192 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



During this egg-laying season tlie beetles feed on both fruit and foliage.. 

 It is generally true that imagos, or mature insects that are several days or 

 weeks laying their eggs, take no little food. We see the curculio is no 

 exception. The eggs are probably developing all through this feeding 

 season. 



Whenever the weevil, or the limb on which it rests is jarred, the curculio 

 draws up its legs and falls from the tree. This habit would of course be 

 very valuable to the insect, as it would save it from hungry birds. It is 

 very easy to see how through the law of natural selection this habit might 

 have been formed. 



As the eggs hatch, the footless grubs (Fig. a) pierce to the center of the 

 fruit — plum, apricot, peach, cherry, apple, or pear, — where they feed and 

 grow for about three weeks, when they leave the fruit, enter the earth to 

 pupate (Fig. b). In a few days — about a week — the mature beetles come 

 forth, and await the following spring, which will furnish in the fruit of 

 plums, cherries, peaches and apples a nidus for its eggs. Generally the 

 curculio do very little harm after July 1. I think they never lay eggs to 

 any extent after that date. They may, and certainly do at times, pierce 

 the plums or apples even after this date, causing the former to rot, and the 

 latter to become dwarfed and misshapen. 



THE CURCULIO A FRIEND. 



1 



It would seem a novel idea that the curculio is, or may be, the friend of 

 the orchardist. It doubtless prefers the plum to any other fruit, and so if 

 the pomologist will plant liberally of this luscious fruit close among his 

 other fruits, he will rarely be troubled with an attack by this insect upon 

 any other fruit, except it be tender, thin-skinned varieties of peach, like the 

 Hale's Early and Alexander, and apricots, and there is evidence to show 

 that even these fruits will be little disturbed if plum trees are hard by^ 

 and abundant. As the fruit of the apple tree is so stunted and deformed 

 as to become nearly or quite worthless if seriously attacked by the curculio^ 

 and as cherries are utterly worthless if attacked, it is more than probable 

 that in time it may pay excellently well to plant plums to protect other 

 fruits, especially as our wild fruits become more and more cleared away. 

 If we can grow one of our most luscious fruits, and at the same time pro- 

 tect others from damage or destruction, the fact and the method are well 

 worth our attention. 



I am aware that Prof. F. M. Webster claims to have proved by his 

 observation that the curculio shows no such preference as the above. In 

 an orchard with apple and plum trees well mixed, both kinds of fruit were 

 attacked. I believe his observation was for one year. Possibly the insects 

 had not been destroyed on previous years and so were so abundant that all 

 fruit was attacked. Many years' observation makes me very positive in the 

 opinion as stated above. Wide inquiry among our best Michigan fruit 

 men confirms me in my belief. 



Again, the plum tree is very likely to over bear, injuring the tree, and 

 lessening the value of the fruit. In such cases it is necessary to the best 

 success that the fruit be thinned. There is no help at the command of 

 the fruit grower that will do this so cheaply as will the curculio. He will 

 work for nothing, and take his board from the waste fruit. Some of our 

 most extensive and successful plum growers, in view of this fact, count the 



