STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 99 



caught before the plum trees were in flower. What is most singular is, that we never 

 found a Curculio on a piece of old lumber, although we put several pieces down to 

 try them. They seemed to come out of the ground, as we could find them several 

 times a day by turning over the boards, 



JOHNSONVILLE, N. Y. MrS. H. WiER. 



" But though Mr. Ransom can not properly claim to have made a new 

 discovery, and though this mode of fighting will not prove sufficient to 

 EXTERMINATE the Curculio, yet we greatly admire the earnestness and 

 perseverence which he has exhibited. In demonstrating that so great a 

 number of the little pests can be entrapped in the manner described, Mr. 

 R. has laid the fruit-growers of the country under lasting obligations to 

 him. It is a grand movement towards the defeat of the foe, and one 

 which, from its simplicity, should be universally adopted early in the sea- 

 son. But we must not relinquish the other methods of jarring during 

 the summer, and of destroying the fallen fruit; for we repeat, that the 

 Plum Curculio will breed in the forest. 



" I subsequently visited St. Joseph for the express purpose of exam- 

 ining more closely into Mr. Ransom's Curculio remedy. I found that so 

 few Curculios had been caught under the chips after the first week in 

 June, diat nearly everybody, except Mr. Ransom, had for some time 

 abandoned the method and were jarring their trees by one process or 

 another. 



" Mr. Ransom himself, by dint of unusual perseverance and gi"eat care 

 in setting his traps, has had much better success than I had expected he 

 would. On the 15th June he caught 78; on the i6th, 97, and on the 

 17th, 71. For about a week after this, he scarcely caught any, but from 

 the 24th to the 37th inclusive, he caught about 300. On the 6th of July 

 I accompanied him around the outside rows of his orchard and caught 

 five under the traps. We had no opportunity to use the sheet, but I am 

 satisfied that more could have been jarred down. Mr. R. had a very 

 fair crop of peaches, and — forgetting that crops have often been gi^own 

 before with very little care, and that others around him who did not bug 

 so persistently had fruit also this year — is very sanguine of his new 

 method, and too much inclined, perhaps, to attribute his crop solely to this 

 remedy. Nevertheless, contrary to the impressions made by his published 

 views, he was candid enough to admit that it might be found necessary 

 to resort to the jarring process, after a certain season of the year; and 

 indeed the number of stung peaches on the ground showed too plainly 

 that there is no hope of exterminatiox by the chip plan alone. The 

 soil around St. Joseph is, for the most part, a light sandy loam, never 

 packing, and very easily kept in good cultivation. To this character of 

 the soil must be attributed much of the success with the Ransom method; 

 for I am satisfied, after full experiment, that in the warmer climate and 

 heavier soil of St. Louis, it is of no practical use after the middle of May, 

 or at the farthest, after the first of June. The few specimens that I have 

 captured by this method at St. Louis, were found under small pieces of 

 new shingle; and Mr. W. T. Durry, who has 2300 ti"ees in his orchard 

 at St. Joe., also found this tlie best kind of trap. Mr. Ransom, however, 



