THE CURCULIO. 93 



sound, and stuck fast in spite of the jarring. Wet weather could not have been the 

 cause, for we have had but one rain for six weeks, and that lasted only half a day. It 

 has been very warm at times; so it is every year. You wicked ones, who are so 

 prone to ascribe your misfortunes to the weather, refrain from all such croakings. 

 The weather is regulated with a wisdom far beyond man's comprehension ; cease to 

 blame it, and look to other causes. Your own want of knowledge, or your own 

 neglect, will often account for your troubles. When your Plums rot just as you think 

 they are safe and almost ready for the market, ascribe it to the Curculio and not to 

 the weather. 



Ten days ago I left a bag at Mr. P.'s to be filled with the falling apples. To-day 

 I examined it. The bag was open. I had requested it to be tied up when filled ; 

 but John's knowledge of English being poor, and mine of French not much better, 

 the young enemies had a chance to escape. In this bag I found thirty-one worms of 

 the Apple Moth. Most of them had formed their cocoons, attaching them to the 

 inside of the bag. Some were still among the apples. How many I should have 

 found had the bag been tied cannot be known. Only three grubs of the Curculio 

 were to be seen ; but there was a hole in the bottom of the bag that one had made, 

 and many may have escaped there. This experience was the reverse of what might 

 have been expected, certainly different from that of other years. 



On examining these apples scarcely one could be found that had not been punc- 

 tured by the Curculio, and many have more than one mark. Cutting these little 

 apples into pieces I readily saw the minute roads which the young grubs had made, 

 as in PL 5, Fig. 4, but all had come to an untimely end before they had reached such 

 a size as to be plainly visible to the naked eye. In other seasons I have found the 

 grubs in such proportions to the apples, in experiments of this kind, that a double 

 handful might have been gathered from such a bagful. And this has been my 

 experience nearly always for twenty years till this season. What had brought them 

 to this sudden end this year I do not know. The influence of the weather on some 

 insects is well known. That a drought of some duration during the period of trans- 

 formation in the ground is fatal to the Curculio, I have proved again and again. I 

 suppose the earlier drought of this season killed them in the fruits ; but I have no 

 proof to offer, and it is only an opinion. We have had two days this season when 

 the mercury in the thermometer indicated 1 00 in the shade. This intense heat may 

 have killed these young grubs even in the apples; but of this I am not certain. 



. 4. CROOKED LAKE, YATES Co., N. Y. The Peach trees here have a 

 very thin crop this year, and most of the fruit on those I have been able to examine 



