92 POPULAR FRUIT GROWING. 



from growing. The eggs hatch in a few days and the larva 

 works around the outside of the stone. This causes the fruit 

 to become diseased and it falls prematurely to the ground. 

 Within the plum the growth of the larva is completed. It then 

 goes into the ground where it transforms to a beetle, which soon 

 escapes. 



Remedies. Recent investigations seem to show that clean 

 cultivation and burning of any grassy areas near by, in which 

 the beetles can winter over, is most desirable in checking the 

 spread of this pest. When the curculio gets alarmed it draws 

 itself together and falls to the ground. Advantage is taken of 

 this peculiarity to catch and destroy it. A sheet is spread under 

 the tree whose branches are suddenly jarred, when the beetl-es, 

 which fall on the sheet, may be gathered and destroyed. As it 

 is important to catch as many beetles as possible before any 

 mischief has been done, jarring should begin while the trees 

 are in blossom and should be continued every morning until 

 they are gone. If the insects are abundant this will generally 

 take about three weeks. It will be found that where hens with 

 their broods of chickens are enclosed within the plum orchard, 

 they will devour a large number of the larvae of the curculio. 

 If hogs are kept in the same enclosure as the plum trees, they 

 will pick up the fallen fruit and so destroy a great many of the 

 larvae and assist very much in reducing the injury from this 

 cause. 



Plum Gouger (Coccotorus scutellaris). The plum gouger 

 is a snout beetle somewhat resembling the curculio, but readily 

 distinguished from it by a little careful examination. It is about 

 five-sixteenths of an inch long. The head and wing cases are 

 brown with a leaden grey tinge, the latter with whitish and 

 black spots scattered irregularly over their surface. It appears 

 in the spring about the same time as the curculio, but instead 

 of working around the stone it eats through the soft shell and 

 lives within the stone where it undergoes its changes and 

 emerges a perfect beetle. Both sexes of the Plum Gouger bore 

 cylindrical holes in the fruit for food. These cause the fruit to 

 oecome knotty and worthless but it does not prevent their re- 

 maining on the tree until maturity. This insect does not cut 



