THE PEACH. 271 



" It will be seen that the wheel is nearly in the centre of 

 the machine. To cover the opening at this point, a frame is 

 raised over it, which is also covered with canvass The arms, 

 or stretchers, are so covered that the motion of the machine, 

 in moving from one tree to another, should bring everything 

 falling on the canvass to depressed points, one on each side 

 of the wheel, where openings are made into funnels emptyino- 

 into pockets or bags, for the reception of insects and fallen 

 fruit. The whole machine should not exceed ten or eleven 

 feet in breadth, by twelve or thirteen in length. These are 

 for large orchard trees; smaller ones could be protected by 

 a much smaller machine. If the frame work has been pro- 

 perly balanced, the machine will require but little lifting and 

 will be nearly propelled by its own weight. 



"This curculio catcher, or machine, is run against the tree 

 three or four times, with sufficient force to impart a decided 

 jarring moiion to all its parts. The operator then backs far 

 enough to bring the machine to the centre of the space be- 

 tween the rows, turns round and in like manner buts the tree 

 in the opposite row. In this way, a man may operate on 

 three hundred trees per hour." 



To run this machine successfully three things are necessary : 

 1st. That the land be decently clean, and not over grown with 

 rank weeds. 2nd. That the orchard be sufficiently larore to 

 pay the interest on the prime cost of the machine — about $30. 

 3rd. That the trees have a clean trunk of some three or four 

 feet. I find various modifications of this machine, both in 

 our own State and Southern Illinois, and in some instances 

 they have been abandoned entirely on account of the injury 

 caused to the trees from the repeated bloAvs given to the trunk. 

 In small orchards it will be found most profitable to drive a 

 spike into the trunk of each tree and to use two sheets stretch- 

 ed on frames, which can both be dragged or carried and placed 

 in position by one man, while a second person gently taps the 

 the iron spike * with a mallet. To bring down the curculio, 



* A word in regard to the '' iroa spike"— the use of which it seems to us would do far 

 more injury to; the tree than ihe butting of Dr. HulPs machine, well " padded with old 

 hat." Why not riven a spike in a curved block of wood, well padded with old hat, and 

 let the operator hold this against the trunk with one hand and give the sudden lap with 

 the mallet on the broad-head of the spike with the other hand ? 



