118 MISSUURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grams; red oxide of mercury, one gram; fuchsine, one quarter of a gram. 

 This solution is diluted with thirty parts of water, when the vegetation 

 i.s active, but is used pure in the winter. A month or two after the ap- 

 plication of this caustic, the old bark of the tree on which the eggs occur 

 falls in powder, and the bark becomes smooth, shiny and of a beautiful 

 healthy color. 



SPIDERS AND PLANT INSECTS. 



Repulsive as spiders are to most persons, they perform, according 

 to Dr. Keller, of Zurich, an important part in the preservation of forests, 

 by defending the trees against the depredations of aphides and insects. 

 He has examined a great many spiders, both in their viscera and by 

 feeding them in captivity, and has found them to be voracious destroyers 

 of these pests; and he believes that the spiders in a particular forest do 

 more effective work of this kind than all the insect-eating birds that in- 

 habit it. He has verified his views by observations on coniferous trees, 

 a few broad-leaved trees and apple trees. 



The evidence that spraying with London purple is a preventive of 

 curculio injury grows stronger and stronger. Besides the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station results, already noted in the Garden, Forbes, of Illinois, 

 and Cook, of Michigan, have both reached the same conclusion from in- 

 dependent experiments. The farmer finds that the curculio feeds upon 

 the leaves of the plum before the fruit forms, and consequently may 

 readily be reached by early poisoning. 



But care must be taken that the London purple solution is not too 

 strong. Plums seem to be more susceptible to scorching than apples. 

 One pound of poison to lOO gallons of water is all sufficient, and half 

 this strength will probably do equally satisfactory work at less risk ot 

 injury to foliage. 



THE APPLE CURCULIO. 



Twenty-five years ago Mr. Walsh wrote that he had always found 

 these beetles on the crab and hawthorn, and predicted that they might 

 sooner or later make injurious attacks upon the apple. That prediction 

 has been amply verified in this and other states. Is is about one-fourth 

 of an inch long, of a dull, brown or gray color, with four rust-red humps, 

 two on each wing cover. It is smaller than the plum curculio, and has 

 a longer and more slender beak. It punctures the apple, both for the 



