THE PLUM-GOUGER. 39 



tries differing in climate from ours. We have, in im- 

 proving our native plums, to follow the same steps that 

 were taken in the past in Europe to change their native crab- 

 apples into the beautiful, delicate varieties of apples now 

 grown everywhere. But to grow plum-trees and to harvest 

 plums are two quite distinct things. A little observation 

 w^ill almost convince the horticulturist that he is growing 

 the plums not for his own use but for that of his enemies. 

 He sees that after a plum orchard is once established these 

 jhave taken possession of the same, and seem to consider it 

 their own. There are few plants in Minnesota that have 

 more enemies than the plum tree: black knot, plum pocket, 

 powdery mildew, brown rot, plum leaf-blight, plum rust, 

 leaf-spot or gun-shot and others are a few of the more im- 

 portant vegetable foes of this tree, while plant-lice, such as 

 the plum-tree aphis, the plum gall-mite, many caterpillars, 

 the plum-gouger and the plum-curculio are the more destruc- 

 tive insect enemies. 



The plum-gouger, fig. 22, plate VI., is the most destruc- 

 tive of the above named insects in Minnesota. It is a red- 

 dish-brown snout-beetle, with a peculiar pruinose, almost 

 velvetj^, surface and of a very different shape than the better 

 known but less common plum-curculio. Last spring (May 9) 

 the plum trees upon and near the Experiment Farm were in full 

 bloom and promised rich returns. But before long one flow- 

 er after the other dropped off, and but comparatively fe^^ 

 were left upon the trees, and in some cases none remained. 

 When studying the cause of this trouble it was found that 

 this snout-beetle was busily engaged in gouging holes in the 

 ffower (see fig. 22), w^hich in consequence shrivelled and 

 dropped. A rather suicidal way of doing things, as by acting 

 in this manner the beetles actually destroyed their future food 

 and home! As the fruit grows, the female beetle in deposit- 

 ing an egg does not form the crescent-shaped mark of the 

 "little turk," but makes for this purpose a deep and small 

 puncture. Prof. Bruner describes the egg-laying habit of 

 the plum-gouger as follows: ''The rnodii.^ operandi is very 

 simple, and requires but a minute and a half to two minutes 

 for the performance of the entire operation. She first spreads 



