40 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



method, as the husks retain their form and colour, or, should they lose the latter, it may 

 be restored by placing the filberts, spread rather thinly, in a fine sieve over sulphur 

 fumes, these being produced by burning a little sulphur over a small, clear charcoal 

 fire. For home use the nuts are packed when the husks are dry in sweet casks, jars, 

 or new flower-pots, a little salt being sprinkled in as the receptacles are filled to 

 prevent mould, and keep the kernels crisp. They are kept in a cool and dry situation. 

 Mr. H. W. Ward, the able gardener at Longford Castle, Wilts, recommends " nut 

 vaults in the east portion of a south and east angle border, and under the shelter of a 

 wall, made with dry bricks placed closely together to prevent the mice from getting 

 through, 20 inches deep, 3 inches from the surface, to leave room for covering material, 

 18 inches wide at the bottom, and about 20 inches at top. In these vaults the 

 pots of nuts are placed. They are covered with slates overlapping each other, and with 

 the ends resting on the side walls of the vaults; then over the slates, 1^-inch oak 

 boards, about the same size as the slates, so that they can easily be removed ; after 

 which the whole is covered with a couple of inches of soil, making it correspond with 

 the other portion of the border, which has a slope of | inch in the foot. 



" The nuts are taken out as they are required say, sufficient for three or four days 

 at a time, which can be easily done by removing a little of the soil from the first two 

 boards and the slate, immediately replacing them, taking care not to let any of the 

 soil fall into the pots in doing so." Gardeners' Chronicle, Vol. VII., new series, 

 page 467. 



ENEMIES. 



Squirrels, rats, and mice take and store the nuts in quantity. Guns and traps 

 effectually stop their depredations, but a good cat is very useful in a nut plantation. 



Nut Weevil (Curculio nucum, Linn. ; Balaninus nucum, Curtis). This insect has a 

 beak nearly as long as the body, and the antennae in the middle, of a bright chestnut 

 colour. The fine down on the body imparts a tawny appearance to the wing-cases, but 

 the colour beneath the surface is black. It has three pairs of legs, and is of the shape 

 shown in Fig. 11. 



The female weevils appear on nut trees in May, crawl along the twigs, and deposit 

 an egg in the interior of each nut visited, so that the grub, which hatches in about ten 

 days, finds its food, and continues to feed on the nut without destroying its vitality, 

 until full-fed. Then it eats its way out, either before or after the nut has fallen, The 

 grub is dull white, with a horny, brownish head, plump, muscular, and legless. After 



