240 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



90 insects on the trees on which they were put, and at different times since, in 

 other parts of the orchard, 49 of these marked insects have been jarred dowB, 

 leaving IG yet at large. 



From these tests I infer that curcnlios, as a rule, rest at night and fly freely 

 by day. They make clear what every practical man when jarring trees must 

 have observed, viz: that these insects fall near the center of the catcher, be- 

 cause places of concealment are most numerous near the trunks of the trees, 

 and for this reason, also, a small curculio-catcher is nearly as good as a large 

 one, provided the trees are jarred during the colder parts of the day." 



THE ROT. 



The fruit of the plum, when nearing maturity, is occasionally subject to a 

 malady commonly known as the "rot." This disease (if such it can be called) 

 usually first appears at the point of contact between two fruits as they hang 

 together on the branch ; or where a fruit hangs in contact with the branch, 

 or, sometimes, where an injury or rupture of the skin has occurred; but 

 rarely if ever upon the smooth and exposed surface of a fruit. This 

 malady, as in the case of "black knot," seems to spring from some 

 cause so obscure or intangible as to have, so far, eluded discovery, or at least a 

 clear identification. It is variously attributed to atmospheric causes, or the 

 influence of dew, rain or moisture from any source, retained at the point of 

 contact. By some it is attributed to the attacks of fungus. All these assump- 

 tions are, however, to be received as, at the best, but shrewd guesses. We may, 

 notwithstanding these uncertainties, very reasonably suspect that among them 

 lies concealed the real cause. The skin of the plum is of a smooth and delicate 

 texture, and any cause, atmospheric or otherwise, operating to produce a crack 

 or rupture of the skin, during the usually warm weather of August or early 

 September, would very certainly superinduce rapid decay of the maturing tis- 

 sues of the fruit. Indeed this decay, when once commenced, seems often to be 

 almost sporadic in the rapidity with which it propagates itself upon the fruit. 

 That such rapid spread of the malady is to be attributed to fungoid influences 

 may doubtless be considered as highly probable, if not indeed quite certain. 



HOW TO SUCCEED. 



In the early days of the settlement of Michigan, the culture of the plum was 

 nearly as general, though by no means as extensive, as that of the apple; and 

 though this fruit was probably less commonly grown than the peach, it is 

 doubtless quite within the truth to say that it was fully as common in our 

 gardens as the cherry, and even more common than the pear. That its culti- 

 vation is now so generally abandoned, notwithstanding its eminent popularity 

 and general desirableness as a fruit, is, we apprehend, chargeable not in any 

 considerable degree to any especial failure or lack of the tree, nor yet to any 

 serious difficulties in its culture or management, but almost entirely to the 

 well-nigh universal appropriation of the fruit by the curculio, an enemy so 

 nearly infinitesimal in size, and so insidious in his attacks, that we feel war- 

 ranted in supposing that even a majority of those who, for a lifetime, have 

 almost annually been robbed of the product of their trees, have never seen or 

 identified the robber, if indeed they are not in many cases actually unaware of 

 his presence. 



With those possessed of only the space for a very few trees of this fruit, or 

 who, for any reason, are not disposed to plant somewhat extensively, or who, 

 having i^lauted more or less, are, for any reason, not resolutely determined to 



