INJURIOUS INSECTS. 353 



The jarring process alone will prove successful late in the 

 season, and many use it exclusively. This consists in passing 

 through the orchard, morning or evening, placing under each tree 

 a sheet, and then giving the tree a sharp blow with a mallet, 

 whereupon the insects will fall upon the sheet and can be gath- 

 ered and destroyed. The sheet had best be fastened to a frame 

 in the shape of an inverted umbrella, and carried on one or two 

 wheels, if it is to be used extensively. A slit in the front, 

 opposite the handles, allows the sheet to be brought under the 

 tree. The size of the wheels and the sheet can be adjusted to 

 suit the ideas of the orchardist and the size of his trees. If 

 there are but few trees, the sheet can be tacked to a frame and 

 carried by two persons. The mallet should be of rubber, so as 

 not to mar the trees, though some saw off a limb or drive in a 

 spike, in which case the blow will cause no injury to the tree. 



In case of a few plum trees, it is well to have chickens con- 

 fined beneath them. The jarring winds will bring the beetles 

 down, when the chickens will pick them up. There is consider- 

 able evidence in favor of this plan. Still, with the present high 

 price of plums, no one can afford to be without these trees, nor 

 can we afford to leave them solely to the care of fowls, but 

 should always practice the other method, which will insure good 

 crops of this luscious fruit, and thus give us a luxury for our 

 tables and money for our pockets. 



I have had a fine annual crop of plums for several years. I use 

 a padded mallet and a square sheet, tacked on one side to a pine 

 strip as long as the side 

 of the sheet. From the 

 middle of the opposite side 

 it is slitted to the center, 

 and to the edge each side 

 of the slit a light pine 

 strip, half the length of 

 the other strip, is tacked. 



This is light, easily hand- FIG. 34.-a, Male, ft, Femnle. c, Antenna*. 



led, and convenient to bring immediately under the tree. As 

 many know, we are greatly aided in our attempts to baffle the 



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