244 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



culio forth, when it proceeds to its feeding and breeding 

 ground. They walk fast, and they fly and feed generally at 

 night, eating the young and tender leaves. Except in cold 

 and stormy nights, the curculio, in most instances, remains 

 on the trees to feed, and some pomologists will insist that 

 they usually come down towards morning to hide. They 

 crawl, on cold days and nights, and hide under the shelter 

 of the trunk of the tree, waiting to feed when the nights 

 become sufficiently warm. The curculio uses the green 

 fruit only to hold its egg and young. When the weather 

 is warm and pleasant, almost every insect remains in 'the 

 tree-top. We have seen reports in which the writers stated 

 that they had trapped thousands of them every day beneath 

 their peach-trees, plum-trees, and other fruit-trees. The 

 curculio may often be found on the under side of the most 

 lateral branches, where there is knot, black moss, bud, twig, 

 rough bark, or any thing that will give a partial hiding- 

 place. It is important to be ready for them when they first 

 appear out of the ground in the spring, as they take refuge 

 under old matted leaves, sod, lumps of dirt, sticks, any thing 

 on and around the trees, especially old rough bark, wher- 

 ever there is a sufficient covert. They move but little at 

 first, unless it is warm. A Western pomologist, W. B. Ran- 

 som, wrote that he killed nearly eighteen thousand in a few 

 days ; and a neighbor destroyed twenty thousand in his or- 

 chards by simply smoothing the surface of the ground, and 

 placing a few chips on the ground near the bodies of the 

 trees. Old pieces of woollen cloth laid in the fork of the 

 limbs will furnish an excellent refuge for them during cold 

 and windy days and nights. 



Jarring the Trees to catch the Curculio. Up to this time 

 of writing, it is generally admitted that there is no mode 

 of destroying the Little Turk that can be relied on as thor- 

 oughly efficient, except the practice of jarring the trees 



