Insects and Diseases. 1 8 1 



CURCULIO-CATCHER. For general use, the most convenient 

 form of a curculio-catcher consists of a piece of stout muslin six or 

 seven feet square, stiffened by means of light wooden rods across 

 two opposite sides, and these kept apart by a cross-rod through the 

 middle. This rod is a little shorter than the breadth of the muslin, 

 so that the latter assumes a slightly concave form. The operator 

 holds the sheet, with this cross-rod as a handle, under one side of 

 the tree, while with a heavy hammer in the other hand he strikes 

 the iron plug inserted as already described in the branch on that 

 side of the tree. The beetles drop on the sheet, which being held 

 obliquely, they roll down to the concave part of the lower side, where 

 they are quickly caught and destroyed with a single roll of the 

 thumb over the finger. This catcher is recommended by its sim- 

 plicity and cheapness, and by the rapidity with which a single 

 operator may use it. It may be used on all trees, high or low, 

 large or small, and rough ground does not impede it. Unlike the 

 contrivances for killing the insects with hot water or oil, none but 

 curculios need be destroyed, the operator allowing all the lady- 

 bugs and other useful insects to escape. 



THE CODLING MOTH AND THE CANKER WORM. Within a few. 

 years an efficient remedy has been found for these two formidable 

 destroyers in the use of Paris green. For the codling worm the 

 poison is mixed with about seven hundred times its bulk of water, 

 and finely showered over the apple-trees when the fruit is about as 

 large as cherries by means of a garden-engine. The liquid enters 

 the blossom-end and kills the minute and newly hatched worm, and 

 if the operation is repeated two or three times within a few days 

 the crop is preserved in a smooth and fair condition. The small 

 quantity which will destroy the minute worm would have no effect 

 on a human being, and all possible danger is removed by the rains, 

 which wash it off thoroughly long before the fruit is grown. 



The canker worm is destroyed by spraying the tree in a similar 

 manner in spring. In either case it will be safe to exclude sheep 

 or other animals from the orchard until rain has washed any grass 

 on which the poison may have fallen. 



