132 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



As for the worms, as soon as they begin to hatch, 

 spray with hellebore and Bordeaux mixture united, as 

 soon as the first nest hatches. One spraying will 

 probably be enough, and it is a pleasant fact to record 

 that this plague of the garden is decreasing very 

 steadily. For the last two years I have hardly lost 

 a day's work in fighting them. 



Nearly seventy years ago I saw the curculio put- 

 ting in his work in the plum yards of New York 

 State, and the rascal, we called him the Turk, has 

 held his own wonderfully. Go where you will, and 

 most people will tell you that their plums blossom 

 well but they cannot get any fruit the plums all 

 fall off half grown. They imagine the plum itself is 

 at fault, or the soil, or the climate. 



The fact is that the plum fits itself to all soils 

 more readily than any other fruit tree and is the near- 

 est to a cosmopolitan that we have in the rose family. 

 It is hardier than the apple and quite as hardy as 

 the pear, only the curculio is everywhere to match it, 

 and it needs the fruit in which to propagate its spe- 

 cies. Just when it began to sting the plum I do 

 not know, nor how it learned the trick of breeding 

 in that fruit. It was, however, a wonderful fitness, 

 and so the curculio became our worst rival in the 

 plum yard. Who is going to whip and who be 

 whipped that is the problem. 



Our remedy is very simple, and for once we do not 

 resort to poisonous mixtures. First of all get a pole 

 about eight or ten feet long and wrap the end with 



