I02 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



shafts -when the machine is being operated by one person ; or, which I 

 think a better way, where help is not scarce, it can, with the brush, be 

 carried by a second person (an intelligent boy will answer) who performs 

 the jarring and brushing while the first person wheels the machine. 



[Figure 3.] 



Front view of Ward's CurcuHo-catcher. 



The machine is simple in construction and any one with ordinary 

 mechanical ability can build it; modifying, of course, the diameter of 

 the wheels and the inclination of the sheet to suit the character of his 

 trees or of his ground. Mr. Ward has taken no patent out for it and the 

 machine is, therefore, public property. It has been argued in favor of 

 the one-wheel machine that it can be more easily run on rough ground 

 and more readily turned, which in a great measure is b"ue ; but the Ward 

 machine is so light that it can easily be tilted on one wheel in turning, 

 and our Benton Harbor friends have so far found no difhculty in opei'ating 

 it. Either machine can be used with a bumper, or with a mallet, and 

 there are certain rules which should be adopted in jarring for the Curculio, 

 no matter whether a one-wheel or a two- wheel machine is used. These 

 rules are: first, in jarring with a mallet it is best to prepare each tree by 

 squarely sawing off some particular limb, or else the mallet must be well 

 protected with rubber to prevent bruising of the tender bark. The 

 former custom is by far the best as we are enabled to give the tree a sharp 

 vibrating rap with the bare hard wood. Secondly, if the mallet is dis- 

 pensed with and the tree is bumped with the machine — a method which 

 certainly has the advantage of expedition — it will be found altogether 



