DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 405 



influence of the lake stream seems to be as well marked here as is that 

 of the Gulf Stream in England and other portions of Northern Europe, 

 where the temperate season is prolonged, along the sea-coast, many 

 weeks longer than in the same latitude on the western shore of the 

 Atlantic, or even in the interior of Europe. 



In an article on plum-culture, Mr. T. T. Lyon gives the following pre- 

 ventive against the depredations of the curculio : 



Some three or four years since, Mr. Windoes, of Kamalazoo, accidentally discovered that 

 some of his plum-trees, Avhich had been subjected to the dense smoke of burning coal- 

 tar, were not visited by the curculio, while those adjacent, and not so treated, lost their 

 crop as usual. Taking the cue from this fact, he for some three years in succession 

 repeated the process, adding a little sulphur to the coal-tar and burning the mixture 

 in an iron vessel under the trees. By the offer of the material gratis, a neighbor was also 

 induced to make the trial upon his own trees, which resulted also in the saving of hia 

 crop of plums. Three years of success with this remedy has given Mr. Windoes so 

 much confidence in its effectiveness that he has during the past year made it public, 

 and quite a number of persons made trial of it upon their last summer's crop of plums ; 

 but we regret to say, as far as we hava J^t learned, with but indifferent success. As 

 there can be no doubt of the actual and repeated success of Mr. Windoes, we can only 

 account for these failures upon the supposition that a different quality of coal-tar was 

 used, or, otherwise, that there may have been .a lack of thoroughness in the application 

 of the remedy. 



As to the profitableness of plum-culture, Mr. Lyon states that a plan- 

 tation of considerable extent will fully warrant the making of thorough 

 arrangements for the care and management of the same, as well as the 

 providing of all requisite facilities for the warfare upon the curculio in 

 the most efficient manner ; while in such cases the actual expenditure 

 for these purposes will be found to be very small when compared with 

 the value of even a very moderate crop. With a plantation of one hun- 

 dred trees in bearing, two men would apply the jarring process (or that 

 and the Ransom trap jointly) to the whole in about one and a half hours ; 

 and if this were required to be repeated three times a day, the whole 

 would require but the equivalent of one man's time. This might be 

 required for a period of six weeks at most, although during very windy 

 or rainy weather no application would be needed. The cost of apparatus 

 with which to prosecute the warfare against the curculio need not exceed 

 $10 or $12, to which must be added the hire of a trusty man or boy for 

 the above time. These two items will constitute nearly or quite the en- 

 tire cost of management for the season in excess of that required for a 

 similar orchard of apples. As to the relative values of the products of 

 each when grown, we leave to those interested to estimate for them- 

 selves, only remarking that, so far as we have been conversant with the 

 results in such cases, those derived from the culture of the plum, even 

 with curculio warfare against them, have been highly satisfactory. 



In planting an orchard of plum-trees, Mr. Lyon says that 16^ feet in 

 the rows each way is a very good average distance, although in exten- 

 sive plantations it may be found desirable, for the convenience of 

 gathering the fruit and to facilitate the reaching of all parts of the 

 plantation with a team and conveyance, especially while the trees are 

 laden with fruit, to leave after every fourth or sixth row an increased 

 width of perhaps 20 or 25 feet, as well as one or more such wider spaces 

 in the transverse direction. The distance of the trees apart, however, 

 should be determined with more or less reference to the habits of growth 

 of the varieties to be planted. 



Mr. Lyon also contributes a paper on new varieties of fruits, in which 

 the leading characteristics of the following-named varieties are given : 

 Apples: Shiawasse Beauty, Mann, Grattan, and Somerset. Siberian 

 Crabs : Brier's Sweet, Byer's Beauty, Marengo, Lady Elgin, and Sylvan 



