258 The Curculio and Codling Moth. 



makes a horizontal puncture, directly under the skin, to the 

 extent of one-tenth of an inch ; she then turns round and 

 deposits her eggs, at the entrance of the horizontal puncture ; 

 after which she again turns round, and, with her proboscis, 

 pushes home the egg to the bottom of the last puncture, and 

 presses the flesh of the plum against the skin, and holds it in 

 this position about ten minutes, imtil the flesh and skin are 

 knit together, for the purpose, as I suppose, of preventing the 

 egg from rolling out, and also to protect it from a minute 

 spider. The semi-circular cut is made to provide for con- 

 traction, as, if made straight, the skin would split and the 

 egg roll out. 



The curculio flies a great distance, and their numbers are 

 immense where there are plenty of fruit trees. It is evident, 

 unless some means are taken to diminish them, that they 

 will eventually take all the fruit. I know of no article that 

 will scent them ofl". I placed a bottle of spirits of tar directly 

 under three plums, and in a few days found the fatal punc- 

 ture upon them. The egg hatches in from five to ten days, 

 and the fruit may be saved by taking out the egg, but the 

 application of white wash, by syringing the fruit, I consider 

 the most practicable, unless the experiment which I am now 

 trying answers the purpose — of syringing the limbs before 

 the buds break. To make the wash stick to the fruit or tree 

 I put in a little glue. 



THE CODLING MOTH. 



The other insect to which I alluded is the codling moth : 

 this little moth deposits her egg in the eye of the apple ; they 

 commenced last year about the 15th of June, and were so des- 

 tructive on my trees as to take about all the curculio spared, 

 and many of the Bartlett and Passe Colmar pears. They are 

 about all the season, or until the middle of September. There 

 are two or three crops of them : I produced them from the 

 egg in about five weeks ; they were two weeks eating before 

 they were ready to go into the chrysalis state, and three 

 weeks before the perfect moth appeared. They are a small 

 grey moth, with a distinct mark upon the hind part of the 



