51^ AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



the tro3 around tlie roots and under tlie branches, or making it impervious to 

 the grub when leaving the fallen plum, has been recommended. A hen and 

 cUick(^s placed under a tree are very beneficial, especially if the tree be fre- 

 quently jarred by persons passing by, the beetles falling to the ground, when 

 they are eagerly seized by the chickens. Indeed, several persons have stated 

 that where plum trees have been planted in a hen or hog yard the fruit has 

 been preserved intact. Quick or unslacked lime strewed upon the surface of 

 the earth underneath the tree in the spring, after the frost has come out of the • 

 OTOund, is said by some to be efficacious in destroying the curculio as it issues 

 from its subterranean winter retreat. 



The plum knot, which infests the plum tree and themorello cherry, was said 

 by some to be caused by the curculio, and by others by a species of katydid. 

 It is now found to be a vegetable or fungoid growth, and was described by Dr. 

 L. D. Von Schweinitz forty years ago under the name of Sp/iaeria morbosa. 

 The knot commences with a visible enlargement and swelling of the bark. 

 This afterwards increases until it breaks the outer skin, subsequently assuming 

 a black, rough, warty appearance. It is true that this knot, if cut open, will 

 fr'equently be found to contain not only the grub of the curculio, but likewise 

 several otber larva; and insects. This, however, is merely the effect, and not 

 the cause, of the disease, the curculio finding in this swelling of the bark a fit 

 place to deposit her eggs. Thick-skinned plums are said to resist the attacks 

 of the curculio much better than the thinner-skinned varieties, the Lombard 

 having the reputation among some of being almost curculio proof; but whether 

 it is so or not we are unable to say. 



In the neighborhood of Washington several oak trees are covered with warts 

 or knots similar to those on the plum, only much larger and more woody. These 

 are found only in peculiar localities and on particular trees, sometimes hundreds 

 of yards apart from each other, the knots frequently appearing on one limb only. 

 Cutting out the knot or Avart, and afterwards covering the wound with shellac 

 varnish, has been recommended as a cure ; but in our own experience this merely 

 serves as a temporary remedy. Even when the wounds had been washed with 

 a strong dilution of nitric or sulphuric acid and water, the disease invariably 

 appeared either above or below the old scar, and frequently broke out in an ap- 

 parently healthy branch. At length the knot appeared on the trunks, and the 

 trees had to be cut down as useless and unsightly. The American Agriculturist 

 for 1SG3, however, says the knots should be cut off two or three times a year, 

 in June, July, and September, being always careful to eradicate eveiy particle 

 of the fungus, for if a solitary uninjured cell be left it will rapidly increase as 

 if it were a spore, and will soon break out again. In the mean time let the 

 trunks and larger branches of the trees be thoroughly scrnbbed with strong brine, 

 say twice during the season, to destroy any spores that may have lodged on the 

 bark, and at the end of three years this pest will have become almost entirely 

 exterminated. Some varieties of the plum appear to be more liable to this dis- 

 ease than others. In our own orchard the frost plum or gage was affected the 

 worst. Mr. B. D. Walsh, in the Prairie Farmer, describes another weevil, injur- 

 ing the plum and crab-apple, under the name of the plum ganger, as it " bores 

 into the plum not only to deposit its a^^, but also for food, forming thereby 

 round holes down to the very kernel, varying in size from a pea to a radish 

 Beed." No method of extirpating this insect has been suggested, but the reme- 

 dies recommended lor the injury caused by the curculio might be of utility sho^uld 

 its habits prove to be tlic same. 



•Where only a few plums are w.anted to be preserved as specimens from a new 

 graft or bud, we have frequently cut out the egg of the curculio with the point 

 of a penknife, and thus saved our specimen. * 



The northern granary Aveevil and the southern rice weevil differ very little in 

 foi;sa to the casual observer, the latter being merely smaller, and having light 



