60 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to the center. You run it along beside the tree, and jar the tree. There 

 is a box which holds nearly a bushel, which can be slipped out, and the 

 insects destroyed. I like it very much, for it catches the plums as well as 

 the bugs. Speaking of the little spot on the plum, I think it is the second 

 brood of curculio which cause that. There is something that stings or 

 bites it. We notice it more on white plums, but I never have noticed 

 it so that I paid much attention to it. 



Q. After you have gone through the operation of catching the curculio, 

 are there not plums which drop? A. Certainly, and we catch the plums 

 too. 



Q. How long do you continue this operation? A. Well, you have to 

 follow it up very closely for two or three weeks, and you should not miss 

 a day. I have been asked that question a number of times. Every time 

 you get a chance, go at it, if it is twice each day. With some varieties, 

 it is almost impossible to catch any unless you jar often. I keep my 

 trap set, and when I pass 1 give the tree a thump. Of course, with Lom- 

 bards, you do not have to follow it up so closely, but with the larger 

 varieties it is necessary. 



Mr. McClatchie: I have a little to say about the curculio. I hear you. 

 say you must keep at it two or three weeks. Perhaps this is necessary 

 in Oceana county. 1 follow it up only one day, and never failed to raise 

 a crop of plums. I know just what I am saying; I have practiced it year 

 after yeixr. I don't want that whirligig umbrella, I simply want Mr. 

 Willard's plan. Instead of two sheets I take one. His plan is to take 

 two sheets, and have four men, besides one to jar the tree. He would 

 take a quilting frame, put the sheet across, a man at each end and one 

 either side of the tree, and they would walk along with the frames. 

 They would never stop. The fifth one would have his mallet ready to 

 strike the tree when they were under it, and the curculio will not fly 

 off as long as you keep the sheets in motion. Early morning is a little 

 the best time, and we work at it until six o'clock. I claim that if you 

 jar a tree once every hour, all day, you get all the curculio there are on 

 that tree, and I have practiced it, year after year, and have never failed 

 to have a good crop. I do not use the two sheets, because I haven't a 

 large enough orchard. We simply have a sheet nine feet square, and 

 put a frame all around it, and two strips across to support it; and then 

 we walk up to the tree, and when we are under it I strike it. The men 

 never stop. I have two men carrying this frame, and I do the jarring 

 myself. Just as soon as they are there, I strike the tree, and they back 

 up enough to get clear of the tree, and then go to the next tree. 



Q. How soon do you start? 



Mr. McClatchie: That you must watch closely. I do not miss a day, 

 at the time they commence. They commence on the first warm day after 

 the plums are out of their jackets, and just as soon as I find that they 

 have commenced, I take a warm day, such a day as bees would be active; 

 and as I have only a couple of acres, we get around ten or fifteen times 

 a day. At the first jarring I have counted 150 from a tree, and at the last 

 jarring we would not get one. 



Q. How many times, with your sj^stem, do you think it necessary to 

 jar each tree? A. I jar it until I do not find any; that is usually about 



