202 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



plenty of borers. This last result might have 

 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 

 worniK that may chance to be on the trunk, to 

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

 ■W'e are always glad to get facts from practical 

 men. Let us hear from those who have had 

 experience in the matter of mounding poach 

 trees. — Eus.] 



OUT OP EVIL THERE COMETH GOOD. 



It seems that the prospect for an abundant 

 fruit crop was never greater, in the Wesf, than 

 at present. During recent trips in South Illinois 

 and in various parts of Missouri', almost every 

 orchardist whom we questioned, declared that 

 he had never seen more profuse blossoming or 

 better setting of the fruit, and our own obser- 

 vations tally with these declarations. These 

 remarks do not apply to peach trees, which, in 

 many sections, lost their fruit by frost. We 

 are greatly inclined to believe that much of this 

 excessive frnitfulness 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 lime 

 when such pruning should be done. We are 

 strengthened in this belief, from having ob- 

 served that many two and three-year old trees 

 have been thrown prematurely into bearino- 

 from the same cause. Thus we have a present 

 good, resulting from what was at the time an 

 evident evil, though whether or not excessive 

 frnitfulness from such a cause Avill be of any 

 ultimate beneiit is matter of doubt. 



THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 



In the chronological history of this insect 

 which we gave in our December issue, occurs 

 the following paragraph (p. 68) : 



Brood I.— Sepemdecim— 1862, 1809. 



In the year 1869, and .at intervals of seventeen ycirs 

 thereafter, they will probably appear in the v.alley of 

 the Connecticut river. According to Dr. Asa Fitch 

 (N. y. Kep. I, p. 40), they appeared there in 1818 and 

 1835; although, strange to say, there seems to be no 

 record of their having .ippcared there in 18.52. Hence 

 this may be considered as a somewhat i^roblematlcal 

 brood. 



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 this insect in any 

 other part or parts of the United States. 



THE CURCULIO SCARCER THAN LAST YEAR. 



Judge A. M. Brown of Villa Eidge, writing 

 under date of May 11th, says: 



Curculios .arc very much scarcer than ever before . I 

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

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

 since the first three or four days, arc almost entirely 

 free from their attacks. Indeed, they seem to like 

 peaches better thciu plums. Can it be that their taste 

 is changing ? 



I fim inclined to think that something is destroying 

 then- eggs as tliey are deposited. I have cut a nun'iber 

 of plums and peaches, bearing their mark, avid in none 

 of tliem can I find a trace of egg or worm. Cin it be 

 that the Ladybirds are doing this ? Thev swarm on the 

 trees in great numbers. If the warm rain now falling 

 does not bruig out a swann of the little siivages, I shall 

 conclude tnat the crop is very short. 



Last year Mr. Parker Earle, of South Pass, 

 Ills., thirty miles north of Villa llidgc, captured 

 ti,oOO Curculios from one hundred peach trees 

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

 dimiiuUion occurs at South Pass, which Mr. 

 Brown has noticed .at Villa Pidge, 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 slate of 

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

 communication. Elsewhere we have stated our 

 opinion, in contradiction to those who claim 

 that this little pest will destroy the peaches in 

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

 insects are concerned, the prospect for a good 

 crop the year succeeding .an entire failure, i.s 

 greater than at any other period. We are in- 

 clined to think that the present year will prove 

 the truth of the statement, so far .as the Curculio 

 is concerned ; at least we 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 Loiter from Lucius C. Francis, SpringllcUl, Ilb.j 



It seems to be a very fallacious way of reason- 

 ing, that because Whale-oil Soap, Coal-oil, G.as- 

 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 

 pay any attention to. 



