PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 343 



little worm in the centre of it — however dainty the morsel would 

 be. The interval of their exposure, between passing from the 

 fruit and entering the ground, is too short to allow much chance 

 of being discovered. The same remark will apply to birds also. 



In this battle for the security of our threatened fruit crops, 

 our great advantage, lies in the power of destroying this enemy 

 in its helpless or immature state — it is " the ounce of prevention 

 worth a pound of cure." 



Thousands of little fruits just formed fall soon after the blos- 

 soms ; these are only blights, and are of no consequence — but in 

 ten days or two weeks later, in every neighborhood where the 

 curculio exists, you will find the crescent mark beginning to show 

 itself. That mark is the sign manual of the curculio, and tells 

 the whole story. Just under the skin in the centre of that cres- 

 cent, an egg has been carefully placed and secured ; in a few 

 days that egg will become a grub, at first too small to be visible 

 to the naked eye — soon it will be found at the centre of that 

 fruit feeding constantly and growing rapidly, and in a little 

 while longer that fruit will fall to the ground, and there it 

 will lay a day or two, or sometimes longer before that grub leaves 

 it. This is your time and be sure to use it. Let no fruit having 

 this crescent mark upon it, whether apricot, plum, apple, cherry, 

 peach or pear, remain upon the ground — ^gather them all, every 

 day, in your garden — see that your friends, the hogs, have the 

 chance in your orchards, where to pick them up by hand would 

 be too irksome— and if trees of indifferent fruits are so situated 

 that they cannot be attended to, cut them down, and the sooner 

 now the better. A single apple tree of no value, in some remote 

 field, may be a nursery for thousands of these curculio enemies 

 every year — let no such trees stand after the middle of June, 

 prevail upon your neighbors to act with you — have if possible, a 

 neighborhood combination of fruit-growers, that will study the 

 theory and put in practice the remedies, for this and other insect 

 enemies of fruit and fruit trees. 



It may be asked what will all this advice avail for the coming 

 crops ? Nothing ; it is given to enable you to save future and 

 especially feeble crops. 



From the backwardness of the present season, and the immense 

 number of blossoms, we shall probably have plenty of the more 

 common fruits without much trouble ; another year there may 

 be but few blossoms, and if the curculio is permitted to multiply 



