266 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Plums. The great enemy of the plum is the curculio, 

 which stings the fruit when young and tender, and deposits 

 within it an egg. This hatches into a grub, which causes the 

 fruit to fall before maturity. The tree is also subject to a dis- 

 ease called black knot, and to rotting of the fruit and defolia- 

 tion during July and August. For the curculio, planting the 

 trees in a hog lot, or poultry yard, or where the branches over- 

 hang water, or paving under the trees has often proved a rem- 

 edy, as the instinct of the insect seems to teach it to deposit its 

 eggs only under such circumstances as will insure reproduction. 



The most effectual remedy is jarring the trees to cause the 

 insects to fall on a sheet held for the purpose of catching them. 

 The habit of the insects when disturbed of folding their legs and 

 feigning death, makes it easy to capture them thus. For large 

 orchards various devices have been used. A frame like an in- 

 verted umbrella, lined with canvas, and with an opening at one 

 side to receive the tree, is placed on a wheelbarrow and trun- 

 dled from tree to tree. The operator carries a heavy mallet 

 with which he strikes the tree on a spike which has been driven 

 in it for the purpose. In some of these it is arranged that the 

 insects fall into a pan of coal oil, and others are provided with 

 pockets; which retain them till they can be destroyed with hot 

 water. As the period when the curculio damages the fruit is 

 but short, this method will pay for large orchards. The trees 

 should be jarred early in the morning, at which time the insects 

 are sluggish. The work of jarring should begin soon after the 

 fruit forms, and should be repeated every morning for two or three 

 weeks, if rewarded by the capture of sufficient insects to pay. 



For the diseases mentioned, there are no specific remedies, 

 but supplying manure and salt to the soil often acts as a cure 

 or preventive, and sprinkling the trees with a solution of one 

 ounce of copperas to two gallons of water is said to be a cure. 

 Ashes applied to the soil is also a preventive. Thinning the 

 fruit is found a remedy for rotting, as it is believed to originate 

 from exhaustion of the tree from overbearing. The plum will 

 flourish on a great variety of soils, but should never be planted 

 on wet land, as it needs thorough drainage. 



