Salt and Lime for the Curculio. 449 



were numerous perfect insects among the plums, and very 

 active. Confinement did not seem to trouble them. In this 

 tumbler she placed a plum dipped in strong tobacco water, 

 which was soon punctured like the others. On emptying 

 the soil from the tumbler I found it filled with the insects, 

 in every stage of formation, from the apparently dormant 

 grub to the perfect one, ready to fly. The grubs had formed 

 small cells for themselves in a ball of earth, about half an 

 inch in diameter, which might be rolled across a table with- 

 out breaking. Mrs. Benedict intends to continue her experi- 

 ments, which if you wish I will send you hereafter. 



Mrs. Benedict confirmed the statement of the brown beetle 

 or May-bug, made by Mr. Tuttle, and published in your 

 Magazine. She said that they had been so destructive this 

 season to their plum trees, that they had no remedy but to 

 destroy them ; that they caught twelve quarts on one even- 

 ing ; that they measured them, as taken, until they measured 

 two and a half bushels. That they caught in all more than 

 three bushels. She caught some and put in a lace net and 

 hung on a plum tree, and put in plums about one-third 

 grown. They would invariably eat the whole, excepting the 

 pits. They also invariably attacked the flowers of apples 

 and pears, and the leaves of the elm, butternut, oak, ash, and 

 willow. 



It may not be improper to add, that Mrs. Benedict is the 

 most accomplished Lady Horticulturist I have ever met with, 

 — that her residence is on a farm about two miles from, and 

 in full view of, the lake ; soil a clayey loam. That while 

 her husband is almost constantly " in town" engaged in his 

 business as a merchant and manufacturer, she seems to man- 

 age the Home Department, and its appearance shows with 

 what success. Having plenty of room and numerous trees, 

 shrubs, vines, &c., &c., with more than one hundred plum> 

 trees of various kinds, her experiments are of more practical 

 value than if made in a village garden, with Hklf a dozen, 

 trees. 



Burlington, Vt., August 26, 1850. 



VOL. XVI. NO. X. 57 



