VARIETIES OF FRUITS. 97 



vV it* iLslvtiCtive agency, are many, but the two we now 

 name are the most reiiaoie. 



One is of a man whose orchard of plums was in a sandy, 

 ioamy soil It was plowed lightly with a one-horse plow 

 early in spring, the plow cutting a little more than two 

 inches deep. During the summer, until about the first of 

 August, it was cultivated with a horse cultivator about 

 once in two or three weeks, or just often enough to keep 

 the weeds down. As soon as the plum trees opened their 

 blossoms, boys of about fourteen or sixteen years of age 

 were employed at a cost of eight dollars a month and 

 board. In the hands of each boy was placed a pole about 

 ten feet long, on the end of which was fastened a broad- 

 mouthed tin cup, holding about three half-pints ; and 

 these boys were kept from the first rays of light in the 

 morning until sundown, going from tree to tree, dipping 

 the sandy loam into their cups and then scattering it 

 among and through the branches of the trees, thus so dis- 

 turbing the curculio that he failed to inflict any material 

 injury on the fruit. In fact the result was, the owner 

 almost wished the boys were not quite so faithful in their 

 work ; for, if he could have had one-fourth the plums 

 thinned out, the crop would have been better, becaues 

 the plums would have been larger. 



This work of curculio hunting or disturbing was con- 

 tinued steadily from the time of the first setting of the 

 fruit which is even before the whole of the blossoms 

 have fallen until it was more than half grown. Some 

 few trees which were outside of the regular orchard, in 

 turf ground, or where the surface could not well be stirred, 



