THE CURCULIO. 



4> 



beetle " will throw itself to a distance if you attempt to catch it, and there lie per- 

 fectly still. Kirby says the cockchafer will feign death if it sees the approaching 

 rook, and has not time to secrete itself, not, as the Curculio does, by drawing itself 

 up into a round ball, but will spread its legs out at full length, and look as a dead 

 cockchafer should, knowing that a rook will not eat a bug that he does not kill, and 

 that this sprawling position is a sign that it is already dead. This may be so, but I 

 do not take the responsibility. We have no rooks. 



Caterpillars are sought after as food by birds, just in proportion as they are clear 

 of hairs. The Geometers, as the Canker worms and Span worms, are of this kind. I 

 often encounter one of these on fruit trees, that will so resemble a short, stubby, 

 dead twig, sometimes standing straight out, sometimes partially bent like an elbow, 

 as to deceive the sharp eye of even the wren itself. 



This instinct of insects, and especially of the beetles, to escape their bird ene- 

 mies, led the late David Thomas, of Western New York, one of the best of the 

 early horticulturists of our country, to use this canvas trap ; and of all the many 

 plans that have .been employed it is the only one that has stood the test of experi- 

 ence. If the Curculio is to be conquered, the destruction of the embryo in the 

 punctured fruit must be the chief remedy, and the canvas the adjunct. 



This work would not be complete without a more circumstantial account of the 

 Thomas mode of fighting the Curculio. The following, written by himself, is taken 

 from the Cultivator of August, 1851 : 



" It is more than twenty years since I caught this troublesome insect on sheets, 

 and secured my crops of plums, nectarines, and apricots; and whenever the busi- 

 ness has been thoroughly done, I have never been disappointed. 



"An average of 1,500 Curculios, caught in the first ten days of summer, 

 though sometimes rather earlier, have proved a sufficient reduction of the tribe. 



" This method of protecting stone fruit I first published in the New Tork 

 Farmer, and afterwards I several times introduced the subject into the old Genesee 

 Farmer. Of late, however, I have seen reports of its inefficiency, and as the word 

 'shaking' has been generally used, perhaps the following extract from the latter 

 journal, which I wrote in 1832 (vol. ii., pp. 155-6), may throw some light on the 

 difficulty. 



" The first statement was dated 6th Mo. 7, 1 832, and describes the imperfect 

 mode as commonly practised : 



