96 



or 8 years ago, tried it thoroughly, and it had about as much effect 

 upon the Curculio as if the cobs had been dipped in molasses. We 

 mounted one of the trees, and saw the insect at work upon a plum 

 within 3 inches of the tar. We do not believe that a single one was 

 disturbed by it. Not a single plum escaped." — Germantown {Pa.) 

 Telegraph, quoted in Farmers' Advertiser, Sept. 16, 1867. 



Curculio and Gas-Tae. — "I tried, the past season, gas-tar thor- 

 oughly, to keep my plums from being stung by the Curculio. I 

 steeped corn-cobs in the tar and hung them all through the trees. It 

 did no good whatever. I often caught the little rascal working over 

 and all around the plums, close to the cobs. They paid it no atten- 

 tion, though you could smell it for rods. A neiglibor tried it with 

 utter failure. It is a humbug." — L. S. F., Rolling Prairie, ^Yis., in 

 Western Rural Bee. 7, 1867. 



Curculio axd Coal-Tai;. — "Having read a statement some time 

 since, that corn-cobs saturated with coal-tar, and suspended from the 

 branches of plum-trees, would keep the little Turk away from the 

 plums, I resolved to try the experiment. I procured a keg of coal- 

 tar and a quantity of cobs, and, after tying a string around each, put 

 them into the tar, and repaired to a favorite plum-tree, prepared to 

 carry the war directly into the enemy's dominions. I first spread 

 sheets under the tree, hammered and shook the rascals out, and gave 

 them the most affectionate treatment. Then, after much tribulation, 

 arising from the fact that the vile stuff would keep drip})ing from the 

 cobs, and woukl get upon the strings, reducing my hands and person 

 to much the condition of the cobs, I got them suspended ; I mean the 

 cobs, not the hands or the person. I also tied a newspaper loosely 

 around the body of the tree, and smeared it also with tar; then set 

 the keg at the foot of the tree, to heighten as far as possible the effect 

 of the performance, and retired from the field, feeling in several re- 

 spects as though I had been and done it. After some hours I con- 

 cluded to again visit the scene of operations, and found the whole 

 region suggestive to the olfactories of as vile an odor as it was ever the 

 lot of man to inhale. While noticing the artistic effect of the drip- 

 ping tar upon the leaves and fruit, I observed a queer-looking gray 

 excrescence upon one of the half-grown plums. A nearer view re- 

 vealed the appalling fact that it was a Curculio ^pegging ^ away' at 

 his favorite pursuit, as much at home in the vile atmosphere around 

 him, as if it were the spicy breezes wafted from 'Araby the Blest.' 

 Need I say that I left the scene in disgust, feeling that coal-tar as a 

 remedy against Curculios was a failure." — Geo. W. Campbell, Dela- 

 ware, Ohio, in American Journal Horticulture, August, 1867. 



