166 THE PLUM CURCULIO. 
fully preserve them, he will find them coming out a gray miller. By simply scratch- 
ing off, or rather picking off this rough bark (the scales or flakes, I mean) a vast multi- 
tude of these insects may be destroyed — not all, however, for they resort to other 
places of concealment, such as crevices in boards, posts and rails. 
That the curculio could be fenced out was the belief of some; note 
the experience of W. Manice from the Cultivator, of 1854, p. 157: 
W. Manice, of Long Island, constructed many years ago a tight board fence around 
his plum orchard, about nine feet high, with tight board gates. The curculio did not 
fly high enough to enter, many striking the sides of the fence and falling outside. 
An acquaintance when in full fruit informed us that all the trees within the enclosure 
were heavily loaded with plums at the same time he observed a tree outside that had 
lost every specimen. 
The following is interesting as indicating the prevalent opinions of 
fruit growers as to remedies by the middle of the last century: 
At the regular monthly meeting of the St. Louis Horticultural Society, held on the 
7th of May, 1849, the curculio was the subject of some interesting remarks; an abstract 
oi which we publish from the minutes. We hope the worthy president will perse- 
vere in his experiments until he shall have discovered a specific for this most serious 
hinderance to the cultivation of fruit. 
The president stated that his attention had been called to the various recommenda- 
tions of remedies or preventives of the ravages of the curculio, one of the most nefari- 
ous pests of the orchard in that part of the country. This insect invariably takes our 
entire crop of apricots, nectarines, and plums, and injures the cherries, and even 
peaches. He has determined to try every practicable proposed remedy of which he 
could avail himself the present season. The following were among those suggested: 
1. Horse stable manure. This was believed to be ineffectual. 
2. Spreading sheets under the trees, and tapping the body and branches with a 
mallet, the insects will fall into the sheets, and may be caught and killed. This is 
believed to be perfectly effectual, though laborious practice: it must be pursued every 
morning for two or three weeks from the time the trees cast their flowers. He presented 
a vial containing sixty-one of these insects, which he caught from three apricot trees 
on the morning of the 5th of April, the young apricots being nearly the size of peas. 
3. Placing a lighted candle under the tree, for two or three hours in the evening in 
a tub or box whitewashed inside, and having at the bottom an inch or two of wafer. 
4. Placing old iron hoops, or pieces of iron, in the branches of the tree. He had 
seen at his mother's residence, last fall, a green gage tree having an iron hoop entwined 
amone; its branches, and from which a crop of fruit was always obtained whilst the 
fruit of other plum trees near by, without the iron, was destroyed. Dr. S had 
mentioned to him facts in connection with the subject, which led him to infer that 
some potent effect was attributable to the iron; it may be worthy of a trial. 
5. The insects may be fenced out by a tight board fence eight to ten feet high. A 
gentleman on Long Island succeeds perfectly with his, but he also paves the ground 
and plants his trees in dwarf, six feet apart. 
6. Placing a coat of salt under the trees. This is believed to be ineffectual, as he 
had partly tried it, but without success. 
7. Covering the ground under the trees with clay. This he had tried, and it did 
no good. 
8. Hanging bottles of sweetened water in the trees. 
9. Smoking the trees with the fumes of burnt sulfur. 
10. Washing the trees, and even the fruit with the strongest decoction of tobacco 
and whale oil soap suds will have no effect. 
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