EXTRACTS FROM A DIARY KEPT IN 1864. 



As soon as I had determined upon the preparation of this book, I commenced a 

 systematic investigation of the time of appearance, the habits, and the depredations of 

 the various insects that would be likely to come under review, and have taken down, 

 almost every evening, notes of what I observed during the day. During the season 

 of 1864 this diary makes many volumes. That portion relating to each insect spoken 

 of in this work will be introduced under its appropriate head. The part relative to 

 the Curculio comes in here, and it will constitute a narrative of the important events 

 of its career. 



May 12. Visited Trenton to-day. The Quince trees in blossom. The seasons 

 are usually a week earlier here than at Newark, though there is not a difference of 

 half a degree in latitude. Mr. Voorhees, President of the Agricultural Society, told 

 me that they had already caught many Curculios by jarring the trees over a sheet. 



May 13 Caught three Curculios this evening by jarring a Green Gage tree. 

 The Plums are now just forming ; indeed many of the blossoms are not yet off the 

 tree. Apricots are as large as the end of the little finger. 



In a record kept for ten years in succession, near the Hudson River, latitude 42, 

 the time of the blossoming of the Apricot varied as much as three weeks from the 

 l ith of April to the 3d of May, but the young fruit attained the size at which the 

 Curculio chooses to use it, on the i8th of May not varying more than two days in 

 all that time. 



Many writers say that the war upon the Curculio must begin when the trees are 

 in blossom. Had this advice been followed from the l ith of April to the i8th of 

 May, on an Apricot orchard, it would have proved an almost total waste of time ; 

 probably few would have been found, as they do not concentrate till the fruit is of the 

 proper size. 



May 14. The Curculios caught last evening are now exceedingly active. They 

 appear to be of both sexes, and are as restless and full of life as birds are in the early 

 days of summer. They had been placed in a wooden pill-box ; and in holding it to 



