COLEOPTERA. 



71 



The following, among other remedies that have been sug- 

 gested, may be found useful in checking the ravages of the 

 plum-weevil. Let the trees be briskly shaken or suddenly 

 jarred every morning and evening during the time tliat the 

 insects appear in the beetle form, and are engaged in laying 

 their eggs. When thus disturbed, they contract their legs and 

 fall ; and, as they do not immediately attempt to iiy or crawl 

 away, they may be caught in a sheet spread under the tree, 

 from" which they should be gathered into a large wide-mouthed 

 bottle or other tight vessel, and be thrown into the fire. 

 Keeping the fruit covered with a coat of whitewash, which 

 is to be applied with a syringe as often as necessary, has been 

 much reconunended of late to repel the attacks of the cm-culio. 

 A little glue, added to the whitewash, causes it to stick better 

 and last longer. We may succeed by this remedy in securing 

 a crop of plums ; but as we cannot apply it to cherries and 

 apples, they will be sure to sutler more than ever, and hence 

 no check will be given to the increase of the weevil. All the 

 fallen fruit should be immediately gathered and thrown into a 

 tight vessel, and after they are boiled or steamed to kill the 

 enclosed grubs, they may be given as food to swine. Many 

 of the grubs will be found in the bottom of the vessel in which 

 the fallen fruit has been deposited. Not one of these should 

 be allowed to escape to the ground, but they should all be 

 killed before they have ,time to complete their transformations. 

 The diseased excrescences on the trees should be cut out, and 

 as they often contain insects, they should be burnt. If the 

 wounds are washed with strong brine, the formation of new 

 warts will be checked. The moose plum-ti-ee {Prunvs Ameri- 

 cana) seems to be free from warts, even when gi'owing in the 

 immediate vicinity of diseased foreign trees. It would, there- 

 fore, be the best of stocks for budding or engrafting upon. It 

 can be easily raised from the stone, and grows rapidly, but 

 does not attain a great size. 



Among the many insects that have been charged with being 

 the cause of the wide-spread pestilence, commonly called the 

 potato-rot, there is a kind of weevil that lives in the stalk of 

 the potato. The history of this little insect was first made 



