CIRCUMVENT THE CURCULIO. 187 



it may be either in the form of powder or liquid, that shall so 

 affect the ciirculio that he will avoid the tree. These mixtures 

 are of various kinds. There are two that I have used suc- 

 cessfully, and you may have your choice. Take the drainings 

 of the barn-yard, the liquid manure, place it in an old barrel 

 or cask, mix with a few pailfuls of it a pound of sulphur and 

 a quarter of salt, and let it stand awaiting the time for your 

 application. When the flower has just fallen, and the curculio 

 begins his work, take a few quarts of that liquid and reduce 

 it with water to a moderate degree of strength, add to it a 

 quantity of ashes that will make it about the consistency of 

 cream, and with an old Avash-basin or a broom, drench the 

 top of the tree. If that is not washed off by a succeeding 

 shower, one application is sufficient for the season. If 

 showers succeed, repeat the operation two or three or four 

 times, and your trees that have lost every specimen of fruit 

 before will come to the harvest loaded with plums. 



Mr. Flint. How about the black knot on the plum? 



Mr. Gold. That is w^orse than the curculio. I will srive 

 my other prescription for the curculio, and then I will tell 

 you how I have been able to get along about the black knot, 

 although it is a very serious matter with me. The other 

 prescription is this : mix some tar with soap, and boil it up 

 in an old kettle ; dissolve that in water, and use the liquid, if 

 you please, with a garden sj'ringe upon your tree. That 

 is a perfectly effectual remedy. It is an improvement upon 

 my plan, suggested and acted upon by Dr. Howe, of Con- 

 necticut, the inventor of the pin-machine, a gentleman who 

 may be known to some of you as an enthusiastic cultivator 

 of fruit, as he was a successful inventor in machinery. 



Question. What kind of tar do you use? 



Mr. Gold. I use pine tar ; I mean the product of the 

 pine-tree, — common tar, not coal tar. 



With regard to the black knot, my only remedy has been to 

 cut it off wherever it a[)peared, even if it resulted in destroj^- 

 ing the whole tree. Often I have had to cut down trees ; 

 sometimes to cut off half the top. But do it thoroughly. 

 Do it on the first appearance of the disease, and do it 

 regularly. But to show that it has not been altogether 



