152 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



It takes from four or five days to two weeks for the eggs to hatch, and if 

 it is desired to take out the egg it must not be neglected until it hatches. 

 The insect seems to have the power of secreting a sort of wax, which it 

 cements over the egg. I have never found any advantage in the use of all 

 the nostrums recommended to prevent the curculio. 



John G. Bergen — I have apricot trees on my place that are never at- 

 tacked. They stand trained against the southwest side of a building. My 

 plum trees, in open ground, are severely affected. Mr. Steele, of Jersey 

 city, stated here, the other day, that he saved his fruit by using whale-oil 

 soap. A neighbor of mine saved his fruit by the same application, with a 

 little sulphur added. He went up a ladder with a watering pot, and poured 

 it over the trees, with such good effect that he now intends to apply it with 

 a proper syringe. 



Andrew S. Fuller. — We have had a great many remedies, and some men 

 want great sums for their discoveries how to prevent curculio, yet all fail. 

 Whale-oil soap is recommended to kill bugs, yet I have tried it, and found 

 the bugs would live in the soap ; of course it would not kill them. Some 

 simple remedies will answer one year and fail next. I remember when I 

 could not sell green gage plums in Rochester at twenty-five cents a busheL; 

 that our trees were covered with black knot, but the fruit was not affected. 

 Why was this, if the same insect stings both limb and fruit ? I don't be- 

 lieve it is the same curculio that stings the fruit that makes the black knot. 



The pea-bug is a curculio, but I don't think it would live if the egg was 

 inserted in a pumpkin. I can easily see the egg of curculio in fruit, and 

 the crescent-shaped puncture, but I never could see either in the limbs of 

 trees. I believe that the same insect stings the plum and Morell's cherry, 

 but is not the same that stings the apple. 



Prof. Nash. — At what rate of advance over a country do the curculio 

 progress ? 



Dr. Trimble. — I don't know ; they fly rr.pidly, and go from one orchard 

 to another, and always attack the outside rows first, and progress into the 

 interior of the orchard slowly. I have seen plum trees at Hudson growing 

 on a stiff clay, entirely unaffected with curculio, while upon light soil 

 around all were destroyed. To shake off the insects, make a square sheet, 

 and cut it to the center to straddle the tree, and sew on sticks upon the 

 ends to carry it by from tree to tree. A few jars of the tree will bring 

 them down upon the white s^^eet, where they are easily seen and caught. 

 This shaking must be done jvery day, except cold, rainy ones, when the 

 pests keep quiet. 



Jchn Gr. Bergen. — A neighbor got rid of curculio by digging deep, and 

 turning the larvae deep into the earth. 



Mr. Fuller. — I dug around a tree eighteen inches deep, and then put on 

 a thick coat of coal ashes, and it did not do a bit of good toward prevent- 

 ing the insects coming out in due time. 



Mr. Meigs recalled the old Egyptian plan of storing up wheat in years 



