176 APPENDIX. 



The remedies against the work of the curculio may be divided into 

 three classes : First, those directed against it while in the ground; sec- 

 ond, while depositing its eggs in. the fruit on the tree ; and third, while 

 in the fruit in the larva state. 



1. Paving with brick, stone, or boards, or beating down and tramping 

 the soil beneath the trees, has been recommended and practiced ; but 

 while this may be partially successful, it cannot be relied on. For, 

 while one man may destroy his own, his neighbor's orchard may supply 

 him with another brood— as the insect can fly, and emigrate from one 

 orchard to another, and from the forest. 



2. The most successful, and perhaps the only successful mode of war- 

 fare against them, is while in the beetle or winged state. The fumes of 

 burnt sulphur have been used to drive them away. The sprinkling of 

 the tree with, powdered sulphur, or slaked lime, when the dew is on, or 

 after a rain, has also been successfully practiced. But the jarring of 

 the trees, and catching the insects as they fall, is the surest an 1 most 

 certain remedy. The habit of the animal is to drop when distarbed, 

 and lie still.* The tree should be jarred with a sudden and quick motion 

 (not shaken) ; and care should be used that the Dark be not injured. A 

 stroke with a heavy mallet, or some padded substance, will bring them 

 down, if the tree is not a large one. If the tree be only shaken, they 

 will fly away, or cling to their position. 



3. Many insects may be destroyed while in the larva state, by a care- 

 ful picking of the punctured fruit as it falls from the tree, and before ' 

 the worm has had time to emerge. Such should never be allowed to lie 

 after falling, bat should be eaten by the hogs. 



4. It is yet an unsettled c[uestion whether barn-yard fowls will eat the 

 curculio ; yet experiment has shown that they can be successfully em- 

 ployed against them. It is notoiiovis that where these have been allowed 

 to run, and to scratch, under the fruit-trees, full crops have been ob- 

 tained. Whether the insects are caught and destroyed by the fowls, or 

 only driven away to a more quiet field of operations, has not yet been 

 fully decided. In either case the fruit is saved. Fowls can be induced 

 to do an unusual amount of scratching, by strewing a handful of corn- 

 meal daily under the trees. 



Many devices have been adopted for catching the curculio while in 

 the winged state, A machine invented by the late Dr. Hull, of Illinois, 

 and known as the "Curculio-Catcher,'* has been much u^ed in the 

 West, and is perhaps the best implement known for the purpose. It is 

 constructed somewhat like a wheelbarrow, with a large umbrella-shaped 

 cloth stretched over it, inverted — on which the insects will fall as the 

 tree is jaried, and roll down into the centre, into a vessel of water. A 

 padded battering-ram projects in front, and may be made to strike and 



