266 THE PLUM. 



recommend the employment of pure yellow loam or yellow clay, 

 in the place of manure, when preparing the border or spaces for 

 planting the plum. Very heavy clay, burned slowly by mixing 

 it in large heaps with brush or faggots, is at once an admirable 

 manure and alterative for such soils. Swamp muck is also 

 one of the best substances, and especially that from salt water 

 marshes. 



Common salt we have found one of the best fertilizers for the 

 plum tree. It not only greatly promotes its health and luxuri- 

 ance, but from the dislike which most insects have to this sub- 

 stance, it drives away or destroys most of those to which the 

 plum is liable. The most successful plum grower in our neigh- 

 bourhood, applies, with the best results, half a peck of coarse 

 salt to the surface of the ground under each bearing tree, annu- 

 ally, about the first of April. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES. There are but two drawbacks to the 

 cultivation of the plum in the United States, but they are in 

 some districts so great as almost to destroy the value of this tree. 

 These are the curculio, and the knots. 



The curculio, or plum-weevil, (Rhynchanus Nenuphar,) is 

 the uncompromising foe of all smooth stone fruits. The culti- 

 vator of the Plum, the Nectarine, and the Apricot, in many 

 parts of the country, after a flattering profusion of snowy blos- 

 soms and an abundant promise in the thickly set young crops 

 of fruit, has the frequent mortification of seeing nearly all, or 

 indeed, often the whole crop, fall from the trees when half or 

 two-thirds grown. 



If he examines these falling fruits, he will perceive on the 

 surface of each, not far from the stalk, a small semi-circular 

 scar. This star is the crescent-shaped insignia of that little 

 Turk, the curculio ; an insect so small, as perhaps, to have es- 

 caped his observation for years, unless particularly drawn to it, 

 but which nevertheless appropriates to himself the whole pro- 

 duct of a tree, or an orchard of a thousand trees. 



The habits of this curculio, or plum-weevil, are not yet fully 

 and entirely ascertained. But careful observation has resulted 

 in establishing the following points in its history. 



The plum-weevil is a small, dark brown 

 beetle, with spots of white, yellow, and black. 

 Its length is scarcely one-fifth of an inch. On 

 its back are two black humps, and it is fur- 

 nished with a pretty long, curved throat and 

 snout, which, when it is at rest, is bent between 

 the forelegs. It is also provided with two 

 wings with which it flies through the air. How 

 far this insect flies is yet a disputed point, some 

 ^ ^ cultivators affirming that it scarcely goes far- 



Fig ioT"^TAe cur- ^ er t ^ ian a sm g^ e tree, an( ^ others believing 

 lio, and its mark' that it flies over a whole neighbourhood. Our 



