THE CURCULIO. j 



his Plums by plugging sulphur in his trees. Others are equally successful by simply 

 driving in nails. Here, too, faith is necessary without it, they are certainly useless. 

 Some cover the bodies of their trees with tar, that the Curculio may be stuck fast 

 when travelling up and down. I have tried this, and a few have been caught, but 

 tar soon becomes so glazed that they can travel over it without danger, and to be of 

 any use it must be constantly repeated. Tar applied directly to the bark of a tree, 

 even if only a narrow belt, will often injure, if not kill it. Cotton, or cotton bats, are 

 sometimes bound round the trunks or larger branches of fruit trees, so as to make it 

 hard travelling for these little insects. Some make little troughs of tin, and fill them 

 with oil, and fit them to the trees, and all the Curculios that are so incautious as to 

 fall into this oil will be killed. Insects have a breathing apparatus air is as necessary 

 to them as to us it is the breath of life ; the openings to their lungs are numerous 

 and are on their sides oil closes them instantly, and then they die. Had the Cur- 

 culio no wings these last remedies would seem to be effectual in theory. 



Plums are brought to the New York market in large quantities almost every 

 year ; some seasons in great abundance. The usual varieties are the Damsons, Horse 

 Plums, Frost Gages, and other more common sorts. They are often packed in bar- 

 rels, and although roughly handled they are generally but little bruised, being too hard 

 for that. The plums alluded to in these pages would be as different from these as 

 "Stump the World" peaches are from green persimmons. I am often asked 

 where all these plums come from, and is there no Curculio there ? They are 

 shipped from Catskill and other places on both sides of the Hudson River, and are 

 said to come from the mountains twenty and thirty miles back. There are neighbor- 

 hoods in Albany, Schenectady, and Washington counties, N. Y., where it is rumored 

 that plums always escape the Curculio. I have often visited places with such repu- 

 tations, in the hope of finding the promised land, but have always seen more or less 

 evidence of the presence of the Curculio. Still there is a difference in different 

 localities, as to the extent of the injury done by these insects. 



In the City of Hudson, N. Y., I have seen trees bearing fair crops of plums 

 every year, even of the better and more delicate kinds. One old cultivator told me 

 that the Curculio was rather useful than otherwise. It was there certainly, and took 

 a portion of the crop ; but always left enough, and those which remained were the 



