A.BOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 337 



long summers, in the West, they reproduce often in each 

 season. 



2. The mode of ascent has been a matter of doubt. J. J. 

 Thomas, in the Fruit Cidturist says : u It has the power of 

 using its wings in- flying ; but whether it crawls up the tree 

 or ascends by flight, appears not to be certainly ascer 

 tained.&quot; 



Downing admits that it flies, but says, &quot;How far this 

 insect flies is yet a disputed point, some cultivators affirm 

 ing that it scarcely goes further than a single tree, 

 and others believing that it flies over a whole neighbor 

 hood.&quot; 



Kenrick says : &quot; They crawl up trees,&quot; and he quotes an 

 author as saying : &quot; That of two trees standing so near each 

 other as to touch, the fruit of one has been destroyed and 

 the other has escaped ; so little and so reluctantly do these 

 insects incline to use their wings.&quot; Dr. James Tilton says, 

 in the &quot; Domestic Encyclopedia,&quot; that &quot; they appear very 

 reluctant to use their wings, and perhaps never employ 

 them but when necessity compels them to migrate.&quot; 



It is true that the curculio, in cold and chilly weather, is 

 disinclined to fly ; but give it a right murderously hot day, 

 and &quot;McGregor s on his native heath again.&quot; Just before 

 a thunder storm, in summer, in a still, sultry, sweltering 

 day, they may be seen flying among the trees as blithely as 

 any house-fly ; alighting on your arm, or hand, and spring 

 ing off again as nimbly as a flea. 



All remedies founded on the idea of their crawling pre 

 ferences will be signal failures. Troughs about trees, bats 

 of wool, bandages of all kinds about the trunk to impede 

 the ascent will be found as useful as would high fences to 

 keep crows from a cornfield, or birds from the garden. 



All remedies for this pest succeed to a charm where the 

 curculio does not abound ; and almost every one of them 

 fails in places really infested them. 



In cities, and in country places which are far removed 

 15 



