of Rural Art and Taste. 



337 



Curcnlio Catching. 



DR. HULL, of Alton, Ills., is probcably the 

 most successful fruit grower of the West. 

 From 1,930 trees this year, he captured not 

 less than 153,000 curculios, and he tells the 

 Alton Horticultural Society how he did it : 

 " Early in the season I commenced a series 

 of experiments to determine, if possible, at 

 what particular period of the day curculios 

 were at rest. ■ On three different days I 

 dropped a number of curculios in flour, and 

 near sundown of each day put them in the 

 forks of the trees and watched them until they 

 crawled into some place of concealment which 

 was usually in the crevices of the rough bark, 

 and into depressed parts made by cutting off 

 limbs of trees. Out of 30 insects thus watched 

 to places of rest all concealed themselves as 

 stated, except one, which went to the ground 

 and crawled under a clod of earth. Out of 

 30 insects thus watched, all but one were 

 found early the following mornings just where 

 they went to rest at night. 



Again, I made other tests with marked in- 

 sects by placing them on the trees in the 

 morning. This experiment was repeated on 

 three successive days, employing 30 insects 

 each day. Near sunset the trees were 

 thoroughly jarred over a curculio catcher. 

 This experiment resulted in the capture of 

 27 of the 90 insects on the trees on which 

 they we^'e put, and at different times since in 

 other parts of the orchard 49 of these marked 

 insects have been jarred down, leaving 16 yet 

 at large. 



From these tests I infer curculios, as a rule, 

 rest at night and fly freely by day. They 

 make clear what every practical man when 

 jarring trees must have observed, viz., that 

 these insects fall near the center of the catcher, 

 because places of concealment are most numer- 

 ous near the trunks of the trees, and for this 

 reason, also, a small curculio catcher is nearly 

 as good as a large one, provided the trees are 

 jarred during the colder part of the day." 

 22 



Water-melons — Muscatine Island, Iowa, 

 is the most famous place in all the Northwest 

 for this delicious fruit. I asked a farmer 

 upon that large island how many acres of 

 water-melons were estimated to be there. 

 His answer was 07ie thousand, and his neigh- 

 bor said that was probably an under-estimate. 

 The island is a large, level plain of sandy 

 land ; hence its adaptation to melons and 

 sweet potatoes. The melons grow large, and 

 of the sweetest and best quality, mostly a 

 variety called Black' Spanish, large, round, 

 dark green, red core, and very sweet. They 

 are well known in Chicago, Omaha and St. 

 Paul, and have been sent to Duluth, Denver, 

 Buffalo, New York, etc. Their weight is 10 

 to 20 pounds — sometimes 40. They sell by 

 the wagon load at $8 to $10 per 100, and 

 market declining to $5. One hundred make 

 a good two-horse wagon load, filling a wagon 

 with side-boards, that will measure 50 bushels. 

 They retail by our fruit men at 10 to 15 cents. 

 The way to eat them is to cut them in two 

 halves equatorially, then four persons to each 

 half, with spoons in hand, making sugar water 

 of all of it but the hard rinds. They are 

 usually satisfied for hunger and thirst with 

 one melon after dinner. — Suel Foster, in 

 Country Gentleman. 



Inseeta, Slugs, Etc — The cultivation of 

 fruits in this region is an almost incessant 

 battle against insects. In addition to our old 

 pests, we have now in Medford (five miles 

 from Boston) and adjoining towns, a slimy 

 slug voraciously devouring the pear leaves, 

 and, for want of them, cherry leaves. I first 

 noticed this insect in my garden, three years 

 ago. It is about three-eighths of an inch 

 long, and of a blackish green color — making 

 up in number and greediness what it lacks in 

 size. Some pear trees were denuded by these 

 slugs in early summer, and afterwards put out 

 new leaves. Some shed their badly eaten 

 leaves the latter part of the summer and re- 

 mained bare the rest of the season. 



What is the best remedy against these 

 pests ? One of my neighbors used a solution 

 of whale oil soap with perfect success. In the 

 morning, when the leaves were wet, I threw 



