268 



THE AMERICAN" 



your specimen of Termes upon the middle of the 

 glass, and laj^ the other piece of glass nj>on it; if 

 the "weight of the glass alone is sufficient to pre- 

 vent its moidng out of the field of view, you wiU 

 not require the rest of the box ; but if not, you 

 will find, by gently pressing the box into the 

 cover, that the friction is sufficient to hold the 

 little insect without crushing it, or destroying- 

 life. A box for this purpose is generally made 

 of brass ; thinner glass is used in it than can 

 easily be procured in most localities, and the 

 cover slides or screws down upon the specimen. 

 A skillful American bo)^ can, without much dif- 

 ficulty, construct one of permanent utilit)' of 

 brass, softer metal, or even of wood, and will 

 find it of continual benefit to him if he owns, or 

 has permission to use, a compound microscope. 

 He will find it a more convenient instrument to 

 use if ho solders the smaller ring of the live-box 

 to a slip of metal about the size of an ordinary 

 slide as cut for the microscope — that is to say, 

 about three inches long by one in width, and not 

 so thin as to bend readily. He must, of course, 

 cut or file a hole in the centre of tliis piece of 

 metal of nearly the size of the ring which is at- 

 tached to it, and both surfaces of the slip must 

 be smooth and even. 



i/ 



THE RANSOM CURCULIO REMEDY. 



It is really laughable and amusing to those 

 persons who have no particular " axe to grind," 

 to calmly look on and watch the rankling dis- 

 cussions which have been caused by the an- 

 nouncement of Mr. Ransom's method of fighting 

 the Curculio. And it is likewise passing strange 

 how ridiculously partial and unjust bias will 

 render a man, and how often it acts as a stum- 

 bling block to his clear and candid reason. 



Dr. Hull, upon his return from St. Joseph, 

 publislied an account of his visit, and gave us 

 his opinion of the value of the new process. 

 The facts as he found them are almost precisely 

 as we stated them to be in our last number, but 

 when he gets on to opinions, the warp of the 

 mind is clearly manifest, and lie evidently 

 deems the new method of but trivial import- 

 ance, as may be seen from the following para- 

 graph, which we quote from that article — the 

 italics being our own: 



A query here presents itself, and one, too, 

 of much practical importance. For example: 

 Supposing no bugging by traps or othei'wise had 

 been done, up to the very morning of the day 

 when Curculios commenced stinging the fruit, 

 and on that morning a Curculio-catcher or other 

 contrivance for thoroughly jarring the trees had 

 been used, would not all the Curculios have 



beeu taken which had previously come into the 

 orchard and been trapped, together with those 

 which did not enter the traps? This query 

 seems to us all the more important from the 

 fact that at the time Curculios began to sting, 

 the peaches on those trees which had been most 

 thoroughly bugged seemed to have Curculios 

 enough on them to destroy all the fruit in a 

 few days. If all the Curculios on entering the 

 orchard would go down under the cover pro- 

 vided for them, then the new mode of catching 

 them would be best, since the labor could be 

 performed by women and children. But any 

 method of catching which fails to take all the 

 insects, would not lighten the labor of jarring 

 the trees. We have long since determined that 

 it makes no difference how many Curculios 

 come togellierin the orchard for mating, or how 

 long they are in doing so, provided the orchard 

 is run in time to jar the trees twice before any 

 of the fruit is stung. For aught we can now 

 see, jarring trees may safely be delayed as long 

 ifhen trapping is not resorted to as where it is; 

 and for this reason, we cannot understand how 

 results of much practical importance can be 

 realized by laying traps for Curculios. 



Of course. Doctor, you cannot understand 

 how any good is to result from this new method. 

 Don't you see that the Curculio-catcher is in 

 the way? But lot us look at the other side of 

 the question, for Mr. Ransom evidently views 

 the matter in a different light, having but a few 

 chips instead of a great machine, to intercept 

 the clearness of his vision. We find in the 

 columns of the same good old Prairie Farmer 

 for June lUli, a long article from his pen, in 

 which not one word can be found regarding the 

 jarring process. On the contrary, the trap- 

 remedy is held to be a "perfect success," and 

 sufficient to save the fruit in the face of the 

 many facts to tlie contrary thafwere confirmed 

 both in his own and his neighbors' orchards 

 before the article in question was written. 

 There are a i'Q-w statements in this article that 

 will not bear criticism, but, with the exception 

 of the apparent bias that pervades it, and a silly 

 fling at the professional entomologist, Mr. Ran- 

 som has narrated some important personal ex- 

 perience, and we quote the last paragraph, 

 which gives the gist of the whole: 



We have to gather some facts for future pub- 

 lication. I have devoted much time for a month 

 in watching and discovei-ing their habits, and 

 have many facts, as well as tlieories, which 1 

 cannot put into this already much too long com- 

 munication. One thing is certain — it has been 

 a success. I feel confident they can be destroyed 

 easily, and our fruit saved. The method of 

 preparing around the treies, or which late in the 

 season is as good, or better, of putting cloth, 

 leather or anything for them to crawl into and 

 hide in the forks of the trees, will be prepared 

 and published in season for next } ear. I have 

 many^ facts of importance. 



