194 GENUINE SNOUT-BEBTLES. 



to improve the native kinds, which are known to he hardy, and 

 not to attempt to bring to our state others found in countries 

 differing in cHmate from ours. We have, in improving our na- 

 tive phims, 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 

 l>lum trees and to harvest plums are two quite distinct things. A 

 little observation will almost convince the horticulturist that he is 

 growing the plums not for his own use, but for that of his ene- 

 mies. He sees that after a plum orchard is once established these 

 have 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 important 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 destructive insect enemies. 



The plum-gouger, (Fig. 207, Plate V), is the most destruc- 

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

 brown snout-beetle, with a peculiar pruinose, almost velvety sur- 

 face, and is of a very different shape from the better known but 

 less common plum-curculio. In the spring of 1896 the plum 

 trees on and near the Experiment Farm were in full bloom and 

 promised rich returns. But before long one flower after another 

 dropped oft", and but comparatively few were left upon the trees, 

 and in some cases none remained. When the cause of this trou- 

 ble was investigated it was found that -this snout-beetle was busily 

 engaged in gouging holes in the flower (see Fig. 207, Plate V), 

 which, in consequence, shrivelled and dropped. A rather suicidal 

 way of doing things, for by acting in this manner the beetles 

 actually destroyed their future food and home ! As the fruit 

 grows, the female beetle, in depositing an egg, does not form the 

 crescent-shaped mark of the "Little Turk," but makes for this 

 purpose a small and deep puncture. Prof. Bruner describes the 

 cgg'^^ying habit of the plum-gouger as follows: "The modus 



