is not feasible, for, to have any effect, the poison must come 

 in contact with the beetles, and very frequent application would 

 be necessary to do any good at all ; but where we have the testi- 

 mony of well known and reliable fruit growers, and of such men 

 as Prof. A. J. Cook, of Michigan, that the application of poison 

 will prevent the depredations of the Codling moth, there is some 

 reason to believe that it will also be beneficial in destroying the 

 Curculio. Experiments made with quick-lime and ashes have been 

 reported as successful. Trees to which they have been applied 

 have borne full crops; others, where the Curculio had taken part 

 of the crop before they were used, gave a part of a crop, while 

 trees standing near, that were not so treated, did not bear a plum. 



That there is some virtue in such applications would seem to be 

 demonstrated by the statements made by T. S. Gold, Secretary 

 of the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture, before the Massa- 

 chusetts Board of Agriculture. In giving his experience with 

 the Curculio, he says : " It has been said that you cannot scare 

 away the Curculio ; that you must catch him and kill him ; but if 

 I have not scared him away from my place, I have deceived him, 

 and made him believe there was no place for him to lay his eggs 

 in the young plum*. With very little trouble, say two hours 

 trouble a year, in caring for the trees, I have been able to obtain 

 a full supply for my family, for the last ten or fifteen years, of 

 some dozen varieties of plums. The secret of success is to apply 

 to the trees, soon after the calyx falls, some mixture or substance, 

 either liquid or in powder, that shall so affect the Curculio that 

 he will avoid the tree. There are two that I have used success- 

 fully. One is to take the drainage of the barnyard, the liquid 



