286 STATE BOARD OF AGKICULTUEE. 



and then I would go at night and with the aid of a lantern they could be seen 

 busy at work. I will say to the gentleman that the fruit growers in the western 

 part of the State use rubber mallets to strike against the spikes, I know of a 

 number of cases where this plan has been pursued for eight or ten years without 

 injury to the trees. 



N. Strong, Madison. — You take a cloudy day and they will work, and that 

 leads me to think they work more nights than in the day time. 



Jesse Warren, Adrian. — I raised ten bushels of plums the past year without 

 any jarring or shaking, or any thing of the kind. 



Prof. Cook. — I would state that there is no need of jarring these trees unless 

 you find the curculio. 



Peter Fowler, Palmyra. — I think a spike would be apt to injure the tree, 

 especially if the tree was a good sized one. It might prove satisfactory on small 

 trees. I should prefer jarring the limbs by means of a rubber or something of 

 that kind on the end of a stick. I think the curculio work a great deal day 

 times, but are most lively nights. In order to raise a crop of plums it is every 

 day business, just like milking. 



DISCUSSION AT COLDWATER. 



J. S. Dunks, Sherwood. — Are the curculios not more destructive on clay 

 than sandy land? 



Prof. Cook. — That is a matter for you to decide. There are many people 

 here who have had a great deal of experience with these pests, and are probably 

 more capable of answering that question. I can, however, see no reason why 

 they should be. 



Mr. Eeynolds. — I have suffered considerably from the effects of the army- 

 worm. Last season they worked worst on my low land where it was mucky. I 

 had one piece of high ground on which they worked in great numbers, -but the 

 ground was very moist, and there was a heavy growth of peas. I want to know 

 whether the moths die soon after laying their eggs. 



Prof. Cook. — They usually die very soon after laying their eggs, but have 

 great tenacity of life before that. I have kept the female almost six months 

 before the egg-laying period. 



A. Gr. Kose. — My experience is, that oats which were lying down, were literally 

 covered with them, but the oats which were standing were uninjured. 



I. M. Sellover. — I have had some opportunity for observing the work of the 

 army-worm, and it seemed invariably that early sowed oats on rather heavy or 

 sandy soil seemed to be almost entirely free from them. From this I concluded 

 that it operated about such a time in the year, and if the crop was far enough 

 advanced as not to afford the juice which they seemed to seek they passed it by. 



A. Gardner, Madison. — There were a great many of these worms on my stand- 

 ing oats. The land was a hea\'y clay soil. The oats were all dead ripe when 

 I found the worms. 



Mr. Benton. — Some years ago in the State of Ohio the army-worm seemed 

 to work altogether on low lauds, and on the light loamy lands very few were 

 found. 



