59 



fruiting for the first time, and it is desired to save the fruit for tasting when all has been 

 injured by the curculio. Dr. Trimble writes : — "The best instrument I have found for 

 this delicate operation is a common quill toothpick, slightly rounded at the point and 

 pared to a cutting edge. This must be insinuated under the concave l 'side of the crescent 

 shaped mark, so as to turn over the triangular portion of skin lying between the horns of 

 the crescent and the end of the tube where the eg» is deposited. The egg— a white 

 round speck — will sometimes be exposed, and a very sharp eye will detect it without the 

 assistance of a glass; but generally it will be so coated with a covering of the pulp of 

 the fruit as to be invisible. Take off this speck of skin, egg and all. If properly done 

 the fruit will come to maturity showing scarcely a blemish," 



We now come to our second class of remedies, those which are directed against the 

 beetle in its perfect state. The most satisfactory plan is to jar the tree3 regularly two or 

 three times a day during the season, and to collect and destroy the curculios as they fall 

 to the ground. Mere shaking the tree will do but little good ; it must be a sharp sudden 

 jar. The trouble of course is to discover the curculios after they drop. The old plan 

 used to be to place white sheets under the trees and to pick up with the hand the insects 

 as they fall, and destroy them at once. Dr. Trimble's method was to nail a stretcher of 

 wood along one side of a large square sheet, and two shorter stretchers, each to one-half 

 of the opposite edge of the sheet, which is slit from between the two short stretchers to 

 its centre, to receive the trunk of the tree. In this way the sheet is more easily spread 

 -out, and thj wind is not able to rough it up. The sheet should be emptied for every 

 tree, as in the early part of the season many buds and blossoms will fall, and these should 

 be carefully examined, as our insect foe, as we have before explained, bears a strong 

 resemblance to a dried bud or piece of dirt. The sheet is easily carried by holding all 

 three stretchers in one hand, letting the folds of the sheet hang down. The tree being 

 reached, drop the long stretcher at the requisite distance, and pass one of the short one3 

 round each side, until the centre of the slit fits up close round the trunk, then jar the tree, 

 and then pick up and crush, and so on from tree to tree, repeating the process over the whole 

 orchard as long as you find curculios. For striking the tree a good sized mallet is the 

 handiest. If the trees are middle sized, it is a very good plan to saw off a limb of two 

 or three inches in diameter, so as to leave a stump for striking the mallet upon. Where 

 this cannot be conveniently done, or where the trees are small, it will be necessary to pad 

 the mallet to prevent the bark being injured. In the case of older trees which have lost 

 their elasticity and cannot always be jarred enough with the mallet to cause the curculio 

 to let go its hold, Dr. Trimble recommends that a common mop stick, properly padded, 

 he applied successively to the leading limbs one after another. These methods of jarring 

 will be found perhaps the easiest and most practicable for those persons who have only a 

 few trees or small orchards to manage. But for extensive fruit growers, who cultivate 

 the plum on a large scale, Dr. Hull's " curculio catcher " will be found effectual in saving 

 looth time and money, although in order to run the machine successfully three things are 

 necessary. 



1st. That the land be decently clean and not overgrown with rank weeds. 

 2nd. That the orchard be sufficiently large to pay the interest on the prime co3t of 

 the machine (about $30). 



3rd. That the trees have a clean trunk of some three or four feet. 



We give below a description of it in Dr. Hull's own words, as communicated to the 

 American Entomologist : — " To make a curculio catcher, we first obtain a light wheel not to 

 exceed three feet in diameter, the axle-tree of which should be about ten inches long. 

 We next construct a pair of handles similar to those of a wheel-barrow, but much more 

 depressed at the point designed to receive the bearings of the axle-tree, and extending 

 forward of the wheel just far enough to admit a cross-beam to connect the handles at this 

 point ; 1 j inches in the rear of the wheel a second cross-beam is framed into the handles, 

 and eighteen to twenty-four inches further back, a third. The two last named cross- 

 beams have framed to their undersides a fourth piece, centrally, between the handles, and 

 pointing in the direction of the wheel. To the handles and to the three last named 

 pieces, the arms or ribs to support the canvas are to be fastened. To the front part of 

 the beam connecting the handles in front of the wheel the ram is attached. This should 

 be covered with leather stuffed with furniture moss, a dozen or more thicknesses of old 



