THE PEACH. 269 



SO that thsj can fly in upon him another year. Thej would 

 also be of but little service in the case of the cherry, as it 

 remains on the tree when stung. Poultry will be found very 

 valuable in an orchard, as they also destroy the grubs that 

 fall with the fruit. 



Artificial Remedies. — Of the hundreds of patent nos- 

 trums, and of the dozens of washes and solutions that have 

 been recommended as curculio preventatives or destroyers, 

 there is scarcely one which is worth the time required to speak 

 of it. Air-slacked lime thrown on the trees after the fruit is 

 formed, is effectual in a certain measure, for though it does 

 not deter the female from depositing her eggs, yet so long as 

 the weather is wet, its caustic properties seem to be imparted 

 to the water and enter the cavity and destroy the egg. But 

 it has no good effect in dry weather. An article went the 

 rounds of the papers last Summer to the effect that Mr. P. 

 E. Rust, of Covington, Ky., had tried burning tobacco stems 

 with perfect success ! But a letter of enquiry which I ad- 

 dressed that gentleman was never answered, although it con- 

 tained the requisite 3 cent postage stamp, and the tobacco 

 remedy may be placed beside the gas tar and coal tar reme- 

 dies, which have proved utterly useless. After all, as Dr. 

 Hull suggests, the success so reported of these remedies, take 

 its origin from insufficient experiment, by persons who are 

 little aware of the casualties to which the curculio is subject, 

 and who, after they happen to get fruit after applying some 

 particular mixture, immediately jump to the conclusion that it 

 was on account of such mixture. 



" It may, therefore, be laid down as a maxim, that the only 

 effectual and scientific mode of fighting the curculio, aside 

 from that of picking up the fallen fruit, is by taking advan- 

 tage of its peculiar instinct which on the approach of danger 

 prompts it to fall ; or in other words to catch it by jarring 

 the trees. The most effectual method of doing this on a large 

 scale is by means of Dr. Hull's "curculio catcher," and we 

 give a description of it in the Doctor's own words : 



" To make a curculio catcher, we first obtain a light wheel, 

 not to exceed three feet in diameter, the axletree of which 



