60 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT. 



At page 246 of the same volume, Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati, commences 

 a defence of the paving plan : 



" The Curcvlio. A correspondent of yours, for a single year, tried paving to save his plums from 

 the Curculio, and failed ; and therefore concludes, paving is not a preventive. He is confirmed in this 

 opinion, because ' the insect has wings ; and presumes, as the pavement insured a crop with Mr. Allen, that 

 his plums belonged to the Dutch family.' 



" It appears to me singular, that persons will, from a single year's experience, undertake to express an 

 opinion. I have for twenty-two years had about twenty plum trees surrounded by a brick pavement, and 

 have never failed to have a crop of fruit from them. A few of the fruits, in some varieties, are occasion- 

 ally stung by the Curculio. In my adjoining grounds I have as many trees of the same varieties ; and two 

 years out of the twenty-five, have had a fair crop of fruit. The other twenty-three years the Curculio left 

 not a single plum. The safety of the fruit in a pavement does not arise from no Curculio being bred in the 

 ground. If a person does not raise them his neighbors will give him a liberal supply. As an experiment, I 

 planted a small plum tree, 1000 feet from any plum tree. The first year of its bearing every plum was 

 stuftg by the Curculio, and for years after. The safety of a pavement arises from the instinct of the insect. 

 It will rarely deposit its eggs over a pavement ; as the young, when they fall from the tree, cannot secure 

 winter quarters in the earth. The mother feels too strong an interest in the children to subject them to 

 such a fate. N. LONCWORTH, Cincinnati, Ohio, September, 1849." 



In the Horticulturist, vol. vi., page 243, N. Longworth speaks again of the 

 paving plan thinks the Curculio is timid, and afraid of pigs, poultry, and people. 

 And in the same volume, page 374, Mr. L. alludes again to his practice of paving; 

 repeats that the insect is a timid one, and says the proximity of his trees to the house, 

 where persons are constantly passing, may aid in keeping off the Curculio. 



In the same volume, page 383, Wm. Quant, gardener to W. C. Langly, Esq., 

 Third Avenue, Long Island, has a short article. He says he has had a long battle 

 with the pest, and when he sees the accounts of success, he wants to be invited " to 

 come and see and believe." He says also that he was at one time a gardener for Mr. 

 Longworth, and that the reported success of the pavement plan there was not true. 



In vol. viii., page 428, the Hon. James Matthews comes out with a remedy, 

 but it having cost so much time, etc., etc., he wants something before it can be 

 made known. There are numerous allusions to the Matthews plan. The New York 

 State Agricultural Society appoint a committee to examine it, and the editor of 

 the Country Gentleman is one of the members. The people become impatient, and 

 call upon the committee to report ; but the Country Gcntknun replies that the 



