226 



THE AMERICAN 



liide iiuder from arouud the tree, aud made the 

 soil smooth for a couple of feet aroimd the collar ; 

 I then put a few pieces of bark, each two or three 

 inches long and an inch or so wide, doAvn close 

 to the tree. In a few hours I went and examined 

 them. Ah! there the pests were hid! I en- 

 larged the number of traps. Yes, I had the 

 fellows using my houses, as well as eating my 

 liiiit ! I cle^xred my orchard under the trees ; 

 made smooth two or three feet of the ground 

 around each tree, and put cliips, corn-cobs, pieces 

 of old leatlier, stones — anytliing to give them 

 shelter — near the butt. The enenij' can be at- 

 tacked in his liabitat. Go around any time in the 

 day, turn the traps over, and there the pests are 

 — singly, in pairs and in clusters. 



The weather on Friday night (1 3th) was warm, 

 and the next day (14th) it was hot. Omitted 

 IdlUng one hot day, and next morning, from 

 aboiit seventy-five trees, I killed 1,648 Curculios 

 in just one hour. 



i have told my neighbors, and some of them 

 are destroAing their Curculios in the same man- 

 ner. Mr." J. AVliittlesey this morning, from 

 imder about two hundred trees, killed 2,514 in 

 about two hours. In cool weather I And few, 

 but during the tirst warm days they swarm. Let 

 this metliod be unitedh' tried, and we can save 

 our fruit. ' W. B. R.\NSOjr. 



St. JoSEi'U, Mich, 3I:iy lU, 'TO. 



"VVe are really sorry to damp the ardor and 

 enthusiasm of any person or persons, when 

 enlisted in such a good cause, but truth obhges 

 us to do so nevertheless. Of course, Curculio 

 extermination is possible! but not by the above 

 method alone, as our Michigan friends will find 

 to their sorrow. For a short time, early in the 

 season, when the days are sometimes warm and 

 the nights cold, and before the peach blossoms 

 have withered away, we have succeeded in 

 capturing Curculios under chips of wood and 

 other such sheltered situations; but we have 

 never been able to do so after the fruit was as 

 large as a hazel-nut, and the Little Turk had 

 got fairly to work. Our Michigan friends will, 

 we fear, find this to be too truly the case. 



This process, furthermore, cannot well be 

 called a discovery, because it was discovered 

 several years ago, as the following item from 

 Moore's Bural JSTew YorJcer, of January 28th, 

 1865, will show : 



How TO Catch Cukculio. — In May last we 

 had occasion to use some lumber. It was laid 

 clown in the vicinity of the plum-yard, and on 

 faking up a piece of it one cold morning, we 

 discovered a number of Curculios huddled to- 

 gether on the underside. On examining other 

 boards we found more, so we spread it out to 

 see if we could catch more, and we continued 

 to find more or Jess every day, for two weeks. 

 We caught in all one hundred and sixty-one. 

 So I think if people would take a litile pains 

 they might destroy a great many such pests. 

 These were caught before the plum trees were 

 n flower. What is most singular is, that we 



never found a Curculio on a piece of old lumber, 

 although we put several pieces down to try 

 them. They seemed to come out of the ground, 

 as we could find them several times a day by 

 turning over the boards. Mrs. II. Wiek. 



JOHNSONVILI.E, N. Y. 



But though Mr. Ransom can not properly 

 claim to have made a new discovery, and thougli 

 this mode of fighting will not prove sufficient to 

 EXTEKMiNATE the Curculio, yet we greatly ad- 

 mire the earnestness and perseverance which he 

 has exhibited. In denioiisti'ating that so great 

 a number of the little pests can be entrapped in 

 the manner described, Mr. K. has laid the fruit- 

 growers of the country under lasting obligations 

 to him. It is a grand movement towards the 

 defeat of the foe, and one which, from its sim- 

 plicity, should be universally adopted early in 

 the season. But we mu-t not relinquish the 

 other methods of jarring during the summer, 

 aud of destroying the fallen fruit; for we repeat, 

 that the Plum Curculio will breed in the forest. 



We are fast becoming perfect masters of this 

 stone-fruit scourge. Already, through the kind- 

 ness of Dr. Trimble, we have been enabled to 

 breed several specimens of the first and only 

 true parasite ever known to infest it; and, by a 

 sei-ies of experiments now making, we hope, 

 JDeo volente, to be able to definitely clear up 

 every mooted point in its history before Nature 

 dons another wintry garb. 



P. S. — About a week after the above article 

 was in tyi)e, we found the following in the 

 columns of the St. Joseph Herald of the 28th 

 May : 



At a, meeting held on Monday, the 23d hist., 

 at Benton Harbor, Dr. LeBaron, State Entomo- 

 logist of Illinois, said: " The object for which I 

 came to Benton Harbor was to collect some of 

 the insects for future examination. I wish to 

 secure and take home some of the laiTffi to rear 

 aud observe their habits. From the habit of the 

 curculio gathering under chips, not having been 

 observed in Southern Illinois, 1 thought they 

 might be a new kind. Besides the plum or peach 

 curculio, there is another kind called the apple 

 curculio, wliich we thought might be the one 

 you are taking. Yet the difference is so slight 

 that we have not been able to discover which it 

 is. I shall take some home and carefully com- 

 pare them. I would be glad if any of the audi- 

 euce would send me the larviB of any new insects 

 they discover, with the leaves on which they arc 

 found, for examination." 



Dr. Hull, of Alton, State Horticulturist, said: 

 They had heard of the new discovery, and had 

 come over to investivate the curculio. He had 

 never before hoard, and knew nothing- of this 

 mode of destruction, and was surprised aud 

 gratified. It was certainly a great discovery. 

 He thought it could not be the plum curculio, 

 which he once thought were identical, until Dr. 

 Walsh sent him his specimens and made clear 



