194 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



plum was stung and fell off. Some small trees, heavily loaded, were 

 sprayed, and though no rain came to remove the poison, yet in less than a 

 week all the plums were stung by the curculio. Both last year and this, 

 with the exception of one tree, nearly all the plums were stung. These fell 

 from the tree, were all gathered up and cut open, that we might be sure 

 that the grubs were present. As before, while I would not say that spray- 

 ing will do no good, I feel certain that it will never prove satisfactory. We 

 must have a remedy that we can rely on to protect our crop. I know 

 positively, by positive experience, that spraying is not one. . Occasionally 

 we secure a crop, with no effort to fight the curculio. Does not this sug- 

 gest an explanation why some who have given this remedy a limited trial 

 speak so highly of it? I think our practical plum-growers generally agree 

 with me in the above conclusions. It is true, however, that curculio may 

 be thus poisoned. The past season we shook fourteen curculio from an 

 unsprayed tree and divided them into equal lots. One lot was put into 

 a bottle with leaves sprayed the previous day, the others into a bottle with 

 leaves unsprayed. Three days later all were well. Another tree was 

 then thoroughly sprayed and the leaves given to the same lot that had 

 received the sprayed or poisoned leaves before. The others were fed fresh, 

 unsprayed leaves. On Monday, the second day after, all in the bottle 

 with the sprayed leaves were dead, while all the others were well and 

 lively. Thus they are, or may be, poisoned, but in actual practice they 

 either escape, or else the effect is so tardy that the mischief is done before 

 the poison takes effect. 



Dr. C. M. Weed of the Ohio experiment station, sprayed on a large 

 scale in an orchard in northern Ohio the past season, and seems to have 

 met with surprising success. From my own experiments I can only ask, 

 would the crop have been a failure had he not sprayed? And if so, will 

 he get equal results every season? In my case the evidence is positive. 

 It certainly iDroves that he who relies on spraying will often be sadly 

 disappointed. I wish it were otherwise. 



In case of peaches, spraying is so likely to injure the foliage that even 

 were it a certain specific against the curculio its use would be hardly to be 

 recommended. If soluble arsenic be present, and time is given for solu- 

 tion to occur, even though we may make the mixture very dilute, and add 

 lime, the leaves will sometimes all fall off. We can never know in prac- 

 tice that even Paris green is not adulterated with soluble arsenic. We 

 used London purple, one pound, to two hundred gallons of Bordeaux 

 mixture, and not only removed all the leaves but actually killed the twig.s. 



THE RANSOM CHIP TRAP. 



I have already referred to the habit of the insect, esjaecially early in the 

 season, of coming down from the tree, perhaps following upon the distur- 

 bance of wind, bird, etc., and hiding during the day under some clod, 

 chip, or other protection which might lie on the ground close by the tree. 

 This fact, discovered by Mr. Ransom of St. Joseph, Michigan, gave rise to 

 the Ransom or chip-trap. This consists of laying pieces of bark or chips 

 close about the base of the tree trunk. The beetles will hide under these 

 and can be collected and killed. Boys can be hired to do this cheaply 

 each day, and if payed by the hundred for their captures, they will probably 

 let few escape. Some of our Michigan peach-growers have practiced this 

 method and praised it highly. But the fact that few of our plum and 



