FEB.] THE ORCHARD. 153 



" Naturalists have been accustomed to destroy viscious insects by 

 employing their natural enemies to devour them. 



" We are unacquainted with any tribe of insects able to destroy 

 the curculio. All the domestic animals, however, if well directed, 

 contribute to this purpose. Hogs, in a special manner, are qualified 

 for the work of extermination. This voracious animal, if suffered to 

 go at large in orchards, and among fruit-trees, devours all the fruit 

 that falls, and among others, the curculiones, in the maggot state, 

 which may be contained in them. Being thus generally destroyed 

 in the embryo state, there will be few or no bugs to ascend from the 

 earth in the spring, to injure the fruit. Many experienced farmers 

 have noted the advantage of hogs running in their orchards. Mr ; 

 Bordley, in his excellent Essays on Husbandry, takes particular 

 notice of the great advantage of hogs to orchards ; and although he 

 attributes the benefits derived from the animals to the excellence of 

 their manure, and their occasional rooting about the trees, his mis- 

 take in this trivial circumstance does by no means invalidate the 

 general remarks of this acute observer. The fact is, hogs render 

 fruits of all kinds fair and unblemished, by destroying the curculio. 



"The ordinary fowls of a farm-yard are great devourers of beetles. 

 Poultry in general are regarded as carnivorous in summer, and there- 

 fore cooped sometimes before they are eaten. Every body knows 

 with what avidity ducks seize on the tumble-bug (Scarabasus carni- 

 fex), and it is probable the curculio is regarded by all the fowls as an 

 equally delicious morsel. Therefore it is, that the smooth stone 

 fruits, particularly, succeed much better in lanes and yards, where 

 the poultry run without restraint, than in gardens and other inclos- 

 ures, where the fowls are excluded. 



"All the terebinthinate substances, with camphor and some others, 

 are said to be very offensive to insects generally. Upon this prin- 

 ciple, General T. ROBINSON, of Naaman's Creek, suspends annually 

 little bits of board, about the size of a case-knife, dipped in tar, on 

 each of his plum-trees from three to five of these strips are deemed 

 enough, according to the size of the tree^ The General commences 

 his operations about the time or soon after the trees are in full bloom, 

 and renews the application of the tar frequently while the fruit hangs 

 on the tree. To this expedient, he attributes his never failing suc- 

 cess. Other gentlemen allege, that common turpentine would be 

 still better ; being equally pungent and more permanent in its effects. 

 Some have sown offensive articles, such as buckwheat, celery, &c., 

 at the root of the tree, and have thought that great advantages fol- 

 lowed. 



" Ablaqueation, or digging round the trees, and making bare their 

 roots in winter, is an old expedient of gardeners for killing insects, 

 and may answer well enough for a solitary tree a year or two ; but 

 the curculio will soon recover from a disturbance of this sort, and 

 stock the tree again. 



" In large orchards, care should be taken that the stock of hogs 

 is sufficient to eat up all the early fruit which fall from May until 

 August. This precaution will be more especially necessary in large 

 peach orchards ; for, otherwise, when the hogs become cloyed with 



