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FACl'S AUOUT THE CURCULIO. 



SOME FACTS ABOUT THB CURCULIO. 



BY J. W. BISSELL, OF ROCHESTER. 



Many of the habits of this troublesome in- 

 sect have been so well ascertained and so of- 

 ten made known, throufjh the various agri- 

 cultural and horticultural journals, that I do 

 not consider it important to repeat them, but 

 shall merely stale a few facts that have passed 

 «nder my observation during the past season, 

 hoping the results will induce others to join 

 in reducing the number of these depredators. 



The month of May last, was very warm 

 and dry, and of course favorable for hatch- 

 ing eggs laid the year previous ; conse- 

 quently, not only curculios but all other in- 

 sects have been abundant during the sum- 

 mer. The Curculio having last year des- 

 troyed all our (Bissell & Hooker's) Plums, 

 Cherries and Nectarines, I determined this 

 season to save at least a portion, and suc- 

 ceeded so well that our plum trees were 

 overloaded and needed to be relieved of 

 part of their burden ; upon most of the 

 Cherry trees the fruit was good, though we 

 lost all our Nectarines except two. For this 

 latter fruit, these insects have a great par- 

 tiality, and I found them on the trees long 

 after they had disappeared from all others. 

 I never found more than two, and seldom 

 more than one egg in any other fruit than 

 a Nectarine ; in a single one of those I have 

 sometimes observed a dozen, and have seen 

 three Curculios laying eggs at one time in 

 a single specimen. 



By making each day last spring a care- 

 ful examination, I ascertained thai the Cur- 

 culios commenced their depredations upon 

 Plums first, and on the first day of their ap- 

 pearance, (May 20,) I killed twenty. For 

 the space of nearly a month from that time, 

 the trees were thoroughly shaken almost 



every day, and occasionally until the loth 

 of July, though in the latter part of the 

 time very few were caught. During the 

 first month, the number killed from fifty 

 trees tiometimes amounted to 500 each day ; 

 in July hardly a dozen. The manner of 

 taking them was effectual, though some- 

 what laborious : a large white cloth was 

 spread under the tree, reaching as far as 

 the foliage extended ; the body and the 

 larger branches were then repeatedly jar- 

 red with a pole about ten feet long, the end 

 of which was covered with thick cloth, and 

 an old india rubber shoe to prevent injury to 

 the bark, and the insects as they fell were 

 killed with the fingers. Shaking the tree or 

 the branches violently with the hand, stop- 

 ped the operations of the Curculio for a short 

 time, but they would not quit their hold ; 

 to make them do that, required the sudden 

 jar, such as was given by the pole. 



Some trees I syringed with strong tobac- 

 co water and whale oil soap suds several 

 times, wetting every part, even of the 

 leaves, with these compounds, so that the 

 odor thereof was perceptible at a distance 

 of 20 feet, without producing any efl!ect, 

 for the Curculio seemed to be as numerous 

 on these trees after washing as before. I 

 have seen one lay an egg in a plum, the 

 skin of which was so coated with these 

 washes as to be exceedingly nauseous to 

 the taste. I am satisfied that a war of ex- 

 termination, not of prevention, will be our 

 only hope. These sickening smells incom- 

 mode only ourselves. I thought that the to- 

 bacco water or soap suds might perhaps kill 

 the eggs already laid, or prevent the young 

 worm from eating into the fruit ; but I 



