56 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



all the trees. Trimming would not save them. It is not worth my while 

 to try to grow plums while I am so much more successful with apples and 

 pears. 



Mr. John G. Bergen. — I have looked into this subject; it has attracted 

 my attention for the past twenty-five years. Some kinds of plums are very 

 much less liable to be affected by black knot and curculio than others. 

 There is one common sort on Long Island, called horse jDlum, that is most 

 affected by black knot. The Damson plum is also badly affected. The 

 Orleans plum has seldom been affected by the black knot, but the curculio 

 destroys nearly all the fruit. Then there is the Catharine, and one called 

 with us the blue gage, the fruit of which is small and abundant, though 

 not first quality, which is seldom affected in fruit or tree. Of cherries, the 

 common sour kind were the first destroyed by the black knot; next the May 

 Duke, and now all sorts more or less. Some white cherries are the least 

 attacked of any but the native varieties. The curculio, whether they cause 

 black knot and then kill the trees, or whether it is some other cause, are 

 certainly very troublesome insects, yet I am not disposed to abandon the 

 attempt to grow plums and cherries, particularly the latter. 



When your trees are affected by the black knot you must cut until you 

 come to sound wood; if you do not you will lose the limb and perhaps the 

 tree. 



Solon Robinson. — I am as badly plagued with another insect as with 

 curculio. Indeed, they are worse upon cherries; and last summer they 

 destroyed bushels of my strawberry apples, taking nearly all of the earliest. 

 I allude to the rose-bugs, those shield shaped, dirty-yellow colored pests of 

 the rose bushes, ever since I can remember; but it is only of late years 

 that they have become pests of the orchard and vineyard. If any one can 

 give a remedy for this pest he will confer a great benefit upon community. 



John G. Bergen. — I cannot name a remedy, but can state that the bugs 

 may suddenly cease their mischief. A few years ago the south side of 

 Long Island was so infested with them that no one could grow grapes; 

 they cut off all the buds. For the last two years there have been very few 

 of those bugs, not enough to destroy the grapes ; and I never knew that 

 they would eat cherries and apples. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — A neighbor of mine in Westchester county hired the 

 children to catch these pests, and got rid of them in that way. I recom- 

 mend that course. They are easily jarred from the trees. 



Solon Robinson. — Like the recommendation to jar off the curculio and 

 pinch his head, it may do on a small scale, but as a general thing it is 

 impracticable. You could not jar them from my trees unless you jarred 

 the fruit with them. I have seen a dozen upon one cherry, and they eat it 

 to the stone. And I have seen them entirely burrowed in apples ; and if 

 they could be jarred from the ti-ee, upon a sheet, it would require a good 

 sized crushing engine to destroy them. 



Winter-killed Evergreens. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — There has been a large loss of evergreens in this 

 vicinity the past winter, both in nurseries and upon gentlemen's places. I 

 have lost a number of trees in a hedge of arborvittes, five years old. 



