106 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



work its way into the ground to undergo it8 transformations, where 

 the ground is clear it might be rolled and otherwise composted so 

 that the curculio could not readily work itself down, and thus it 

 might perish upon the ground from exposure to the sun." 



Mr. W. n. Ransom of Benton IlaFbor, Michigan, invented a 

 simple curculio trap which has proved quite effective. His pro- 

 cess of trapping the curculio is thus described : 



" First remove everything away from beneath the tree, and 

 make the earth as smooth as it can be made ; on this depends 

 largely the success of the trap. This being done, take pieces of 

 bark as large as your hand or a little larger, and place them flat 

 side down and against the trunk of the tree. Jar the tree occa- 

 sionally to dislodge the insects. Examine your trap every morning 

 and catch and kill those you find concealed beneath your bark. 

 This has been used several years with satisfactory results." 



As soon as the little crescent mark is discovered, the plum may 

 then be saved, as we know by experience, by promptly removing 

 the newly laid egg with its covering, with the point of a knife or 

 finger nail, and the delicious green gage, McLaughlin, and other 

 choice kinds saved from ruin in this way will well repay the labor. 

 All the plums stung by the curculio which fall prematurely to the 

 ground, should be picked up immediatly and destroyed with the 

 larva3 they contain, and thus we may much diminish the number 

 of these harmful insects and make our labor less the next season. 

 Curculios are also found in apples, cherries and peaches, but it is 

 in plums that they are most to be dreaded. 



In consequence of the destruction of forests supplying the 

 natural food to noxious insects, the importation of foreign species 

 of our insect foes, the great increase of food plants upon which they 

 prey, by our pomologists and farmers, and the decrease of birds 

 which have been ignorantly and foolishly destroj^ed, insects injuri- 

 ous to fruits, grain and other crops, have multiplied in some 

 sections to a fearful extent. Man with all his wisdom and intelli- 

 gence has been able to prevent their ravages only to a limited 

 extent. 



It is estimated that $3,000,000,000 worth of property has been 

 destroyed annually in the Uuited States by these liliputian foes. 

 Yet in the economy of Nature, insects subserve a most useful 

 purpose , they distribute pollen, tliey fructify flowers. Indeed 

 some flowers would be barren and unproductive of seed or fruit 

 without their agency, and generally they do much to compensa'te 

 for manifold evils resulting from certain insect pests. Ilence we 

 need the constant investigations of entomologists to enable us to 



