J4 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT. 



maturity as a feeding insect, and has formed its cocoon, preparatory to its transforma- 

 tion. The leaves on the rose-bushes in this garden were as much injured by this 

 slug as in other gardens where nothing had been used to prevent their ravages. 

 Rose slugs, like many other insects, appear with considerable regularity, and 

 nearly all disappear about the same time. Remedies used at the latter period will 

 apparently be effectual, and thus acquire a reputation to which they are not 

 entitled. 



Soon after these little experiments were concluded, the gentleman arrived. We 

 made a tour of observation, during which I was able to point out the Curculio 

 of which Fig. 3 on this Plate is a representation, in the very act of mischief, in spite 

 of the mixture with which the tree had been deluged. 



In a pleasant ramble through these beautiful grounds I discovered one great 

 source of the number of Curculios here. The roads and avenues on the lawn were 

 lined with shade and cherry trees interspersed. These trees were now old and large, 

 and the cherry trees had a fair crop of fruit. Birds were present in great numbers, but 

 not enough to eat so many cherries ; probably not enough to eat that portion of them 

 containing the embryo Curculios so often found in this fruit. 



This gentleman, who has had such undoubting faith in the efficacy of this 

 mixture as a remedy to protect fruit from the attacks of the Curculio, has probably 

 had plums some seasons after using it, as many others have had after applying the 

 various other remedies that have been in vogue. Often when they have such crops, 

 had they examined their neighbors' trees where nothing had been used, they would 

 have seen just as many plums. I have shown why we occasionally have such seasons 

 of abundance. The general or partial droughts of the preceding season killing the 

 embryo Curculio during its transformation, is one of the contingencies in the life of 

 this insect, that has probably given to many of the Curculio remedies their adven- 

 titious reputation. 



Much has been written about planting fruit trees so as to lean over water as a 

 way of preventing the depredations of the Curculio. On the 2jth of July, 1863, I 

 was one of a party to visit the vineyards of Dr. Underhill, at Croton Point, on the 

 Hudson River. That gentleman had solicited the appointment of a committee at a 

 meeting of fruit-growers, to examine his mode of cultivating grapes. The visit was 

 a most pleasant one. The number ot grapes, and the manner of cultivation, were 



