338 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



from all orchards or gardens, the crops may be saved. It 

 is not difficult to defend a tree against all the curculios that 

 are bred upon it. Pavements ; hard-rolled gravel ; gather- 

 ing up, daily, the fallen plums and destroying them ; the 

 application of salt, and many other remedies may succeed 

 where the curculio from other gardens or orchards cannot 

 easily migrate to supply the trees with a fresh brood. 

 Trees in cities, and in retired places, on this account, often 

 bear plenteously. 



But of what use is it to destroy five hundred larvae, if 

 twice that number of emigrants, from some other quarter, 

 are anxious, the next spring, to squat upon your trees, or 

 to enter them, in land-office style, most nefariously? All 

 remedies founded on the destruction of the larvae will be 

 totally useless if your trees can be reached from some 

 infected point abroad, as we have found to our sorrow. In 

 our own experience, and in that of other amateur-cultivators 

 of fruit, the pavement, salt, and all have been " love's labor 

 lost." But in the experience of others, in climates where 

 the curculio does not abound, or in secluded situations, they 

 have proved effectual. 



The remedies to be employed, in ordinary cases, must be 

 such as wiU constantly molest the insect at his work. 

 Inclosures, in which swine root, and rub against the trees ; 

 lanes, where cattle resort, to rub off their hair in spring, to 

 shade themselves in summer — these are the best situations. 

 In yards and gardens plum-trees should be placed upon the 

 most frequented paths ; close to the well, by the kitchen 

 door, near the wood-house, so that, as often as possible, 

 they may be jarred in passing and repassing. 



Where a few trees stand apart in the garden, it is said 

 that, daily, morning and evening, by spreading a sheet 

 under them, and giving the tree a sudden and violent blow 

 with a mallet, the insects will drop and may then be 

 gathered and destroyed. This should be perfonned while 

 it is cool, as then, only, the curculio is somewhat torj)id. II 



