570 Transactioxs of the American Institute. 



are requisite. Xext week I may take occasion to give somewhat 

 more definite information bearing on this very subject. 



Cultivation of the PLrii. 



Mr. J. J. Babcock, Kahimazoo, Mich. — My remedy for the destroy- 

 ers of this fruit is not one of my own discovery, but one practiced by 

 several of my neighbors. Just across the street lives a man by the 

 name of John P. Glover, who, this year and for a number of years 

 past, has succeeded in raising several bushels of nice blue Damson 

 plums, and he is not alone in this. Mr. Glover told me that he 

 selected his grounds for his plum trees near his barn, planted them 

 altogether, surrounded them with a tall picket fence, and made his 

 hen house in the inclosure. lie keeps from twenty to fifty hens. 

 He also puts into this same inclosure two pigs ; the hens are fond of 

 insects ; there being only a few of other kinds, they gather and 

 -swallow eagerly all, or nearly all, the curculio ; should any escape 

 the hens and sting the fruit, the fruit falls, and the pigs, being fond 

 of plums, eat them at once. The pums I saw of his raising this sea- 

 son were free from stings, large, smooth and delicious, as they used 

 to be thirty years ago, before the curculio was so destructive. The 

 whole thing, from beginning to end, is most profitable. A plum 

 orchard, a pig pen, and hen park, all on a small piece of ground. 

 The eggs, pork and plums produced more money than could have 

 been obtained had tlie ground and expense been applied to an}- other 

 purpose. 



Mr. Buckley." — I lived for some years in the handsome town from 

 which this letter is written, and am familiar with the process 

 explained. A man, by the name of Cobb, was the first to put it 

 into practice, and, as stated, the results have been very satisfactory. 



Dr. J. Y. C. Smith. — Our friend, the entomologist of New Jersey, 

 has repeatedly made the same recommendation, or something similar, 

 and, if my memory serves me, his suggestion has not been uniformly 

 received with the credence it is now shown to deserve. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — The idea is not original with me, and I 

 never claimed it. It originated, I think, with the father of J. J. 

 Thomas, some forty years ago. It is practiced now with excellent 

 results by Ellwanger tfe ]>arry, and by otliers. However, I have 

 tried, as Dr. Smith remarks, more than once to pound tlic idea into 

 the heads of the people. 



The Chairman. — And I am afraid you have found the process a 

 very difficult one. 



