APPEN DIX. 



CURCULIO. 



As this formidable insect is the great enemy of the peach, as well as 

 the plum, nectarine, and apricot, a description of it, and of its habits 

 Hnd manner of operation, and the modes of destroying it, may as well 

 De given in this place. 



To most practical orchardists, the curctilio needs no introduction ; yet 

 there are thousands who know something of its ravages, who are igno- 

 rant of its mode of operations, and never saw one in its perfect state. 



A full-grown curculio resembles at first bight a grain of buckwheat in 

 size and color. It is hump-backed, has a long, tapering head, and its 

 wings when spread present a glassy appearance. It winters in the 

 ground, from which it emerges usually in the month of May -earlier or 

 later according to the season. But when the young fruit has attained 

 a proper size, the insect is generally ready to commence its work. This 

 work is the propagation and reproduction of its species. The female 

 deposits her eggs in the young fruit, when as large as a pea — making 

 an incision shaped somewhat like a half-moon. This business she con- 

 tinues to follow industriously for a month or more. How many eggs 

 one female curculio will thus deposit in a season, may never be known ; 

 but it is known that the larva from her first deposits have arrived at 

 maturity before her labors are ended. 



This egg, thus deposited beneath the skin of thej'^oung peach, hatches 

 a minute whitish larva, which works its way into the fruit and feeds 

 upon its juices. If the fruit be young, this work of the insect entirely 

 destroys it, and it falls to the ground. Fruit that has reached a con- 

 siderable size before bciug stung, sometimes maintains its hold upon 

 life, and ripens, with or without the presence of the insect. But such 

 is generally worthless. These insects enter the ground again from the 

 fallen fruit, and in turn come up the same season or the next, to begin 

 the work of their parents. We thus see how numerous a family of 

 curculios in an orchard may become, and how destructive their work 

 may bo, if not molested. 



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