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The larvse of all the laee-wing flies are carnivorous, and they attack a great variety of 

 noxious insects. Mr. Leeming writes Mr. Walsh that he had found over one hundred of 

 these lace-wing larvae in the very act of devouring the curculio larvae Mr. Riley points 

 out a curious fact hitherto unnoticed in the history of this insect, which is that the insect 

 issues from the cocoon in an active sub-imago state, from which, after a few hours, the 

 winged-fly emerges, leaving behind it a fine silvery-white transparent skin. 



The artificial remedies that have been devised against the attacks of the curculio are 

 numerous. Many are apparently very ingenious in theory, but utterly useless in practice ; 

 others, again, are preposterous in their very conception, and appear only to be devised to 

 delude the veriest tyros and greenhorns — we do not propose to weary our readers with 

 discussing them. What we want to bring before their notice are those remedies which 

 experience has shown to be really successful, and also really practicable, These remedies 

 may be divided into two classes — 1st, those directed against the insect in its egg and larval 

 state, and 2nd, those directed against the full-grown, matured beetle. For the first class, 

 the most obvious and practical remedy is to destroy the fruit as fast as it falls from 

 the tree ; the fruit in this stage contains, as we have seen, the growing larva, which is 

 soon to eat its way out and descend into the earth ; it is, therefore most, important to 

 destroy the fruit as speedily as possible after its fall, and before the escape of the insect. 

 Good, systematic hand-picking will be found to be the most certain way of destroying the 

 larva in this stage ; the fruit should be burnt or given to the pigs. Many people, indeed, 

 especially in the Western States, turn their hogs into the plum orchard and use them for 

 this purpose. Dr. Alton, of Illinois, who is, according to Mr. Walsh, one of the most suc- 

 cessful plum-growers in the west, has tried this plan with success for some years ; sheep 

 and cattle have been also tried, but the objection to them is that they are very apt to bark, 

 browse, and break down the trees. Poultry may be used with very good effect. Mr. 

 Dougall, of Windsor, Ont., the well-known fruit-grower, has for some years kept numbers 

 of poultry in his orchard, and he speaks most favorably of their services, to which he 

 attributes the general success of his plum crops. Air-slacked lime is recommended by Mr. 

 Bliss, the Secretary of the Warsaw Horticultural Society. He writes as follows : — ''During 

 the season of 1856, Mr. J. B. Matthews, now of Marietta, 0., had six or eight Chicka- 

 saw plum trees growing in a cluster in his garden at Warsaw. On one-third of these he 

 began throwing air-slacked lime as soon as the fruit set, and continued it after every rain 

 and sometimes after a heavy dew, showering the trees until they were white with the fine 

 dust. On one or two trees he used none at all ; and on the remainder he commenced using 

 the lime after the curculio had attacked the fruit. The lime dust was applied as often as 

 once a week. Result — not one plum on those trees on which he did not use lime; a full crop 

 of good fruit on those on which he commenced using lime early ; and on those on which 

 the curculios had begun their attack before he began to apply the lime, he drove them 

 entirely away and saved a portion of the crop. I followed the same plan and saved so many 

 plums as to break down my trees, as I was absent from home and did not have a chance 

 to thin out the fruit, though I had the lime applied faithfully while I v. as away." In the 

 report to the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association, made by Mr. W. Saunders, of London, 

 Ont., in 1868, that gentleman makes mention of a friend who had tried lime for several 

 years, and had had regular crops. He also states that he had received similar evidence 

 from various other quarters, and that his own experiments with the lime were tolerably 

 successful. It may therefore be recommended for trial, especially in moist seasons. 



Another plan that has been tried, and apparently with some success, is to pave or 

 cement the ground underneath the trees, so that when the fruit falls the insect may 

 be unable to penetrate the earth and may be exposed to the rays of the sun, and, where 

 poultry are kept, may be more easily espied and captured by them. Mr. Charles Arnold, of 

 Paris, Ont., makes the soil quite smooth around the roots of the trees and whitewashes it 

 with a ihick coating of lime, which very soon forms a hard crust ; this method he 

 considers a very efficient one against the curculio in the larval stage of its existence. It 

 is possible to remove the egg of the curculio from the plum and thereby save the fruit. 

 The nail of the finger will do in default of a better instrument, although it leaves an 

 unseemly scar. The egg should be removed as soon as possible after its deposit, as all 

 attempts to save the fruit after the larva is hatched will be useless. This process is 

 necessarily a very tedious one, and only to be resorted to in cases where young trees are 



