ENTOMOLOGY. 571 



from the wounded place and prevent its going to tl^ fruit, thus cutting off 

 what he supposes to be the food of the larvae," "entrapping the curculio in 

 bottles of sweetened water," and " swathing the trunk with cotton batting to 

 prevent the insect from ascending)' the main trunk," may be classed with 

 Pliny's recipe for making a swarra of bees out of an ox, already spoken of. 

 The Ohio Farmel says that accidentally a bottle of coal oil was broken, and 

 the sawdust in which the bottles were packed was thoroughly saturated with 

 it. This sawdust being put at the foot of a plum tree about the time of blos- 

 soming, the fruit was saved. This circumstance led to further experiments 

 with like favorable results. 



A practical horticulturist, Mr. Saunders, upon whose judgment we place 

 much reliance, tells us, in support of this statement about the coal oil, that 

 he observed the plums on the portion of a plum tree hanging directly 

 over a shed recently covered with coal tar were not attacked by the curculio, 

 whilst on other parts of the tree the fruit was very much injured. It has also 

 been stated that trees to the branches of which pieces of cloth dipped in coal 

 tar, or in whose branches open, wide-mouthed bottles of coal tar have been sus- 

 pended, are avoided by the plum weevil; but we can only state from our own per- 

 sonal observation that, in our immediate vicinity, the forest trees near a gasometer 

 and gas-house appeared to be as much infested with caterpillars and other in- 

 sects as the rest of the grove. The remedy may, however, be tried, with the 

 caution that gas tar, if put upon trees, is said to be injurious. As nothing has 

 appeared of late about Mr. Mathew's celebrated curculio remedy, we suppose the 

 thing has died a natural death. Mr. C. Schultz recommends burning gas tar in 

 pots under the trees, the smoke of which will drive the curculio away ; and it 

 is well known that a dense smoke of almost anything to the windward of trees 

 will drive all the insects off, for the time only, however, that the smoke lasts. 

 In the Cultivator of 1862 we find it stated that " gas lime, which can be pro- 

 cured at any gas works, is a sure protection from the attacks of the curculio, if 

 scattered among and upon plum trees while in bloom, and continued immedi- 

 ately succeeding a rain." In 1863 the same journal says, that " air-slacked 

 lime" (others recommend unleached ashes) "dusted over the young fruit Avill 

 have a tendency to prevent the attacks of the plum weevil, and air-slacked lime, 

 with a small quantity of fine salt, sowed beneath the trees, wiil destroy a great 

 number of insects in the ground." It has been believed that plum trees planted 

 over water are not subject to the attacks of the curculio. tSuch, however, is 

 not the case, as tested by an experiment of Dr. Fitch, Avhcre the fruit wilted 

 and dropped into the tanks placed under the trees. The fruit dropping into the 

 water, however, will drown the larvae enclosed in it, and thus decrease their 

 numbers. Dr. Fitch recommends all fruit to be picked up and either burnt or 

 given to swine; and that when jarring (not shaking) the trees, soon after the 

 blossoms have fallen, in order to prevent the bark being bruised, it would 

 be well to place a strip of carpeting or coarse cloth against the tree to receive 

 the blows ; others recommend the mallet or club itself to be covered with cai- 

 peting, and when the fallen insects have been collected in the sheet underneath, 

 to burn or otherwise destroy them. The whole contents of the sheet must be 

 burned, as the curculio, when feigning death, resembles nothing so much as a 

 dried and dead bud, and if care is not taken will be thrown away as such. Thia 

 has frequently been the case in our own experience. Hogs are said tb be very 

 useful in a plum orchard where the trunks of the trees are protected, so that the 

 swine cannot rub against them and thereby loosen the roots or bark; and if 

 something were planted that the hogs could root up to feed upon, or corn widely 

 scattered over the orchard, they would be induced to root up the earth in search 

 of their food, and all fallen fruit, with the grub in it, would inevitably be found 

 «tnd destroyed. Neighbors should join in their endeavors to eradicate this pest, 

 as the curculio can fly from one orchard to another in quest of plums. Paving 



