DR. J. R. CARDWELL. 21 



land in New York State, and was reaping a golden harvest 

 from the green products in New York City market. 



Another correspondent, Prof. C. V. Riley, then State 

 Entomologist of Missouri, afterwards Government Ento- 

 mologist at Washington, had written me that the curculio 

 did her work at night, and only when the thermometer was 

 above 75 F.; lower, she was chilled and could not work. 

 This enthused us. As our nights are uniformly below 

 that temperature, I concluded, and yet think correctly, we 

 should not be troubled with that pest, the one pest that 

 had discouraged the growing of plums and prunes in the 

 East. We have no doubt often had the curculio imported 

 from the East in soil about plants, but up to date I have 

 not seen or heard of a curculio on the Pacific Coast. 



I set one thousand Italian prunes, and with the idea of 

 filling in the drying season from the early peach-plum to 

 the Italian prune successively for some years I set out 

 the following varieties: Five hundred late peach-plums, 

 five hundred Washington, five hundred Jefferson, five hun- 

 dred Columbia, five hundred Pond's, five hundred Reine 

 Claude, fifteen hundred French prunes, twelve hundred 

 Coe's Golden Drop; cultivated plowed twice, hoed around 

 trees twice, harrowed four times, and finished with clod- 

 crusher and leveler, made of six-inch fir poles, five pieces 

 six feet long, spaced six inches apart, 2x4 scantling spiked 

 to ends, which has to this time proven the best implement 

 for this purpose, and seems to me almost indis'pensable as 

 a finishing tool in cultivating our clay hill soil. 



The winter of 1878 was cold, the thermometer falling to 

 zero, with stormy northeast winds for weeks, ending with 

 a heavy snowstorm. The cambium wood froze and turned 

 dark, almost black, the bark burst loose almost entirely on 

 many trees, particularly the peach-plums. Over in Clark 

 County, Washington, and about Portland we thought our 

 trees were killed ; yet, in the spring, to our surprise, they 



