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X. An Account of a Lime Duster for the Destruction of 

 Insects on Fruit Trees. In a Letter to the Secretary, 

 By Mr. Samuel Curtis, 



Sie Read April 20, 1824, 



I am anxious to lay before the Horticultural Society a plan 

 which I have adopted for preventing the depredations of 

 insects on Fruit-trees, hoping it may prove as beneficial to 

 others as it has to me. 



For many years past, my orchard at this place, containing 

 many thousand Fruit-trees, and occupying fifty acres, has been 

 so completely divested of most of its foliage and young fruit, in 

 the spring months, that at midsummer little more than the 

 bare twigs were left, and I had serious apprehensions that my 

 plan of planting so largely, adopted sixteen years ago, would 

 prove a failure, unless some remedy could be found for so 

 serious an evil With this view, I had for several years been 

 careful to wash, with lime and water, the stems and branches 

 of my trees, but this I found ineffectual for the destruction of 

 those insects which prey on the young buds and leaves, I 

 therefore had a Cannister made of tin, similar to that sent 

 herewith, and of which a figure is annexed. 



Quick lime pulverized, and often sifted through a fine sieve, 

 was put into the cannister, and I had it shook over the young 

 foliage just as it was expanding. The first season I used it, 

 the fresh hatched caterpillars had commenced their de- 

 predations, but so easy was the application of the Lime 

 Dust with this machine, that I soon effected the destruction 



