338 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



transformations, as might be necessary to enable them to determine with cer- 

 tainty when, where, and how to best enter upon a defensive warfare against 

 them. In confirmation of this assumption, we may remark that however 

 much the savants of this science may have learned of the habits and prefer- 

 ences of the curculio, they have as yet failed to inform those outside their 

 charmed circle upon what this insect subsists in the perfect or winged state, 

 or, indeed, whether or not he partakes of food at all in that state ; it being un- 

 derstood that the fruit is punctured, not to obtain food, but rather to place its 

 progeny in immediate connection with food adapted to its growth and devel- 

 opment. If the history of the likes and dislikes of this insect, and of all the 

 peculiar circumstances of his existence, during his several transformations, 

 could be accurately determined, there is, to our mind, scarcely a doubt that 

 such knowledge would supply to us the ready means of organizing a deadly 

 campaign against him, possibly at more than one period of his existence. As 

 it is, however, the lovers of the plum have been by no means idle in this war- 

 fare. While some experimenters have attempted to drive him away with of- 

 fensive odors, others have proposed to attract him by dazzling his eyes or tick- 

 ling his palate (supposing him to have such), and luring him to his destruc- 

 tion. Yet others have imagined this insect endowed with a degree of foresight 

 such as would preclude the female from depositing her eggs in positions from 

 which the forthcoming larvae would be unable to reach the earth for transfor- 

 mation. Hence the paving of the surface beneath the trees, and the planting 

 of the trees inclined over water. Others again have attempted to drown the 

 enemy by periodically flooding the ground in which the trees are standing ; 

 and yet others would repel his attacks by syringing the trees and fruit with 

 milk of lime ; and anon others would do so by plugging the trees with sul- 

 phur, to be taken up and transmitted through the circulation, thus rendering 

 the entire tree offensive to the enemy. 



Some twenty years since, the Matthew's remedy was claimed to have proved 

 a specific, and it was alleged that a single yearly application would suflBce. Its 

 discoverer, refusing to divulge his secret to the public, referred it, for experi- 

 ment, to three of the most noted horticulturists of our country ; but their ex- 

 periments do not seem to have warranted them in endorsing it, and the secret 

 seems to have been buried in the grave of the discoverer. 



Some three or four years since, Mr. Windoes of Kalamazoo, in this state, 

 accidentally discovered that some of his plum trees, which had been subjected 

 to the dense smoke of burning coal tar, were not visited by the curculio, while 

 those adjacent, and not so treated, lost their crop as usual. Taking the cue 

 from this fact, he, for some three years in succession, repeated the process, 

 adding a little sulphur to the coal tar and burning the mixture in an iron ves- 

 sel under the trees. By the offer of the material gratis, a neighbor was also 

 induced to make the trial upon his own trees, which resulted also in the saving 

 of his crop of plums. Three years of success with this remedy has given Mr. 

 W. so much confidence in its effectiveness that he, during the past year, has 

 made it public, and quite a number of persons made trial of it upon their last 

 summer's plum crop ; but we regret to say, so far as we have yet learned, with 

 but indifferent success. As there can be no doubt of the actual and repeated 

 success of Mr. W., we can only account for these failures upon the supposition 

 that a different quality of coal tar was used, or, otherwise, that there may have 

 been a lack of thoroughness in the application of the remedy. Possibly, also, 

 the enemy may in these cases have had no choice of pasture. 



