THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 61 



leather stuffed with furniture moss, a dozen or more thicknesses of 

 old hat, leather or other substance, being careful to use no more than 

 necessary to protect the tree from bruising. Ascertain the elevation 

 the handles should have in driving, and support them in that position. 

 We now put in place the stretchers or arms, six for each side, which 

 are to receive and support the canvas. We put the front arms in po- 

 sition. These extend back to near the centre of the wheel on each 

 side, and in front of the wheel (for large machines) say six feet, and 

 are far enough apart to receive the largest tree between them on 

 which it is intended to operate. The remaining arms are supported 

 on the handles, and fastened to them and to the two cross and parallel 

 pieces in the rear of the wheel. These are so placed as to divide the 

 space at their outer ends equally between them and the first mention- 

 ed stretchers and fastened to the ends of the handles. Next we have 

 ready a strip of half-inch board two an a half wide. One end of this 

 is secured to the forward end of one of the front arms, and in like 

 manner to all the others on one side of the machine, and fastened to 

 the handles. Both sides are made alike. The office of these strips is 

 to hold the outside ends of the arms in position; they also hold the 

 front arms from closing. These outside strips also receive the outside 

 edge of the canvas, which is fastened to them as well as the several 

 arm supports. 



"It will be seen that the wheel is nearly in the center of the ma. 

 chine. To cover the opening at this point, a frame is raised over it, 

 which is also covered with canvas. The arms, or stretchers, are so 

 curved that the motion of the machine, in moving from one tree to 

 another, should bring everything falling on the canvas to depressed 

 points, one on each side of the wheel, where openings are made into 

 funnels emptying into pockets or bags, for the reception of insects 

 and fallen fruit. The whole machine should not exceed ten or eleven 

 feet in breadth, by twelve or thirteen in length. These are for large 

 orchard trees; smaller ones could be protected with a much smaller 

 machine. If the frame work has been properly balanced, the machine 

 will require but little lifting, and will be nearly propelled by its own 

 weight. 



"This curculio catcher, or machine, is run against the tree three or 

 four times, with sufficient force to impart a decided jarring motion to 

 all its parts. The operator then backs far enough to bring the machine 

 to the center of the space between the rows, turns round and in like 

 manner butts the tree in the opposite row. In this way a man may 

 operate on three hundred trees per hour." 



To run this machine successfully three things are necessary: 1st 

 that the land be decently clean, and not overgrown with rank weeds ; 

 2d, that the orchard be sufficiently large to pay the interest on the 

 prime cost of the machine — about $30; 3d, that the trees have a clean 

 trunk of some three or four feet. I find various modifications of this 

 machine, both in our own State and in Southern Illinois, and in some 



