ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 371 



a» effectual for this Corn maggot, where 

 a iew hills of some choice variety are 

 attacked, which it is very desirable to 

 •save. But its application in a large field, 

 •even if one knew where to apply it, 

 would be impracticable, and we can only 

 •suggest soaking the seed, before planting, 

 in gas-tar or copperas. 



WHITE GRUB.— In its perfect state 

 this larva is called the May-bug or May- 

 beetle, and closely resembles the Euro- 

 pean cockchafer. In the latter part of 

 July and in August the grubs are very 



Fig. 16. — White Grub. 

 numerous in old meadows and pastures. 

 Attention is drawn to them by spots of 

 sward becoming dead, as if killed by 

 •drought. On turning up some of the 

 dead turf the grass roots are found to be 

 eaten off an inch or two below the 

 surface, permitting the turf to be rolled 

 up like a carpet. They carefully reject 

 every root of clover. It is known, how- 

 ever, that they eat the roots of 5 young 

 fruit trees, and sometimes do great injury 

 to strawberry plants, Indian corn, wheat, 

 and potatoes. 



Remedy. — In all States they are preyed 

 upon by various animals. No doubt an 

 immense number might be destroyed by 

 turning hogs into the fields where the 

 grass has been killed. " Where the ground 

 has been overrun by the grubs it is fre- 

 quently advisable to plow it, and either 

 sow it to winter wheat or rye, or reseed it 

 to grass." As the larva of the insect, at 

 the approach of winter, descends into the 

 ground to a greater depth than can be 

 easily reached by the plow, it cannot be 



thus turned up to be killed by the frost 

 late in the fall. 



THE PLUM GOUGER— This name 

 was given by Mr. Walsh to another indi- 

 genous weevil. It is easily distinguished 

 from either ot the preceding weevils, by 

 its ochre-yellow thorax and legs, and its 

 darker wing-covers, which are dun-color- 

 ed, or brown with a leaden-gray tint, and 

 have no humps at all. Its snout is not 

 much longer than the thorax, but as in 

 the Apple Curculio, projects forwards, or 

 downwards, but cannot be bent under as 

 in the Plum Curculio. 



The Plum Gouger seems to be un- 

 known in the Eastern States, or at least is 

 not common there; but it is very gener- 

 ally distributed throughout the Valley ot 

 the Mississippi. As a rule it is much less 

 common and does much less injury than 

 the little Turk, though in some few dis- 

 tricts it is found equally abundant. 



The Plum Gouger is often found on 

 wild crab-trees, and may, like the Plum 

 Curculio, occasionally deposit and breed 

 in pip-fruit ; but it is partial to smooth- 

 skinned stone-fruit, such as prunes, plums 

 and nectarines, and it does not even 

 seem to relish the rough-skinned peach. 

 This beetle appears in the spring about 

 the same time as the Plum Curculio, but 

 as no eggs are deposited alter the stone 

 of the fruit becomes hard, and as its larva 

 requires a longer period to mature than 

 that of the latter, its time of depositing 

 is shorter, and the old beetles generally 

 die off and disappear before the new ones 

 eat their way out of the fruit, which they 

 do during August, September and Octo- 

 ber, according to the latitude. 



Remedies. — This Plum Gouger is 

 about as hard to deal with as the Apple 

 Curculio. It drops almost as reluctantly, 

 and we, therefore, cannot do much by 

 the jarring process to diminish its num- 

 bers. Moreover, it takes wing much more 

 readily than the other weevils we have 

 mentioned ; and though fruit that is bad- 

 ly punctured for food, often falls prema- 

 turely to the ground, yet, according to 

 Mr. Walsh, that infested with the larva 

 generally hangs on the tree, until the 

 stone is hard and premature ripening sets 

 in. In all probability the stunted and 

 prematurely ripened fruit containing this 

 insect will jar down much more readily 

 than the healthy fruit. 



