68 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT. 



larger for the thinning out. The soil here, as in many other places along the Hud- 

 son River, is the stiffest and most tenacious clay. Bricks are made there. Cisterns 

 have been dug in this city that required no walls, the cement being applied directly 

 to the clay itself. In this kind of ground the grub of the Curculio is unable to work 

 fur down, and such soils suffer more from droughts than any others. The Curculio, 

 in passing through its transformation, will consequently more frequently perish in this 



4 



than in other soils. In this way the comparative exemption of neighborhoods may be 

 accounted for. We may often see the Damsons, Little Gages, Petite Mirabelle, and 

 other varieties of the very small kinds of plums, that bear such prodigious crops, 

 bring as large a portion to maturity as Cherry trees do, after losing much of the fruit 

 from the Curculio ; and persons not accustomed to investigate these matters, would 

 be likely to come to the conclusion that these varieties were either entirely exempt, 

 or that there was no Curculio there. If I intended to make a business of cultivating 

 plums, I certainly would choose a clay soil, and the stiffer the better ; and I should 

 prefer that all my neighbors for many miles should also live on just such a soil, unless 

 they would all unite with me in forming a Fruit-growers' society, that would tho- 

 roughly exterminate the insect pests that interfere with the success of this business. 



In the Gcnesee Farmer, 1851, p. 96, we read that Mr. Harvey Green, of Jefferson 

 Valley, Westchester Co., N. Y., " says he repels the Curculio by tying up straw in 

 bundles as large as his arm, takes a long handle, sets the straw on fire, and passes 

 quickly round the tree. They fly into the blaze and perish. Mr. Green says he 

 gives it for what it is worth." This might have been worth something if Mr. Harvey 

 Green had proved that he knew a Curculio when he saw it, and that he was sure that 

 the insects that flew into the blaze and perished were genuine Curculios. My expe- 

 rience has been, that a disturbed Curculio does not often attempt to fly away, but 

 falls to the ground. 



W. N. Read, of Port Dalhousie, Canada West, writes in the Gcnesct Farmer, 

 1853, p. 125: "It would have done you good had you seen my Jeffersons, Wash- 

 ingtons, Hulings' Superbs, Green Gages, Columbias, Golden Drops, Apricots, and 

 Nectarines, last year, all bending under a tremendous load of the finest fruits ever 

 beheld in the neighborhood of Port Dalhousie, saved as follows : Placed two or 

 three well-made wind-mills in the head of each tree, with a clapper attached to each, 

 which struck upon a piece of sheet iron, and when the wind blew kept up a terrible 



