16 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF 



peach blossoms have withered away, we have succeeded in capturing 

 (Jurculios under chips of wood and in other such sheltered situations ; 

 but we have never been able to do so alter the fruit was as large as a 

 hazlenut, and the little Turk had got fairly to work. Our Michigan 

 friends will, we fear, find this to be too truly the case. 



''This process, furthermore, cannot well be called anew discovery, 

 because it was discovered several years ago, as the following item 

 from Moore's Rural New Yorker of January 28th, I s(}5, will show: 



'•How to CATCH CuRCULlo. — In May last we had occasion to use some lumber. It was laid 

 down in the vicinity of the plum yard, and on taking uji a piece of it one cold morning, we dis- 

 covered a number of curculio.s huddled together on the under side. On examining other boards 

 we Eound mure, so we spread it out to see it we could catch more, and we continued to find more 

 or less every day, for two weeks. We caught in all one hundred and sixty-one. So I think if 

 people would take a little pains they migh( destroy a great many such pests. These were caught 

 before the plum trees were in flower. What is most singular is, that we never found a curculio on 

 a piece of old lumber, although we put several pieces down to try them. They seemed to come 

 out of the ground, as we could find them several times a day by turning over the boards. 



Johnsonville, New York. Mrs. H. Wier. 



"But though Mr. Ransom cannot properly claim to have made a 

 new discovery, and although this mode of lighting will not prove 

 sufficient to exterminate the Curculio, yet we greatly admire the 

 earnestness and perseverance which he has exhibited. In demon- 

 strating that so great a number of the little pests can be entrapped in 

 the manner described, Mr. R. has laid the fruit growers of the country 

 under lasting obligations to him. It is a grand movement towards 

 the defeat of the foe, and one which, from its simplicity, should be 

 universally adopted early in the season. But we must not relinquish 

 the other methods of jarring during the summer, and of destroying the 

 lallen fruit; for we repeat that the Plum Curculio will breed in the 

 forest." 



I subsequently visited St. Joseph, for the express purpose of ex- 

 amining more closely into Mr. Ransom's Curculio remedy. I found 

 that so i'ew Curculios had been caught under the chips after the first 

 week in June, that nearly everybody, except Mr. Ransom, had for 

 some time abandoned the method, and were jarring their trees by one 

 process or another. Mr. Ransom himself, by dint of unusual persever- 

 ance and great care in setting his traps, had much better success 

 than I had expected he would. On the loth June he caught 78; on 

 the 16th, 97; and on the 17th, 71. Tor about a week after this he 

 scarcely caught any, but from the 24th to the 27th inclusive, he caught 

 about SCO. On the 6th of July I accompanied him around the outside 

 rows of his orchard and caught five under the traps. We had no op- 

 portunity to use the sheet, but 1 am satisfied that more could have 

 been jarred down. Mr. R, had a very fair crop of peaches, and— for- 

 getting that crops have often been grown before with very little care, 

 and that others around him who did not bug so persistently had 

 fruit also this year — is very sanguine of his new method, and too 

 much inclined, perhaps, to attribute his crop solely to this remedy. 

 Nevertheless, contrary to the impression made by his published views, 

 he was candid enough to admit that it might be found necessary to 

 resort to the jarring process, after a certain season of the year; and 

 indeed the number of stung peaches on the ground showed too plain- 

 ly that there is no hope of extermination by the chip plan alone. The 

 soil around St. Joseph is, for the most part, a light sandy loam, never 



