202 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



^A- 



plenty of borers. This last result might h.ave 

 been expected, since the period of egg-deposit- 

 ing was not yet over, and the moths had ample 

 time during July, August and September, to 

 furnish the trees with a good stock of eggs. 

 The practice of leveling the mound late in the 

 fall is a good one, as it exposes those young 

 worms that may chance to be on the trunk, to 

 the action of frost, and to the attacks of birds. 

 We are always glad to get facts from i)ractical 

 men. Let us hear from those who have had 

 experience in the nuitter of mounding peach 

 trees. — Eus.] 



\ \OUT OF EIILfTHERE COJIETU (JO(II). 



It seems that the prfcspcct for an abniulant 

 fruit crop was never greater, in the AV'est, than 

 at present. During recent trii)s in South Illinois 

 and in various parts of Missouri, almost every 

 orchardist whom we ()uestioncd, declared that 

 he had never seen more profuse blossoming or 

 better setting of the finil, iind our iiwii obser- 

 vations tally Avilh llicsc (licliiriilions. These 

 remarks do not apjily lo pemli tires, which, in 

 many sections, lost tlicir IVuil l.y frost. \Vc 

 arc greatly inclined to believe IIkiI niiich of iliis 

 excessive fruitfnlness may be attributed to the 

 puncturing of the limbs, last summer, by the 

 Periodical Cicada, which acted as a good sum- 

 mer pruning, coming as it did, at the very time 

 when such pruning should be done. AW> .arc 

 strengthened in this belief, from having ob- 

 served that many two and three-year old trees 

 have been thrown preniatniely into bearing 

 from the same cause. Tims we have a i)resent 

 good, resulting from what was at the time an 

 evident evil, though whether or not excessive 

 fruilfnlness from such a cause will be of any 

 ultimate benefit is matter of doubt. 



. \ . , THE PERI01)1C.4L CICADA. 



In the chronologicaU history of this insect 

 Avhich we gave in ourM)ecember issue, occurs 

 the following paragi'aph (p. CS) : 



Hl!(.(il. I.--.V/./. ///./,. /m-lsM, 1869. 



In tlic vc:ir ISIIii. ami at intervals of seventeen years 

 Ihci-oaftrr, tliry will piohably aiipcar in the v.allVy of 

 tin; Cmiiccticut viuv. Acc.nlin;;- to Dr. Asa Fitch 

 (N. Y. licii I. p. 40). tlnv a|.|Mar.-.l th.ir in ISIS and 



this may Iju oonsick'n-d as a soiacuhat probkinatical 

 brooil . 



We hope that our Connecticut or Massachu- 

 setts subscribers, will duly inform us whether 

 or not they .appear there during the summer, 

 and thus either confirm or disprove the gen- 

 uineness of this brood. "We shall also be glad to 

 learn of the appearance of tliis insect in any 

 other part or parts of tjje Ujiitcd States, 



THE CURCULIO SCARCER THAN LAST YEAR. 



Judge A. 51. IJrown of Villa Kidge, writing 

 under date of May lUh, says: 



Curculios are very much scarcer than ever before. I 

 have never caught, at one catching, more than two and 

 one-half to the tree. Even the plum trees in the vard, 

 since the lirst three or four days, are almost entirely 

 free (rom their attacks. Indeed, they seem to like 

 peaches belter than iilums. Can it be that their taste 

 is ch.inginj.' ? 



I am inclined to think that somethinj,' is destroying 

 their e;;;;,- a- tli.\ arc d. posited. I have cut a muill>cr 

 of plum- ,ind pcrlh-. I.earin- tln-ir mark, and in none 

 of them ran I Iind a Ira,-.' of e.-i.' or worm. Cm it be 

 that the Lailyliird- an- iloin;;' this ? They swarm on the 

 trees in x'cal mimlnrs. If the warm r'ain now falling 

 does not bnn;;- i>id a swarm ..f the little savages, 1 shall 

 conclude tiiat tin' rr..p i> very ^hort. 



Last year .Mr. I'ark.r Earle, of South Pass, 

 Ills., thirty miles north of Villa Kidge, captured 

 (jjOOO Curculios from one hundred peach trees 

 during the first six days of May, and if the same 

 diminution occurs at South Pass, which Mr. 

 Brown has noticed at Villa Kidge, they will 

 have but little trouble from Curculios this year, 

 in that region. The comparative scarcity of 

 this insect is not, however, confined to South 

 Illinois, for, we have noticed the same state of 

 things in Jlissouri since the date of Mr. Brown's 

 communication. Elsewhere wchavc stated our 

 opinion, in contradiction to those who claim 

 that tliis little pest will destroy the peaches in 

 South Illinois for all time to come, that, so far as 

 insects tire concerned, the i)rospect for a good 

 crop the year succeeding an entire failure, is 

 greater than at any other period. AVc arc in- 

 clined to think that the present year will prove 

 the truth of the st.atement, so far as the Curculio 

 is concerned ; at least wc hope so for the good of 

 the peach-raiser. It is poor logic to argue that, 

 because an insect is numerous one year, there- 

 fore it must necessarily be so the next. Nature 

 is ever endeavoring to bring about a balance. 



STINKING OUT THE CURCULIO. 



[from a Letter IVoni Luclu-i C. Francis, Spriiiglleld, Ills ] 



It seems to be a very fallacious way of reason- 

 ing, that because Whale-oil Soap, Coal-oil, Gas- 

 tar and a host of other things are stinks to us, 

 of course they are so to the Curculio and to any 

 other noxious insect. The Dung-beetle delights 

 to work in manure. The, to us, stinking carcass 

 swarms with thousands of happy maggots, fairly 

 reveling in corruption. Even as clean an in- 

 sect as the honey-bee is often found fre- 

 quenting places which our nasal organs are not 

 very well pleased with. In like manner, the 

 Curculio, as we know from sad experience, does 

 not intend to be stunk away, and the knock- 

 down argument is the only thing that he will 

 p.ay any attention to. 



