colour. The female makes a hole in the fruit, deposits a single egg, and 

 then forms a crescent-shaped slit below it. The work of the insect is 

 easily detected by these crescent slits. Each female lays from fifty to a 

 hundred eggs, and deposits from five to ten per day. The larva? when 

 hatched resemble small glossy yellowish-white maggots with reddish- 

 brown underneath and pale brown heads. When fully grown the larva- 

 desert the fruit, which usually falls prematurely, and penetrate the ground 

 to the depth of a few inches, and remain till they reach the perfect state. 

 The perfect beetle feeds both upon the fruit and leaves, as also upon the 

 young bark. The period at which the fruit falls after being punctured 

 depends upon its age at the time it is attacked. Young fruit will 

 generally drop in ten days or a fortnight after it is punctured, but if not 

 attacked till the stone ha* hardened, it may remain upon the tree till 

 nearly the ordinary period. Sometimes it will ripen with a sound 

 appearance, but is spoiled by the grub inside. The Curculio travels by 

 flying, but only on warm bright days. As a rule the beetles confine 

 themselves to the same trees or others near to them, but sometimes they 

 arc carried half a mile or more by strong winds, and thus spread to fresh 

 orchards. When in flight they usually travel within a few feet of the 

 ground, and they have been successfully kept from fruit gardens by 

 means of fine wire nettings fixed to the height of nine or ten feet upon 

 fences. 



Remedies : These are various, but some merely repel and do not 

 destroy the insects. Spraying with Tobacco Water, Lime Water, and 

 Salt and Water while the fruit is small belong to the first-named class of 

 remedies. The most effective way of dealing with the pest is to collect 

 the perfect insects by jarring the trees under which sheets have been 

 spread. The best time for this operation is in the cool of the morning, 

 when the injects are somewhat torpid and fall easily. Jarring should be 

 effected by a smart blow from a hammer or mallet, placing a piece of 

 board between to prevent injury to the bark. The sheets must then be 

 gathered up carefully, and the insects destroyed. Fallen fruit from 

 affected trees should be promptly gathered up and fed to pigs, or 

 destroyed, in order to kill the larvae. When practicable it is a good plan 

 to let pigs have the run of an affected orchard, as they quickly pick up 

 the fallen fruit. Geese and fowls also effect the same object, but to a 

 more limited extent. 



Scale. Various kinds of Scale insects will attack Plum trees, the 

 worst being the Apricot Scale (Lecamum pruniosum), l>lack or Olive 

 Scale (Lecanium olea), and the Pernicious Scale (Aspidiotns perniciosvs). 

 For descriptions of Scale insects and their treatment see pages 185 and 

 187, also page 84, volume 1. 



Various Other Insects. Mealy Bug, Red Spider, and Thrips are often 

 troublesome to Plum trees. For descriptions of these pests and their 

 remedies see pages 80, 82, and 84, volume 1. 



INJURIOUS FUNGI. 

 Various species of fungi are more or less injurious to the Plum, though 



