THE CURCULIO. 60 



jingling noise ; one and a half yards of flag tied up so as to float nicely in the air as 

 close to the tree as possible without touching it; and, lastly, when dinner was over 

 each day, I would catch up a sheet made for the purpose, and say, ' Come, boys, hold 

 the sheet,' and I would jar the trees, and kill all that fell upon it. Operations to 

 commence as soon as the blossoms have fallen, and continued until the stone became 

 hard in the fruit, after which the Curculio cannot make it drop, though some half or 

 one-sided fruit will appear by his work, but will be small and hardly be missed." As 

 wind-mills are at rest except when the wind blows, and as the Curculio does the chief 

 part of her mischief in the stillest weather, I think wind-mills, even with clappers, 

 cannot be relied on. And as to the flags, I do not believe that the little Turk cares 

 one straw for all the flags that fly in all the British dominions. It was the " Come, 

 boys," that saved the JefFersons at Port Dalhousie. 



In the Genesce Farmer of 1845, p. 91, is the following short article taken from the 

 " Maine Cultivator." 



" The Curculio, or Green Moth, which commences its ravages on the Plum about the first week in 

 June, by depositing its eggs in the fruit while it is yet in its infant state, can be easily exterminated by 

 preparing a mixture in the proportion of a bushel of wood-ashes to a quart of soot and half a pound of 

 sulphur, applied in the morning while the dew is on the fruit, in a sufficient quantity to coat the tree." And 

 the Editor says, " The remedy presented is an easy one, and if effectual will be of great value. The 

 Curculio has long and justly been considered one of the 'most troublesome depredators upon the fruit orchard, 

 and its destruction is a consummation devoutly to be wished." 



The above is replied to in the same volume, p. 103. 



" The Curculio. MR. EDITOR : In your last number I saw an article copied from the Maine Cultiva- 

 tor, professing to give a ' remedy against the Curculio,' and names the destructive as a 'green moth.' (! !) 



" It is not a matter of wonder that every person does not know what a Curculio is ; but it is a matter 

 of wonder that constant readers of agricultural papers, most of which have again and again described and 

 treated of this insect, and given engravings showing size, shape, &e., should not yet have 'made his acquaint- 

 ance,' or at least have known whether he was a worm or bug. It is not a moth, or other worm, that does 

 the mischief, as I have many times watched the Curculio and seen him perform the process, and this he does 

 with the skill of a professor of surgery first cutting a segment of a circle, and then depositing the egg, 

 after which the juice exuding from the wound forms a 'sticking plaster.' I am very sceptical as to the 

 exterminating properties of the remedy he gives (ashes, soot, and sulphur sprinkled on the tree), it cannot 

 reach the egg ; and as for the Curculio, he inhabits a sort of coat of mail, hard and resisting, and seems to 

 care little for what surrounds him, plums excfpted. 



