THE CURCULIO. 49 



expense caused by the Curculio is soon paid for when you can sell at such rates that 

 a bushel comes to forty, fifty, or sixty dollars, as it would now. 



One of my young Apricot orchards was an object of special interest on several 

 accounts. It was so situated that all the Curculios that attacked the young fruit had 

 to come from a distance. Every day some of these would be found on the outside 

 rows, but so systematic was the warfare made upon them, that they never got within 

 these rows. Every punctured fruit in that orchard was destroyed, but the next year 

 it would be the same thing, the Curculios coming from a distance. The boys 

 with the canvas would go over that orchard, with others, in the mornings, and I 

 would make my calls at intervals during the day, to assure myself that no mischief 

 was going on. Occasionally "a Curculio could be seen at work, and then I would 

 experiment with the jarring process, beginning with a gentle shake, then a harder 

 shake, then a very gentle jar such as a blue-bird or bob-o'-link would make alight- 

 ing on the tree in its cautious fluttering manner, then the decided jar ot the robin or 

 oriole. Such experiments led me to the opinion that the Curculio has an instinc- 

 tive fear of birds. 



I have often watched this insect on the ground after the taps had caused her to 

 let go. She will lie on the bare earth or among the grass as quiet as if dead, as long 

 as the danger lasts, and then unfold her legs, that had been closely drawn up, and 

 creep off towards the tree. Soon you will see her moving rapidly up the body, on 

 the limbs, and out on a branch of that tree. If the weather is very hot, the speed of 

 her motions will be extremely rapid. If any one who reads this book is at a loss for 

 employment, let him plant some high hill with an Apricot orchard, protected from 

 the east, and keep off the Curculio. It may be made both pleasant and profitable. 



Nothing has been said as to the jarring process for saving Apples, Pears, or 

 Cherries. Young trees of these fruits just beginning to bear may be easily jarred 

 with the hand ; but larger trees will be found very unyielding to anything except 

 the mop-stick to the branches. The Plums, Apricots, and Nectarines will be 

 enough for any one to take care of by this troublesome process ; and if all the young 

 fruits on the farm, and especially on all the neighboring farms, have been properly 

 disposed of the year before, there will be little occasion for its repetition. What the 

 Curculio will then take of such fruits will hardly be missed. I have sometimes found 

 great benefit from jarring young peach orchards for three or four days, and espe- 

 cially the trees bearing the very earliest kinds. 



