.356 
THE PLUM. 
or so long as the insects continue to make their appearance. 
Repeated trials have proved, beyond question, that this rathei 
tedious mode, is a very effectual one if persisted in.* Coops of 
chickens placed about under the trees at this season will assist 
in destroying the insects. 
2. Gathering the fruit and destroying the larvce. As the in- 
sect, in its larva or grub form, is yet within the plums when 
they fall prematurely from the tree, it is a very obvious mode of 
exterminating the next year’s brood to gather these fallen fruits, 
daily, and feed them to swine, boil, or otherwise destroy them. 
In our own garden, where several years ago we suffered by the 
plum-weevil, we have found that this practice, pursued or a 
couple of seasons, has been pretty effectual. Others have re- 
ported less favourably of it ; but this, we think, arose from their 
trying it too short a time, in a soil and neighbourhood where the 
insect is very abundant, and where it consequently had sought 
extensively other kinds of fruit besides the plum. 
A more simple and easy way of covering the difficulty, where 
there is a plum orchard or enclosure, is that of turning in swine 
and fowls during the whole season, when the stung plums are 
dropping to the ground. The fruit, and the insects contained in 
it, will thus be devoured together. This is an excellent expe- 
dient for the farmer, who bestows his time grudgingly on the 
cares of the garden. 
3. Application of lime and sulphur. Thos. W. Ludlow, Jr., 
of Yonkers, N. Y., has been very successful with this remedy, 
and we give his receipt, “ which is by syringing the trees after 
the fall of the blossoms, with a mixture of whitewash and flour 
of sulphur in the proportion of 18 double handfuls of sulphur to 
a barrel of tolerably thick whitewash, made of unslacked lime. 
The sediment of this mixture will answer for a second and third 
barrel, merely filled with water and well stirred : apply the mix- 
ture three times a week for four weeks.” 
Mr. Ludlow informs us that on the trees where the applica- 
tion has been made no knots or black worts have made their 
appearance. 
The knots or black gum. In some parts of the country this is 
i 
* Merely shaking the tree is not sufficient. The following memorandum, 
as additional proof, we quote from the Genesee Farmer. “ Under a tree 
in a remote part of the fruit garden, having spread the sheets, I made the 
following experiment. On shaking the tree well I caught five curculios ; 
on jarring it with the hand I caught twelve more ; and on striking the 
tree with a stone, eight more dropped on the sheets. I was now con- 
vinced that I had been in error ; and calling in assistance, and using a 
hammer to jar the tree violently, we caught in less than an hour, more 
than two hundred and sixty of these insects.” We will add to this, that 
to prevent injury to the tree a large wooden mallet should be substituted 
for a hammer, and it is better if a thick layer of cloth is bound over its 
head. 
