78 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIf. 



during the day; just such weather as makes all insect life active. The great business 

 with all insects in the last or mature stage of life is to arrange for the generation that 

 is to succeed them. Cold and wet suspend these labors, but when the clear hot 

 weather comes they seem to be conscious of the necessity of making up for lost 

 time. All who have determined to protect their fruits from the Curculio must be 

 active now. 



May 28. Caught a few Curculios to-day, llpon a close examination found 

 the Plum crop very thin; much of the fruit stung. This must have been done 

 between showers or one of the wet days, as the jarring has been faithfully continued, 

 though it is certain that jarring will not invariably bring them all down, particularly 

 on large trees. I have found them on the leaves, apparently with all their claws 

 sticking in, as the shell of the seventeen-year locust does, as the beetle of the apple- 

 tree borer does, after hard knocking ; but when they are at work on the fruit, or 

 moving about, as on warm days, the jarring seldom fails to bring them down jarr- 

 ing, not shaking. There is a decided difference in the signification of these two 

 words, in the Curculio business. 



The wind shakes the tree, and these insects do not mind it ; a bird alighting on a 

 twig jars it, and the Curculio's instinct quickly tells it that the attraction of gravi- 

 tation is its best resource from the appetite of that bird, and it falls to the ground. 

 This any one can ascertain who has young trees just bearing. By looking carefully 

 over the tree where the fruit shows signs of the presence of the Turk, he can easily 

 see the Curculio at work. That tree or the branch can be bent over without disturb- 

 ing it; but let it go, so that it springs back with a jerk, and off will come the Curcu- 

 lio. I often bend a twig so as to place fruit where I suspect one to be at work over 

 my inverted hat, and then give it a gentle tap, and the Curculio will be in that hat 

 instantly. A large newspaper laid down on one side, and then the tree bent over it, 

 and tapped, answers well in the absence of the canvas. I have caught hundreds 

 upon the New York Evening Post. 



My Plums, I find, are half stung, many of them thrice, and some have three 

 marks. I have spent hours to-day in taking out the eggs from the young fruit on 

 three trees. Had the crop been a full one, I could have spared to advantage all that 

 are now stung; but the rain that rotted the embryo Cherries within the calyx, rotted 

 also most of the Plums, and there are none to spare for the Curculio this year. 

 " What would Mrs. Grundy say " if the author of a book on the Curculio should 

 have no plums ! 



My experience of this year in saving the fruit by the jarring process has not 



