Secretary's Budget. 369 



two frames on wheels with sheets about six feet square stretched 

 upon them ; a man takes charge of each of these, wheeling it up 

 against the sides of trees, making a complete square under the 

 limbs which are then jarred bj means of forked sticks, padded 

 with rubber hose. After jarring five trees in this way the curcu- 

 lios are picked off the sheets and crushed. I do not sweep them 

 off as many do, for that also kills the larvae and beetles of the little 

 "ladybnxls" which keep the apliides or plant lice in check later in 

 the season. 



I let the curculios get a good many plums so as to thin the 

 fruit, and regulate the times of jarring with reference to these. 

 Some years I jar the plums, but very little, so as not to drive the 

 beetles onto my peach trees. They prefer plums, but if often dis- 

 turbed will attack the peaches. It will pay peach growers to have a 

 few plum trees in and around their orchard, to attract these insects. 

 I hire children to pick up the fallen plums and scald them to kill 

 the eggs and larvje. I have over 700 trees, and two men will jar 

 the whole orchard in a day." 



As to varieties of plums. Judge R. said : ''Most any large plum 

 is good for market ; among the best are the Washington, Lombard 

 and Pond's Seedling. These varieties grown in Michigan, go to 

 Chicago and are purchased by Italian vendors, who wrap them in 

 tissue paper and sell them as California plums." 



Mr. H. H. Pratt, a successful Oceana county plum grower, 

 said of the Paris green remedy for the curculio': " I don't believe 

 it pays to use the arsemites, as the jarring method is cheaper and 

 more effective, besides being far less dangerous." — Prairie Farmer. 



BIEDS. 



INSECT-EATING BIRDS. 



The important question of the relative benefits and injuries to 

 agricultural and horticultural interests from insect-eating birds was 

 the subject of a paper read before the Ohio Horticultural Society 

 by M. C. Read, of Hudson, and incorporated in the society's annual 

 report, recently issued. From facts collected, all our common birds 

 are placed in three groups : First, birds whose habits make it 



