AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 151 



inside fence — the magnificent crops divided by convenient wagon paths from 

 each other. The only interior inclosure was the manure yard, which 

 besides all the manure of stock, received all refuse materials and muck 

 from meadows, which the stock by treading, &c., improved much. Such a 

 beautiful farm led the committee to suppose that the master, his family 

 and house were appropriate. We found landlord and lady full of intelli- 

 gence and enterprise ; his dwelling, library, garden, &c., all in like style. 

 None better can be wished for on earth. The learning and the practice had 

 met here, and the land rejoiced. Our greatest premium on farms was given 

 to Kimball's fenceless farm. 



Solon Robinson suggested that the plan of storing wheat in the ground 

 was a good one for the prairie farmers. Not, however, skins of cattle ; but 

 pits could be dug and cemented exactly like cisterns, with only a small 

 mouth, and there is no doubt grain could be kept safely in this way — prob- 

 ably more so than in any other way. 



Judge Meigs — It is the old Egyptian way of storing grain, and a very 

 good way it is, too. 



Solon Robinson — Yes, in a country so destitute of wood as the great 

 prairie wheat region of the west. 



THE CURCULIO. 



Dr. Trimble, of Newark — What will cure the curculio is an important 

 question. Dr. T. exhibited some live curculio, and also some limbs of 

 plum trees with black knots, which he contended were made by the same 

 insect that affects the fruit. This, he says, he has proved to his full satis- 

 faction by repeated experiments. The plum rot, he also thinks, is pro- 

 duced by the curculio. He says the whole subject of the curculio seems to 

 be misunderstood. He has bred the insect from the larvae found in the 

 black knot and from the fruit, and found them identical. He thinks that 

 the race may be propagated in the bark, and thus continued in existence 

 when the fruit entirely fails. By watching the trees at this season the 

 commencement of the black knot may be detected, and that is the time to 

 cut off the branch. If the egg is taken out of the limb or fruit, it will go 

 on to perfection. There is no poison from the perforation — it comes from 

 the growth of the insect. He has never found any remedy, except shaking 

 the insects off upon a sheet and killing them, and by so doing he has raised 

 one hundred bushels of apricots a year. The insect never touches the 

 apple and peach as long as it can find plum or apricots. For want of its 

 favorite fruit it will take apples and other fruits, and it is the cause of so 

 many defective apples as we find in market. To keep curculio out of an 

 orchard, requires constant attention for six weeks. The trees want shaking 

 some days several times a day, and it is by that alone fine plums and apri- 

 cots can be grown. Sometimes in a very severe drouth at the time the 

 stung fruit is falling, the larva perishes, because unable to penetrate the 

 earth. The sting of a curculio is known by a peculiar crescent-shaped 

 mark where the perforation is made. The insect has a peculiar shaped and 

 strong proboscis, with which the wound is made in which to deposit the egg. 



