136 PEACH CULTUEE. 



that the character of the soil has very little, if any, influ- 

 ence on it. 



Many remedies have been tried and abandoned, and 

 many more are still recommended as worthy of yet fur- 

 ther trial. We are sorry we have none that we can recom- 

 mend with confidence. Such as they are, we state tbem. 

 If not effectual, they may still prove useful, in a measure. 

 Let planters observe, note, and experiment. It is a bad 

 disease that has no cure. The end is so valuable and de- 

 sirable, we should never despair of attaining it. 



1. Jak the tree, and kill the insect. — This is one 

 of the oldest and most effective of any proposed, but, at 

 the same time, tedious, expensive, and, on a large scale, 

 almost impracticable. The mode is to saw off one of 

 the lower branches, leaving a stump about half an inch, 

 long ; then spread sheets under the tree early every 

 morning, during the season the curculio is troublesome, 

 and, with a wooden mallet, give the stump two or three 

 sharp strokes. The tree is thus suddenly jarred, and the 

 insects, dislodged, fall upon the sheets, and are gathered 

 up and destroyed. Dr. Hall, of Illinois, has a contriv- 

 ance like a large umbrella opened and inserted upon a 

 wheel-barrow. The umbrella or expanded portion has an 

 opening in one side, to admit the trunk of the tree. The 

 barrow is propelled in sucli a manner as to strike against 

 the tree and jar it; the expanded canvas portion being 

 then in a position to catch any insects or injured fruit that 

 may fall. This may do for gardens, but what peach plant- 

 er, with his thousand or ten thousand trees, would think 

 of it. 



2. Bandage the teees. — Some use these in the belief 

 that the curculios climb up the stem of the tree, and that 

 the bands arrest their progress, and detain them until 

 they can be caught and killed. The bands are made of 

 wool, cotton, or rope, dipped XK coai ox ga? tar, and are 



