NOXIOUS INSECTS. 55 



devouring at once the fallen fruit and the insect which it 

 contains. And provided the hogs are sufficiently numerous 

 to devour every fallen fruit, they will shortly exterminate 

 the insects from the orchard in which they are permitted 

 to roam. 



Paving the Ground. This is said to be a most effectual 

 mode of preserving fruit from the attacks of the curculio. 

 By preventing its descent into the earth, it finds no win- 

 ter habitation. The ground should first be well manured, 

 and the whole surface well paved with the common stones 

 which so often encumber the fields. The trees, in this 

 case, may be set very close. The excess of rain being 

 carried off by the pavement, and their luxuriance being 

 thus restrained, such trees must not only produce great 

 crops, but from the effect of the sun on the naked pave- 

 ment, the fruit must be of the finest quality. [See what 

 is further said under the article VINE.] 



Another and ingenious mode of destroying the curculio 

 has lately been devised by my friend Dr. Joel Burnet, of 

 Sotrthboro', Massachusetts, and in the single instance 

 only, in which he has tried the experiment, it has proved 

 completely successful. There stood in his garden a 

 young plum tree of the Prince's Imperial Gage, which was 

 filled with blossoms every year, but bore no fruit. Early 

 in spring, a hen, with an early brood of chickens, was 

 placed in a coop beneath the tree. Thus were all the 

 curculiones destroyed in the interval, soon after they arose 

 from the earth, and before they had recovered strength 

 sufficient to take to their wings or ascend the tree. 

 This plum tree, in that year, bore, in consequence, a very 

 large crop of fruit. He observed that the curculio often 

 ascended by aid of its wings. 



SUBS. 4th. SLUG WORM. These insects sometimes 

 appear on the upper surface of the leaves, especially those 

 of the pear, in the month of July ; and sometimes they ap- 

 pear again early in autumn. They are covered with a 

 glutinous substance, and their destruction is easily effected 

 by simply sifting slacked lime over them ; dry ashes, howev- 

 er, answers equally as well. For large trees, an oblong tin 

 vessel, perforated at the bottom with numerous small holes, 

 and partly filled with lime or ashes, may be suspended by 

 a string from along, slender, and elastic pole. This, being 



