STATE HOKTICULTUJRAL SOCIETY. 141 



men here with the idea that the plan is very expensive. In figuring 

 up, the time occupied is 60 hours per month, and if the curculio season 

 is as long with him as with us, it would make about 15 days' work in 

 the season. It seems almost impossible to me for one man to go over 

 200 trees in two hours ; if he does so, he is a rapid worker. I desire 

 it to be understood that the cost is exceedingly small as compared with 

 the results. I know gentlemen in m}^ neighborhood who have kept 

 strict accounts, and they are astonished to find how little the cost is. 



Dr. Schroeder — The trouble is they neglect it. Private individuals 

 who have a few trees in a garden, and if they are Americans in the 

 bargain, will not do it. 



Dr. Hull— There were not over four or five points when I first came 

 to Illinois at which curculios in any numbers could have been bred. 

 The whole country Avas one open field, with fires running all over it, and 

 hogs running all over it. I recollect distinctly the fencing-in of my 

 orchard, and gradually they increased until finally the whole country 

 became dotted over with orchards, and precisely in a ratio with this 

 increase of orchards was the increase of insects. The moment we 

 began to fence in then the fields became breeding points for curculios. 

 Just in the ratio of food for anything will be the ratio of increase of 

 the animal. This is an additional reason for co-operation. In the 

 Alton district we are just as badly off as you are at South Pass or any 

 where else. 



Mr. Freeman — Hale's Early ripens with us about the time the black- 

 berry ripens. That is just the period when this humid weather comes ; 

 and it is just then that the rot appears so destructive in the peach. Dr. 

 Hilgard has shown that the fungus is the cause of that rot ; it is devel- 

 oped by heat and moisture. You stated that the curculio attacked the 

 fruit and thus afforded a nidus for the fungus to attach itself. Hale's 

 Early ripens when the conditions are most favorable for the spread of 

 the rot, and that is the I'eason. I would say further that I was informed 

 to-day that one of our neighbors who has followed out the recommenda- 

 tion of keeping all his rotten peaches gathered has been very successful. 



Dr. Hull — The statement about hogs being a remedy against the 



