AMERICAN HOME GARDEX. 279 



The plum worm is the larva of a small winged insect known 

 as the curculio. It is a small dark brown or blackish beetle or 

 bug, somewhat resembling in size and appearance the pea bug, 

 except that it is rather more lightly built, and has a small 

 dark raised spot or hump upon each wing. It makes its appear- 

 ance late in the time of blossoms, and soon after the young fruit 

 sets it cuts up upon it a small semicircular piece of the skin 

 with its minute but keen forceps, and, leaving this like an apron, 

 deposits a single egg beneath it, and close to its inner line. 

 Protected by its slight covering, the egg is hatched in a few 

 days, and the young worm eats its way until it reaches the pit. 

 The fruit sickens and drops from the tree, generally before it is 

 half grown, more or less of it continuing to drop until the time 

 of ripening, when one side of the falling fruit is usually found 

 to have rotted. 



When the fruit falls the worm leaves it and hides itself in 

 the earth, to return in its winged form in time for the next 

 year's crop. Those that enter the ground as early as June and 

 July are supposed to pass through their changes and reappear 

 in the fall, and some think they all come out before winter, 

 and, failing to find their favorite fruit, deposit eggs for the 

 spring brood in the bark of the young shoots of plum, pear, or 

 peach trees. Dr. Fitch seems to favor this view, which, he 

 says, was held by the Rev. F. V. Melscheimer, of Pennsylvania, 

 fifty years ago, and is just now revived, though not fully con- 

 firmed. 



This is one of the most fatally injurious of our insect ene- 

 mies, and there is really no known and certain preventive or 

 remedy. Sowing salt sparingly around the trees, say a quart 

 to a tree, spread over a space twenty feet square, is useful not 

 only as being offensive to the insects, but also conducive to the 

 health of the tree. Ashes and soap-suds will also be found in 

 this respect valuable. Sulphur, though useless when inserted 

 in the tree as sometimes prescribed, might possibly be of serv- 

 ice sown over it, repeating the dose if it should be washed off 

 by rain. Perhaps, also, plaster may be worthy of a trial. 



Early in the morning they are comparatively helpless, and 

 may be caught by spreading a sheet under the tree, into which 



