268 THE PLUM. 



in a heavy soil. Almost always the complaint comes from por- 

 tions of country where the soil is light and sandy. The explana- 

 tion of this would seem to be that the compact nature of a clayey 

 soil is not favourable to the passage or life of this insect, while 

 the warm and easily permeable surface of sandy land nurses 

 every insect through its tender larvae state. Plum trees grow- 

 ing in hard trodden court-yards, usually bear plentiful crops. 

 Following these hints some persons have deterred the plum- 

 weevil by paving beneath the trees ; and we have lately seen a 

 most successful experiment which consisted in spreading be- 

 neath the tree as far as the branches extended a mortar made 

 of stiff clay about the thickness of two or three inches which 

 completely prevented the descent of the insect into the earth. 

 This is quickly and easily applied, and may therefore be re- 

 newed every season until it is no longer found necessary. 



The other modes of destroying the plum-weevil are the fol- 

 lowing : 



1. Shaking the tree and killing the beetles. Watch the young 

 fruit, and you will perceive when the insect makes its appear- 

 ance, by its punctures upon them. Spread some sheets under 

 the tree, and strike the trunk pretty sharply several times with 

 a wooden mallet. The insects will quickly fall, and should be 

 killed immediately. This should be repeated daily for a week, 

 or so long as the insects continue to make their appearance. 

 Repeated trials have proved, beyond question, that this rather 

 tedious mode, is a very effectual one if persisted in.* Coops of 

 chickens placed about under the trees at this season will assist 

 in destroying the insects. 



2. Gathering the fruit and destroying the 2arvce. As the in- 

 sect, in its larvae or grub form, is yet within the plums when 

 they fall prematurely from the tree, it is a very obvious mode of 

 exterminating the next year's brood to gather these fallen fruits, 

 daily, and feed them to swine, boil, or otherwise destroy them, 

 In our own garden, where several years ago we suffered by the 

 plum-weevil, we have found that this practice, pursued for a 

 couple of seasons, has been pretty effectual. Others have re- 

 ported less favourably of it ; but this, we think, arose from their 

 trying it too short a time, in a soil and neighbourhood where the 

 insect is very abundant, and where it consequently had sought 

 extensively other kinds of fruit besides the plum. 



* Merely sJutking the tree is not sufficient. The following memorandum, as ad- 

 ditional proof, we quote from the Genesee Farmer. " Under a tree in a remote 

 part of the fruit garden, having spread the sheets, I made the following experi- 

 ment. On shaking the tree well I caught five curculios ; on jarring it with the 

 hand I caught twelve more ; and on striking the tre"e with a stone, eight more 

 dropped on the sheets. I was now convinced that I had been in error ; and calling 

 in assistance, and using a hammer to jar the tree violently, we caught in less 

 than an hour, more than two hundred and sixty of these insects." We will add to 

 this, that to prevent injury to the tree a large wooden mallet should be substituted 

 for a hammer, and it is better if a thick layer of cloth is bound over its head. 



