120 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



plans that have had their advocates. ■ People 

 liave had plums after using lliem,just as they 

 have had when nothing has been used; but all 

 these plans have failed when fairly tested. 



On the 2oth of July, 1803, I was one of a 

 party to visit the vineyards of Dr. Underbill, 

 of Croton Point, on the Hudson River. That 

 gentleman had solicited the appointment of a 

 committee at a meeting of fruit-growers, to 

 examine his mode of cultivating grapes. The 

 visit was a most pleasant one. 



While here, wo' visited the Doctor's Plum 

 trees planted rouud an artiticial pond. They 

 stand at an angle of about 45 deg., and so close 

 to the edge of the bank that the greater part of 

 the branches are over the water, so that when 

 the fruit comes to maturity on these trees, a boat 

 will be necessary to gather the greater part of 

 it. In a very careful exaiaination of those trees 

 having fruit on at this time, we found it badly 

 punctured by the Curculio. On the plums high 

 up on the trees, and especially on those branches 

 leaning furthest over the water, it was impossible 

 to see whether the crescent mark was there or 

 not ; but wherever near enough to be examined, 

 Ave could see no difference between those plums 

 hanging over the water and those over the land. 

 They were just as badly marked by tlie punc- 

 tures of the Curculio as were the plums on some 

 trees at the neighboring station of Croton ; Just 

 as badly stung as in Newark and other places 

 I had visited that year on purpose to see the 

 extent of the ravages of the Curculio. Gentle- 

 men who have often seen these trees other years, 

 have told me that they have always had a sim- 

 ilar experience. 



Dr. Underbill, like others, has had crops of 

 plums, and these crops have probably been 

 ascribed to the circumstance that they grew 

 over water ; and he believes that the merit of 

 the plan is attributable to the sagacity or in- 

 stinct of the insect : That she must not deposit 

 her eggs in fruit so situated that it loillfall into 

 tvater. To carry out this theory, it would be 

 necessary for the Curculio to know that the 

 plums in wliich she deposits her eggs will fall 

 from that tree ; that if they fall into the water, 

 the grubs they contain will perish; that if they 

 fall on land they will be safe. The question 

 here ai'ises — Has the Curculio such instincts, or 

 such sagacity? 



In this world of wonders in wliich we live, 

 there is nothing so wonderful as the instincts of 

 insects. The impulses that control their actions 

 are strangely perfect. They are no more likely 

 to go wrong than a machine. We do not know 

 what instinct is. We cannot define it. No 



matter how we put words together, they will 

 give no adequate idea of what this blind impulse 

 is. We cannot weigh, measure, see, or feel 

 what is called gravity. But it is that something 

 that keeps the universe in order; that something, 

 in the ordering of the Almighty, that prevents 

 one world from jostling another, and creation 

 from falling into confusion. 



Who can understand how the Cicada sep- 

 tendecim, after passing nearly seventeen years 

 underground, should come to the surface in the 

 evening of a certain day of tlie month, with 

 abnost exact regularity, generation after gen- 

 eration, for centuries? How sliould a certain 

 kind of wasp know, that when she builds a cell 

 of mud for the reception of her egg, she must 

 put in a supply of insects for food for the young 

 that will be born of that e^^g, and that at a 

 certain future day she must break open that 

 cell, and give her young a fresh supply? AVho 

 teaches the neuter bee — that nondescript , that 

 cannot be a parent— how to fabricate a cell for 

 the young of another? Such curious instances 

 of the instincts of insects could be multiplied 

 till they would fill a volume, and all would be 

 wonderful— equally beyond our understanding, 

 but all consistent with their wants, and in accord 

 with the rest of nature. Those who carefully 

 observe these things will feel that they are iu a 

 world overruled by an Omnipresent Guide of 

 all things. But the Superintending Guide that 

 teaches the little Curculio to deposit her eggs 

 in fruit where the future young will find food, 

 would hardly give her an instinct to guard her 

 against depositing that egg where fruits never 

 grow except on trees planted contrary to na- 

 ture. 



We were told to-day that the tides were some- 

 times so low as partially to drain this pond, 

 and it was then the Curculio punctured the 

 fruit over where the water should be. The 

 same special instinct that would teach her to 

 avoid the water, should also admonish her to 

 avoid the danger of the tide-water mud, the one 

 being as fatal to the future grub as the other. 



Planting fruit trees in this way will certainly 

 diminish the number of Curculios ; but as long 

 as millions of young apples are permitted to 

 lie undisturbed on the ground in the orchards 

 in the neighborhood, to bring forth their vast 

 armies for the next year, it will hardly be worth 

 while to dig such ponds and plant trees round 

 Ihcm in such an awkward position for the 

 little good they would do. The embryo Curcu- 

 lio in the fruit that falls into the water will 

 perish undoubtedly ; but that water, or the fear 

 of it, will not prevent the parent using that 



