170 
THE PLUM CUECULIO. 
The following spring Mr. Thomas again refers to his method of 
catching the curculio (Genesee Farmer, 1832, pp. 155-156), and 
describes shaking the trees and catching the beetles on sheets kept 
exclusively for the purpose, as commonly practiced. It would thus 
seem, that jarring was rather generally employed in his neighborhood 
at that time. 
In 1833 the discovery was made that it was advantageous to 
strike the sawed-off butt of a limb as follows : 
This spring I sawed off one or more lateral branches of about an inch in diameter 
from each tree, leaving a stump to project, from which I removed the bark that the 
wood might harden and also made the head convex with a knife to prevent it from 
battering under the mallet. 
There are frequent accounts in subsequent literature dealing with 
the methods of jarring and giving instructions for the preparation 
of sheets (see fig. 34), but the practice seems to have become notably 
general by about 1850. The um- 
brella type of catcher came into 
use apparently somewhat before 
1848. In The Cultivator for that 
year (p. 182) is grven a short 
account of an umbrella catcher 
which, it was stated, had been 
employed for some years. Num- 
erous forms of catchers were 
described and some of them illus- 
trated, but all were essentially of 
the sheet type, to be held or placed 
on the ground under the tree, or in 
the form of an inverted umbrella. 
An interesting resume of Mr. Thomas's experience after more than 20 
years was given by him in The Cultivator for August, 1851 (p. 269), 
in which he expressed fullest confidence in the method and stated 
that whenever the work had been thoroughly done he had never been 
disappointed in results. 
Mr. James Mathews, writing in the Country Gentleman, February 
17, 1853 (p. 102), speaks of having employed the jarring system for 
many years. He employed the umbrella type of catcher. 
A much more pretentious curculio catcher was devised by Dr. E. S. 
Hull, of Alton, 111., a description of which was given in the Practical 
Entomologist for April, 1867, and also in the Iowa Homestead, a 
reduced illustration of which is shown in figure 35. A patent was 
later taken on this catcher by Dr. Hull, but as it proved cumbersome 
several modifications were quickly developed, and some of them by 
Dr. Hull himself. A machine which Dr. Riley considered an im- 
Fig. 34.— A simple form of curculio catcher for use 
by one person. (After Popular Gardening.) 
