1900.] The Plum Weevil in France. 



fleece, and, consequently, it may happen that many lambs may 

 fail to find their dams. 



Besides the dipping in August it is the custom to pass the 

 flock through the bath again in October or November, at the 

 time when the cast ewes are removed, and before the rams are 

 turned out. 



Instances of the abnormal development of the attacks of 

 insect and fungoid pests are not uncommon, the contributing 

 causes being commonly the increased culti- 



Infestation of vation of a particular crop and an insufficient 



FrancTby the attention to the importance of rotations. 



Plum Weevil. An example of this was mentioned at a 

 meeting of the French National Society 

 of Agriculture by M. Paul Vincey, who stated that the district 

 of Vitry-sur- Seine has been greatly infested of late by an 

 insect which had previously not been at all prevalent in 

 the basin of the Seine. This was the Plum, or Red-legged, 

 Weevil* {Otiorrhynchus lenebricosus), which has proved most 

 destructive to fruit and also to lilac trees. Among the 

 preventive and remedial measures which were adopted against 

 its attacks in the various stages of its life-history were 

 mentioned spraying with arsenical solutions, use of mechanical 

 obstacles, such as sticky bands round the trees to stop the ascent 

 of the insects, the deposit of little heaps of quick-lime at the foot 

 of the stems, and the construction of trenches, with or without 

 traps at the bottom, to stop the movement of the insects from 

 one orchard to another. The only one of these which gave any 

 appreciable result was the spraying with arsenical washes. 

 The injection of bisulphide of carbon into the soil was also 

 tried. The collection of the insects by hand was, however, the 

 remedy most largely adopted. The municipality and the local 

 society of horticulture made grants of money in aid of their 

 extermination, and for about a month from the middle of April 

 numerous persons, especially women, were employed to collect 

 them, at first at the rate of 8 fcs. per kilogramme (about 2s. lojd. 

 per lb.), and afterwards, as they acquired skill, at 5 fcs. 



*See Leaflet No. 2. 



