On the Culture of the Plum. 163 



less and decayed plum, and finding its way into the soil, remains 

 there at some depth below the surface, to come forth in the succeed- 

 ing spring, in its winged state, to go through its little round of exis- 

 tence again. 



Countless remedies have been proposed for the mitigation of the 

 evil, caused by the curculio, which are directed to the destruction 

 of the insect in a winged slate, when engaged in perpetrating the 

 mischief, whilst the tree is yet in bloom : but there is but one 

 easy, certain, and efficacious method of putting a stop to its rava- 

 ges, viz., by destroying it in the larvae or grub state after it has fal- 

 len from the tree, and before it has left the fruit. In plum orchards 

 nothing can be more easily accomplished. The cultivator has only 

 to turn in his swine, and allow them to devour the fruit daily as 

 it falls from the tree, and every insect will perish. This has 

 been tested repeatedly, and with uniform success. The curculio, 

 though a winged insect, is scarcely a migratory one, seldom leaving 

 the neighborhood of the tree under which it emerged from the soil, 

 and it has been found that, of two trees standing in adjoining gar- 

 dens, one of them was attacked, and the fruit destroyed, whilst the 

 neighboring one, when pains had been taken to destroy the insects, 

 remained laden with a beautiful crop. In small gardens, therefore, 

 when the number of trees is limited, it would well repay the 

 trouble of gathering up and destroying the green fruit, as in a short 

 time, the whole brood would be exterminated. It should be ob- 

 served that when the soil has been trodden hard, when it has been 

 paved underneath the branches, or in situations where the tree has 

 inclined over a sheet of water, the larvae of the curculio, not be- 

 ing able to find its way readily into the soil, perishes, and the trees bear 

 abundantly. This is obviously the reason why the trees in the 

 hard trodden or paved yards of cities, often yield such surprising 

 crops— and the amateur horticulturist may draw a useful lesson 

 from this fact. 



Another most troublesome malady to which the plum is liable 

 in some parts of the country, is commonly known by the name 

 of the knots. It exhibits itself in the form of rough black excrescen- 

 ces upon the branches, of various sizes, from the scarcely percepti- 

 ble swelling, to bundles of the size of the fist. If permitted to extend 

 itself, it soon covers the whole tree, apparently disseminating its 

 poisonous influence by the medium of the sap through the entire 

 individual. On dissecting an infected branch, the wood and bark, 

 in the discarded part, is found black and dry, and the whole vege- 

 table substance is changed in appearance; if long diseased, the con- 

 ducting vessels are dead and dried up, and this malignant influence 

 may be seen extending itself upwards, first visible in the pith, and 

 afterwards in the heart- wood, until the whole branch is destroyed. 

 Upon opening these prbtuberances carefully, at a certain season of 

 the year, the close observer will detect the larvae of an insect of 



