176 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO. 



The beetles hibernate under leaves or bark, in woods or other sheltered 

 places near stone-fruit orchards. They issue from such winter quarters as soon 

 as, or before, the buds put out in the spring. Both male and female feed on the 

 tender foliage for some time before the females have a chance to oviposit in the 

 young fruit. While the nights are cool they hide under any shelter within reach. 

 Where the base of the tree is kept clean and the earth raked, chips laid around 

 under the trees form a most satisfactory trap for them, and in the early morning 

 they are somewhat torpid and easily killed. Later in the season the jarring 

 process is one of the most satisfactory ways of securing an uninjured crop of 

 fruit. The arsenical treatment is based on the habit of both sexes of feeding on 

 the young foliage in the early season, and secondly, on the habit of the female 

 gnawing with her jaws a crescent-shaped mark in order to form a deadened flap 

 around the egg she has thrust under the skin of the fruit. One thing to be 

 considered in the use of arsenites against this insect is the effect of these mineral 

 poisons on the different stone-fruit trees. Spraying against the plum curculio is 

 only partially successful, and the same may be said of other rhynchophorus or 

 snout bearing beetles, which injuriously affect the fruit, viz.: the quince and the 

 apple curculio, and plum gougers.— V. Riley, U. S. Efitomologist, Washington, 

 D. C. 



DIFFERENCES IN GRAPES. 



The skin of the Niagara is a little firmer — more papery, so to speak — than 

 that of the Concord. The seeds vary from one to six in the Niagara ; from one 

 to four in the Concord, the size being about the same. The pulp of the Con- 

 cord is tougher than that of the Niagara ; the seeds do not separate so readily, 

 and there is more acidity in the pulp around them. The flesh — "fat," as it is 

 often called— attached to the skin of the Concord, is rather sweeter than that 

 attached to the skin of the Niagara. If, however, the seeds of each are rejected, 

 the Niagara is the sweeter grape, because, as above stated, the acidity of the 

 pulp next the seeds of the Concord is more pronounced than in the Niagara. 

 If the seeds are not rejected, the Niagara is somewhat more sprightly than the 

 Concord. The muskiness or foxiness of the Niagara is more emphatic than 

 that of the Concord, both as to taste and odor. The berries of the Niagara are 

 more liable to rot than those of the Concord. Both vines are strong growers ; 

 the Concord is the hardier. — Rural New Yorker. 



Raspberries may be treated with Bordeaux mixture alone ; grapes with the 

 same until the fruit sets, after which use copper carbonate. Potatoes should be 

 sprayed at least five times with Bordeaux mixture and Paris green. 



