2t6 Tlif, Manogemtnt, Soil, (ind. Situation of tht. Plum Orchard. 



The Plum requires a soil abundantly rich, and if it is not so^ 

 must be made so by the application of animal manures with an 

 addition of common salt ; the amount of salt necessary for a tree 

 twelve feet in height, is a top dressing of an inch in thickness, ap- 

 plied in a circuit as far as the limbs of the tree extend. 



Potash is also a good manure for the Plum when used in mode- 

 rate quantities. 



The situation of a Plum Orchard should vary with the conve- 

 nience of the cultivator : but the best locality we have yet seen 

 is a fowl yard. A piggery is also a good position for a Plum 

 Orchard if fowls arc allowed to run in it. The Plum will thrive 

 well and produce large crops if planted near the kitchen-door, 

 where they can receive a liberal supply of soap suds from the 

 laundry, and where persons are often passing by, thus keeping 

 file ground well packed about the trees. This prevents the curcu- 

 lio from burrowing in the ground beneath the trees, and they seek 

 some more favorable locality to commit their depredations. 



The curculio (Rliyuchaenus — Venuphar) is the principal thing 

 to contend against in the cultivation of the Plum. In some sec- 

 tions of the country its depredations have for years destroyed 

 whole crops of this fruit, and the cultivators were obliged to des- 

 troy their Plum Orchards and substitute some other varieties of 

 fruit less subject to tlieir attacks. We have with considerable 

 minuteness watchd-d tlie habits and customs of the curcu- 

 lio. The insect is not as large as the common house-fly ; it 

 lias a sheath, or coat of mail, which encases its wings ; the mo- 

 rjicnt it is disturbed, it folds up its wings beneath its coat of mail, 

 and remains motionless, as if it were lifeless. TJiis pest usually 

 commits its depredations in the night. It can fly, but it usually 

 climbs up the body of the tree soon after sunset, and by punctur- 

 ing the green fruit with its sharp proboscis, makes an incision 

 which subsequently becomes the receptacle of an agg. The 

 egg, in a few days, assumes the larva form, and eats its way to 

 the centre, sapping the life of the immature fruit. The curcidio, 

 after committing its nocturnal depredations, drops to the ground, 

 and there awaits an opportunity for another sortie. 



Thus the benefit of planting a Plum Orchard in the fowl jard, 

 arises from the fact tliat the fowls keep the earth under the trees 

 80 well packed, that the curculio cannot burrow under the trees ; 



