68 
FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
Experiment 1st. — On June 24tli, I placed in a large glass vase, with moist sand at 
the bottom of it, a quantity of wild plums, every one of which 1 had previously ascer¬ 
tained to bear the crescent symbol of the “little Turk.” During the three following 
weeks I added from day to day a number of plums, all of them bearing the same symbol, 
that had fallen from a tame plum-tree in my garden. The whole number of plums, as 
I subsequently ascertained, Vvas 183, and the tame fruit probably formed about a fourth 
part of the whole. The first Curculio came out July 19th, and with the exception of 
July 21st and August 1st, there were more or less came out every day till August 4th, 
inclusive ; after which day no more came out. The numbers coming out on each 
successive day were as follows, the very large number on July 25th having been proba¬ 
bly caused by my wetting the sand on that morning rather copiously : 1, 18, 0, 3, 4, 2, 
55, 8, 4, 3, 1, 2, 1, 0, 5, 4, 2. Total, 113. On examining the contents of the vase, Nov. 
29th, I found five dead and dried-up Curculios among the plums, and among the sand 
sixteen dead and immature specimens, which had obviously failed to make their way 
up to the light of day, besides the remains of a good many individuals which had 
perished in the sand in the larva or pupa state, and were not counted. The Grand 
Total from 183 infested plums was, therefore, 134 Curculios in the beetle state, and an 
unknown number of larvae and pupae. 
Experiment 2d. — On July 27th, or eight days before the Curculios in the preceding 
experiment had ceased coming out, I placed in a vase, similar to the above, 243 plums, 
gathered promiscuously off some badly-infested wild plum-trees. From this lot no 
Curculios whatever came out till August 23d, and from that day until September 14th 
more or less came out daily, with the exception of five out of the 23 days, the numbers 
on the respective days being as follows: 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 5, 3, 1, 0, 5, 6, 3, 2, 0, 0, 0, 
1, 0, 1, 1. Subsequently, on September 18th, there came out 3, on September 24th, 
1, and on September 28th, 1; after which no more made their appearance. Total, 50 
Curculios from 243 plums, some stung and some not. On examining the contents 
of this vase on November 29th, I found a single dead Curculio among the plums, making 
a Grand Total of 51 Curculios bred from these plums. There were no specimens, either 
in larva, pupa or beetle state, to be found among the sand in the vase on November 
29th ; which was, perhaps, due to the contents having kept much moister than those 
of the first vase, though on July 25th I had, as I thought, moistened the sand in the 
first vase quite sufficiently. 
The vases, in both the above two experiments, were examined daily, and the results 
noted down in my Journal, except during a three-days’ absence from home, August 
llth-13th, at the end of which time, however, not a single Curculio had come out. 
Since, therefore, it appears that in large lots of plums, gathered or picked up at various 
times from June 24th to July 27th, the Curculio ceased coming out for a period of no less 
than nineteen days, before and after which period it continued to come out for a long 
while as regularly as we could reasonably anticipate, the inference is unavoidable, that 
there must have been some cause for the long intermission in its coming out. But I do 
not see that it is possible to account for this intermission on any other hypothesis, 
than that of there being two distinct broods. Therefore I infer that there are two 
distinct broods, the second of which is, of course, generated by the first. 
The Curculios, bred from Black-knot in New England, by Prof. Peck, in 1818, are 
said to have come out July 30th, and a little later. (Harris Inj. Jus., p. 79.) Those bred 
in Canada West, from the same substance, by Mr. Beadle, in 1860, are said to have come 
out from the beginning of July to August 10th. (Fitch Address on Curculio , p. 25.) 
