47 



over the branches in foggy weather in winter. This is done by 

 men having scoops like flour scoops fastened to poles. 



It is advised that all long grass, leaves, and rubbish, should be 

 cleared away underneath fruit trees on grass land, and on 

 cultivated land it would be well to dig round the trees and 

 apply lime or lime ashes, or soot and lime mixed. 



The tarred, or greased, bands put round fruit trees to prevent 

 the ascent of the female winter moths would hinder the female 

 weevils from ascending, assuming that Curtis, Schmidberger, 

 and others, are correct in their opinion that the female weevils 

 do not care to fly. 



In Brittany, some apple growers scrape the bark of the 

 trunks and large branches of the apple trees with a scraper, and 

 brush every part with a stiff carpet brush, having placed a 

 cloth round the tree to catch the pieces of bark and the beetles 

 that are dislodged. These are collected and burnt. Some 

 limewash the trunks and limbs after this process. Others 

 apply a composition of lime and napthaline, but it is said this 

 is not quite effectual in keeping away the weevils. 



In Great Britain it has been found that limewashing trees is 

 not effective against insects unless the bark is thoroughly 

 cleared off and the wash worked well into every cranny while 

 it is fresh and hot. 



Insecticides have been tried in France at the time of flowering, 

 but without good results. Sulphur is burnt in a vessel at the 

 end of a pole and applied close under the branches of the trees. 

 It takes, it is said, about a quarter of an hour to treat one tree, 

 at a cost of about od. According to some who have tried this 

 it has answered, but experiments made at Rouen and Saint 

 Ouen de Thouberville proved far from encouraging. 



It is most difficult to employ insecticides with advantage, as 

 compositions strong enough to kill, or drive away the weevils 

 would probably injure the tender buds, and after the larva is 

 in the bud it is hopeless to attempt to reach it. 



A mode of decreasing the number of these weevils adopted 

 in parts of France and recommended by several who have 

 practised it, is to shake the branches of the trees to make the 

 insects fall on to a cloth spread below. The cloth, an old rick- 

 cloth being best, is cut and arranged so as to fit close round the 

 trunk of the trees. A labourer gets up into the tree and shakes 

 the branches violently, while two others, having long poles with 

 hooks at the ends, also shake the branches within their reach. 

 Other labourers sweep the cloth with stiff carpet brooms, and 

 shovel up the ddbris together with the weevils into a sack. 

 This must be done rapidly, and before the weevils can fly away. 

 It is stated that four men and two boys treated 110 trees in a 

 day in this way. 



Experiments proved that it is necessary to perform this 

 operation two or three times on each tree, as the weevils are 

 not all shaken off at first. From a tree, for instance, which at 



