REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS. 329 



The chief enemies of the plum are the curculio, the borer, leaf- 

 blight, and black-knot ; and the man who cultivates thoroughly, 

 prunes understandiugly, and keeps his orchard free from insects 

 and diseases, will be the one to carry plums to market. The first 

 two pests, the curculio and the borer, are of the animal kingdom, 

 while the last two, leaf -blight and black-knot, — and we might add 

 the rotting of the fruit — are of vegetable growth. The curculio, 

 the great pest of the plum grower, commences its work on the 

 Bartlett and Angouleme pears, and often spoils the crop for 

 market. It then goes to the cherry and plum as soon as the 

 petals of their blossoms drop, preferring these fruits with 

 smooth skins, and commences its work by puncturing the fruit 

 with its strong beak or trunk, forming a crescent, and just 

 above this cut the egg is deposited. They are slow workers, 

 taking about twenty minutes to each plum. They work for about 

 ten days, but do not work if it is stormy. Paris green has been 

 recommended as a remedy by some of the professors, while others 

 say that the only remedy is by jarring, which is done, after 

 placing a sheet under the tree, by striking with a hammer a 

 sharp blow on the stump of a limb that has been sawed off for the 

 purpose, or upon a nail driven into the tree ; this will cause 

 the curculios to let go their hold and drop to the sheet, from which 

 they can be gathered and killed. President Barry, of the Western 

 New York Horticultural Society, sa^^s that the sprajMng of the 

 plum and peach with Paris green for the curculio cannot be 

 depended upon with the same certainty as the jarring process. 

 The borer must be dug out with knife and wire. 



The black-knot is a fungous disease, and is said to be kept 

 down by the use of sulphate of copper, or Bordeaux mixture. 

 We use both, yet we do not rely wholly on them, but use the 

 knife. All black knots should be cut out and burned. All wild 

 cherry trees that are generating this fungous growth, are breeding 

 beds for the spores, and should be cut down and burned, whether 

 along the roadside, by any cross wall, or wherever they exist. 



As to the fungus that causes the rotting of the plum. Professor 

 Mayuard, of the Agricultural College, recommends the use of 

 sulphate of copper in the proportion of one pound to sixteen 

 hundred gallons of water ; or the ammoniacal carbonate of copper, 

 which is made by dissolving six ounces of copper carbonate in 

 three pints of liquid ammonia, and diluting to tweutj'-five gallons 



