342 EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



imens on the first of June last, from my esteemed correspond- 

 ent, Mr. Huron Burt of Williamsburg, Callaway Co., Mo., witli 

 the statement that it was doing great damage to the plums in, 

 that locality, though the little Turk was scarcely met with. 

 There is a plum known there as ''Missouri Nonsuch" which, 

 though said to be Curculio proof, is worked upon very badly 

 by the Gouger. 



The Plum Gouger is often found on wild crab trees, and 

 may, like the Plum Curculio, occasionally deposit and breed 

 in pip fruit; but it is partial to smooth-skinned stone fruity 

 such as prunes, plums, and nectarines, and it does not even 

 seem to relish the rougher-skinned peach. 



OFTEN MISTAKEN" FOR THE PLUM CURCULIO. 



It has often been confounded with the Plum Curculio, and 

 was once supposed by our triend, L. C. Francis of Springfield, 

 Ills., to be the male of that specit s. We all have a right to 

 suppose what we please, and as long as our suppositions are not 

 thrust on the public for ascertained facts, they can do no pos- 

 sible harm. But Mr. J. P. Williamson of Des Moines county, 

 Iowa, is not satisfied with supposing this or some other 

 straight-snouted weevil, to be the female of the Plum Curcu- 

 lio, but, in a last summer's issue of the Prairie Farmer, not 

 only emphatically speaks of it as such, Imt, finding that these 

 supposed females frequent tht^ trees tw) weeks earlier than the 

 males (?), he concludes, lor some unexplained reason, that the 

 sole object of visiting the fruit is for the deposition of eggs; 

 and straightway hatches Che theory th:'-t the Plum Curculio 

 can do Ho harm till the males appear! Consequently, instead 

 of jarring our trees as long as fruit; remains on them, we are 

 informed by Mr. Wiliiainsjn that it is only necessary to jar 

 them about six weeks. 



And thus it always is with men who do not sufficiently 

 understand the absolute ira|)ortance of cira and caution in 

 reading Nature's secr.-ts : from supposition to assumption; 



