nurseryman's influence in horticulture. 447 



national nursery and fruit growers' associations the most careful 

 and conscientious consideration, and these several bodies should in- 

 sist that any nurseryman who did not manifest a high regard for 

 this most important line of work was not in touch with- the best 

 methods and the best interests for the promotion and elevation of 

 this " science that doth so mend nature." 



AN EFFECTIVE CURCULIO CATCHER. 



The curculio attacking quinces, plums, peaches and a few other 

 fruits is but little affected by spraying mixtures of any kind. The 

 mouth parts of the insect are enlongated in the form of a beak, and 

 when the curculio damages the fruit very little if any of the poison- 

 ous substances which may have been applied in the spraying 

 solution is taken into the system. The most effective means of 

 combating the insect, therefore, is to take advantage of its habit of 

 dropping to the ground when alarmed. If a cloth is spread under 

 the tree and the limbs struck with some kind of a pole, the insects 

 will drop at once onto the sheet and can be collected and destroyed. 



Placing the sheet about the trees is a slow process. Consequently 

 the Cornell station has suggested the following device: It consists 

 of an arrangement built on the plan of a double-wheeled wheelbar- 

 row with a much elongated axle. On this is arranged a number of 

 projecting arms radiating from a point midway between the two 

 wheels. A canvass or any kind of cloth is attached to these arms 

 with an opening on the far side large enough to admit the trunk of a 

 tree. This is very inexpensive and easily built. 



The time to begin jarring is still a question, but as the curculios 

 are usually more active in the early morning, possibly the work had 

 best be done ther. These beetles begin operations as early as May, 

 and it will not do to delay jarring them much after they appear. 

 Some years they will not disappear until the latter part of July. Those 

 who practice this method successfully jar the trees every day until 

 the numbers are so. small that they do not affect the fruit seriously. 

 In one orchard noted by the Cornell stationinl897, 200 curculios were 

 jarred from seven trees, and it is not uncommon to get as high as 

 fifty from one tree at a single jarring. This process involves con- 

 siderable labor and expense, but it costs only about fifteen or twenty 

 cents per tree for one season. After the insects are captured they 

 can be destroyed by the most convenient method. Some put them 

 in kerosene or boiling water, while others have a charcoal stove 

 built for the purpose in which everything that falls on the sheet is 

 burned.— Orange Judd Farmer. 



Grow New Fruits Sparingly.— It is not advisable to try many 

 new fruits until they have been thoroughly tested. Most states have 

 horticultural experiment stations, operated by the state horticul- 

 tural society, and every state has a government experiment station, 

 where novelties should be tested before they are tried on the farm 

 on a large scale. It will do no harm to grow a few new plants to see 

 what they will do for you in your locality, but do not spend much 

 money on them. 



