AGRICULTURAL ZOOLOGY. 371 



retted hydrogen, as evolved from the hydrosulphide of ammonium, as a preventative against 

 the attacks of the curculio. So far as it has been tried, it appears to act as a complete 

 remedy. It is applied as follows : A few ounce phials, with open mouths, suspended from 

 the limbs of the tree, are filled with the liquid hydrosulphide diluted with water ; in a very 

 few days, as the strength of the solution diminishes by exhalation, add an additional quan- 

 tity of liquid. Hydrosulphide of ammonium, it is scarcely necessary to add, is exceedingly 

 cheap. A solution of hydrosulphuric acid, which is still cheaper, would undoubtedly 

 answer the same purpose. Editor. 



A correspondent of the Horticulturist states that the plan of covering the ground beneath 

 the trees with fresh horse-manure when the fruit is beginning to form, has successfully pre- 

 vented the attacks of the curculio. I have been told of others, he says, who have succeeded 

 in saving their plums, by hanging bottles of pyroligneous acid, creosote, chloride of lime, 

 etc. in the trees. From this we are led to infer that strong, pungent odors are not agree- 

 able to the apparently sensitive olfactories of the insect. The only difficulty that appears 

 here is, that preparations of this character are very volatile in their nature, and soon become 

 exhausted, and it is troublesome and expensive to renew them often. This objection, how- 

 ever, I think is obviated in the following plan, which has proved eminently successful the 

 past season. It is this: As soon as the fruit is as large as peas, take a common paint- 

 brush or any other brush, or a woollen rag, and some fish-oil, and cover all of the principal 

 branches and trunk of the tree with the oil. 



The Horticulturist also states, that Mr. John Brush, of Brooklyn, has saved the plums on 

 a number of trees, the present season, by binding bunches of tansy upon the limbs in seve- 

 ral places. The fruit upon the treea thus treated ripened to perfection, while that near by, 

 not thus protected, was entirely destroyed by the insects. 



At a recent pomologioal meeting at Cincinnati, Mr. Kelly stated that several fruit-growers 

 in that vicinity had tried the following recipe for preventing the destruction of plums by 

 the curculio, with great success. It is also an effectual remedy for mildew on grapes : 



Put half a pound of sulphur and one pound of fresh lime into a tight barrel; then fill up 

 with boiling water, and cover closely for ten or twelve days, when it will be fit for use. This 

 forms hydrosulphite of lime, and has an unpleasant odor which is offensive to insects, but 

 the liquid is not injurious to vegetation. It is used by sprinkling the trees or vines with a 

 garden-engine or syringe, repeating the application every three or four days, or oftener if 

 showers occur to wash off the material. Ohio Cultivator. 



Description of the Curculio. We make the following extract from the report of Mr. Town- 

 send Glover on the curculio, which will be published in the forthcoming agricultural report 

 of the Patent Office : 



"The plum-weevil, or curculio, (Rhynchcenus nenuphar,} is one of the most destructive 

 insects that the horticulturist has to fear, not to plums alone, but to cherries, nectarines, and 

 apples, which are indiscriminately attacked ; and in the more Southern States peaches also 

 suffer much from the larvae of a weevil of this kind, of similar habits and shape, if not iden- 

 tically the same. The perfect curculio is about two-tenths of an inch in length, of a dark 

 brown color, with a spot of yellowish white on the hind part of each wing-case. The head 

 is furnished with a long curved snout or bill, with which it is enabled to bore into the unripe 

 fruit by means of jaws placed at the end of this bill. The wing-cases, which are ridged, 

 uneven, and humped, cover two transparent wings, by which the perfect weevil is enabled 

 to fly from tree to tree ; but when these wing-cases are closed, the back appears without any 

 suture or division, which has led to the very erroneous idea among farmers that the insect 

 cannot fly. When disturbed or shaken from the tree, it is so similar in appearance to a 

 dried bud that it can scarcely be distinguished, especially when feigning death, which it 

 always does when alarmed. As soon as the plums are of the size of peas, the weevil com- 

 mences the work of destruction by making a semicircular cut through the skin with her 

 long, curved snout, in the apex of which curve she deposits a single egg. She then goes to 

 another plum, which is treated in a similar manner, until she has exhausted her whole stock 

 of eggs. The grubs, which are hatched by the heat of the sun, immediately eat their way 

 to the stone in an oblique direction, where they remain gnawing the interior until the fruit is 



