356 . THE PLUM. 



or so long as the insects continue to make their appearance. 

 Repeated trials have proved, beyond question, that this rather 

 tedious mode, is a very effectual one if persisted in.* Coops of 

 chickens placed about under the trees at this season will assist 

 in destroying the insects. 



2. Gathering the fruit and destroying the larvce. As the in- 

 sect, in its larva or grub form, is yet within the plums when 

 they fall prematurely from the tree, it is a very obvious mode of 

 exterminating the next year's brood to gather these fallen fruits, 

 daily, and feed them to swine, boil, or otherwise destroy them. 

 In our own garden, where several years ago we suffered by the 

 plum-weevil, we have found that this practice, pursued or a 

 couple of seasons, has been pretty effectual. Others have re- 

 ported less favourably of it ; but this, we think, arose from their 

 trying it too short a time, in a soil and neighbourhood where the 

 insect is very abundant, and where it consequently had sought 

 extensively other kinds of fruit besides the plum. 



A more simple and easy way of covering the difficulty, where 

 there is a plum orchard or enclosure, is that of turning in swine 

 and fowls during the whole season, when the stung plums are 

 dropping to the ground. The fruit, and the insects contained in 

 it, will thus be devoured together. This is an excellent expe- 

 dient for the farmer, who bestows his time grudgingly on the 

 cares of the garden. 



3. Application of lime and sulphur. Thos. W. Ludlow, Jr., 

 of Yonkers, N. Y., has been very successful with this remedy, 

 and we give his receipt, " which is by syringing the trees after 

 the fall of the blossoms, with a mixture of whitewash and flour 

 of sulphur in the proportion of 18 double handfuls of sulphur to 

 a barrel of tolerably thick whitewash, made of unslacked lime. 

 The sediment of this mixture will answer for a second and third 

 barrel, merely filled with water and well stirred : apply the mix- 

 ture three times a week for four weeks." 



Mr. Ludlow informs us that on the trees where the applica- 

 tion has been made no knots or black worts have made their 

 appearance. 



The knots or black gum. In some parts of the country this is 



* Merely shaking the tree is not sufficient. The following memorandum, 

 as additional proof, we quote from the Genesee Farmer. " Under a tree 

 in a remote part of the fruit garden, having spread the sheets, I made the 

 following experiment. On shaking the tree well I caught five curculios ; 

 on jarring it with the hand I caught twelve more ; and on striking the 

 tree with a stone, eight more dropped on the sheets. I was now con- 

 vinced that I had been in error ; and calling in assistance, and using a 

 hammer to jar the tree violently, we caught in less than an hour, more 

 than two hundred and sixty of these insects." "We will add to this, that 

 to prevent injury to the tree a large wooden mallet should be substituted 

 for a hammer, and it is better if a thick layer of cloth is bound over it 3 

 head. 



