21G 



SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. 



[Chap. IL 



oblique direction, where they remain, gnawing the interior, until the fruit is 

 weakened and diseased, ami by this treatment falls from the tree. The 

 grub, which is a small, yellowish, footless, white maggot, then leaves the 

 fallen fruit, enters the earth, changes into a pupa, and in the first brood 

 comes to the surface again, in about three weeks, as a perfect weevil, to 

 I)ropagate its species and destroy more fruit. It has not yet been decided 

 whether the latest generation of the weevil remains in the ground all winter 

 in the grub or in the jiupa state. Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, Mass., asserts, 

 however, that the grubs, after having entered the earth, return to the surface 

 in about six weeks as perfect weevils, which must remain hidden in crevices 

 nntil spring. The most popular opinion is that they remain in the larva or 

 pupa state in tiie earth during the winter, and only reapi>ear in the spring 

 in the perfect state. The worm, or grub, is often found in the knots or ex- 

 crescences which disfigure and destroy plnm-trees, and has been wrongfully 

 accused of being the cause of these swellings; but it is highly jirobable that 

 the weevil, finding in the young knots an acid somewhat similar to that of 

 the nnripo fruit, merely de^iosits its eggs therein, as the nearest substitute 

 for the real plum. 



" Some of the remedies recommended for preventing the ravages of these 

 insects are actually absurd, such as tying cotton round the trees in order to 

 prevent them from ascending, when it is known that they are furnished with 

 wings, and fly from tree to tree with perfect ease. Among the remedies at 

 present in nse, one is to cover the fruit with a coating of whitewash mixed 

 with a little glue, ap])lied by means of a syringe. Another is to spread a 

 sheet upon the ground under the tree, and then jar the principal branches 

 suddenly with a mallet covered with cloth, so as not to bruise the bark, 

 when the perfect insects will fall into the sheet and feign death, and may be 

 gathered and destroyed. Hogs are sometimes turned into plum orchards, 

 where, by eating the fallen and diseased fruit, they materially lessen the evil. 

 Coops of chickens, placed under the trees, have also been recommended. 

 Tiien shake the trees often, and the chickens will catch and devour the 

 insects. All fallen fruit should be gathered up several times in the course 

 of the season, and burnt, or given to hogs, or destroyed in some other way." 



We shall now give, besides the above remedies,'a few more, "infallible," 

 of course, that float annually through the newspapers. 



250.. Curciilio Rf medics. — To one pound of whale-oil soap add four ounces 

 of flour of suljiliui-. Mix thoroughly, and dissolve in twelve gallons of 

 water. To one half peck of quick-lime add four gallons of water, and stir well 

 together. "When fully settled, pour off the transparent lime-water, and add 

 to the soap-and-sulphur mixture. Add to the same, also, say four gallons 

 of tolerably strong tobacco-water. Apply this mixture, when thus incor- 

 porated, with a garden-syringe, to your plum or other fruit trees, so that the 

 foliage shall be well di'euched. If no rains succeed for three weeks, one 

 application will be sufficient. Should frequent rains occur, the mixture 

 should be again applied until the stone of the fruit becomes hardened. 



