ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 373 



■withered away, are useful for capturing 

 curculios, but that after the fruit is as 

 large as a hazel-nut this remedy is not 

 successful. It is recommended to place 

 the traps of bark under the trees as soon 

 as the frost is fairly out of the ground. 



In small orchards it will be found most 

 profitable to drive a spike into the trunk 

 of each tree and to use two sheets 

 stretched on frames, which can both be 

 dragged or carried and placed in position 

 by one man, while a second person gent- 

 ly taps the iron spike with a mallet. To 

 bring the Curculio down, it requires a 

 light, sudden tap which jars, rather than 

 a blow which shakes, and if the frames 

 are each made so as to fold in the mid- 

 dle, it will facilitate disposing of those 

 which fall upon it. 



In conclusion, the intelligent fruit-grow- 

 er can draw many a lesson from this ac- 

 count of the Curculio — already somewhat 

 lengthy. Thus in planting a new orchard 

 with timber surrounding, the less valua- 

 ble varieties should be planted on the 

 outside, and as the little rascals congre- 

 gate on them from the neighboring 

 woods in the early part of the season, 

 they should be fought persistently. It 

 will also pay to thin out all fruit that is 

 known to contain grubs, and that is with- 

 in easy reach ; while wherever it is prac- 

 ticable all rubbish and underbrush should 

 be burnt during the winter, whereby 

 many, yes very many, of them will be de- 

 stroyed in their winter quarters. 



The old remedy of keeping hogs in a 

 plum, peach or apple orchard, to eat the 

 infested fruit as soon as it falls to the 

 ground, appears to be very successful 

 when practiced for two or three years, 

 ^nd where there are no other orchards in 

 the vicinity. 



THE CRANBERRY CUECULIO.— The 

 perfect insect of another small curculio, 

 Anthonomus guadrigibbus (Say), is accused 

 of eating round holes in apples, plums, 

 etc., both for food and as a place in 

 which to deposit her eggs. In the 

 American Entomologist, however, it is 

 stated that it never attacks stone 

 fruit, and goes into the ground to 

 change into the pupa state, but trans- 

 forms in the fruit itself. Another of this 

 genus Anthonomus suiuralis, (Lee.,) de- 

 scribed by Mr. W. C. Fish, in a report to 

 the Cape Cod Cranberry Grower's Asso- 



ciation, is called the cranberry weevil. 

 The female deposits its eggs, about the 

 middle of May, in the buds of the cran- 

 berry. Selecting a bud not quite ready 

 to open, and clinging to it, she works her 

 snout deep into its center; an egg is then 

 deposited in the hole thus made; the 

 beetle climbs the stem, and cuts it off 

 near where it joins the bud, and the 

 shoot drops to the ground. The larva 

 feeds inside the bud, and the weevil, when 

 mature, eats its way out. The perfect in- 

 sect is also said to eat into the fruit. The 

 only remedy that could be suggested, 

 should the insect become troublesome, is 

 to flood the cranberry patch, if possible, 

 for a short time, provided it does not oc- 

 cur at a period when the future crop 

 might be injured by being under water. 



AMERICAN MEROMYZA.— About the 

 middle of the month of June, 1875, in all 

 the wheat fields which we examined we 

 noticed that a great many of the ears had 

 prematurely ripened, had turned yellow 

 and were stunted and shorter than the 

 rest, and upon examination the kernels 

 proved to be withered and shrunken. In 

 most fields about one per cent, of the ears 

 were thus affected, but in two fields, from 

 three to four per cent were injured in this 

 manner. This appearance was variously 

 attributed to Hessian fly, Midge, etc., 

 etc, no one seeming to know the true 

 cause. Upon examination 

 we found that the last or 

 ear-bearing joint could in- 

 variably be pulled out of its 

 sheath with but a slight ef- 

 I fort, and that it was perfect- 

 ly yellow and dry, while the 

 lower end bore an irregular 

 and gnawed appearance. 

 Upon splitting open the first 

 joint of the stalk, a space of 

 about a quarter of an inch 

 was found to be completely 

 corroded, so to speak, and 

 filled with excrementitious 

 matter, as shown in Fig. 17, 

 a. In this space would gen- 

 erally be found a pale watery-green mag- 

 got of the form of Fig. 17, b, attenuated 

 at one end and blunt at the other. We 

 took a number of infested stalks home, 

 and many of the maggots changed to 

 green pupae of the form and appearance 

 of Fig. 17, c. Before changing to pupa 



Fig. 17. 



