ACTING STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 
71 
eyes, than the orthodox number of 147 prescribed in the Gospel according to St. 
Trimble. To what species it did really belong, he did not undertake to say ; but per¬ 
haps he would like to grind out of his Scientific Mill a new and hitherto undescribed 
and unnamed species, for every deficient or additional facet in the eyes of a laige lot of 
veritable Curculios. Be this as it may, his only reason for thinking that this v icked, 
elierry-stealing, grape-devouring bird, the Baltimore Oriole, does really feed upon 
the true Plum Curculio is, that he once found in the craw of one of them the head of 
some kind or other of Snout-beetle, the eye of which contained exactly 147 facets. 
Therefore, according to the Doctor’s peculiar crotchet, it was a true Plum Curculio. 
Therefore the Baltimore Oriole habitually eats Curculios. Therefore we mast not kill 
the Baltimore Oriole, no matter how many grapes and cherries it many steal or spoil. 
Therefore the Illinois Legislature has done right, in lining every man $5 for every Balti¬ 
more Oriole, otherwise called Hanging-bird, that he may be forced to kill, not in self- 
defense, bat in cherry-defense and grape-defense. Which was the thing to be proved. 
If closely analyzed, it would be found that a large proportion of the so-called facts, 
on the strength of which we are commanded to protect all manner of fruit-destroying 
birds, are based upon foundations as flimsy and as unreliable, as those upon which Dr. 
Trimble erected his Baltimore castle-in-the-air. 
I dilated so fully in the Practical Entomologist on the best methods of fighting the 
Curculio, that nothing remains to be said on that subject.* Volumes might be filled 
with accounts of the different quack remedies, that have been strongly recommended 
or this purpose; but the reader will probably be satisfied with the following, with 
which I shall beg leave to conclude the subject. 
Curculio AND Gas-tar. “ The remedies for the Curculio the present season are 
more numerous than usual. There is seldom any of them worthy attention. The last 
one appears in a Williamsport paper, from a gardener, who says it is a sure preven¬ 
tive. It is this : ‘ Take a quantity of Corn-cobs, with a wire around, terminating in a 
hook at the end of the cobs ; then dip them into gas-tar until they are well saturated. 
Hang a dozen or more on the tree in different parts, and no Curculio will distuib the 
tree.’ We heard of this remedy 6 or 8 years ago, tried it thoroughly, and it had about 
as much effect upon the Curculio as if the cobs had been dipped in molasses. We 
mounted one of the trees, and saw the insect at work upon a plum within 8 inches of 
the tar. We do not believe that a single one was disturbed by it. Not a single plum 
escaped.” — Germantown (Pa.) Telegraph , quoted in Farmers' Advertiser, Sept. 16, 1867. 
Curculio and Gas-tar. -“I tried, the past season, gas-tar thoroughly, to keep my 
plums from being stung by the Curculio. I steeped corn-cobs in the tar and hung them 
*1 cannot resist the temptation of quoting here from the Transactions of the Alton Horticultural Society, 
Feb. 7,1868, some very valuable remarks by Dr. E. S. Hull, on the employment of lime to quell the cur¬ 
culio : 
« A few years since, the lime remedy was quite generally received, as a sure protection to the plum. 
At the time of its appearance in print, we were operating with our Curculio-Catcher, and at once discon¬ 
tinued its use on several of our trees, and made a most thorough trial of the lime, which at first 
promised to be a success. It did not seem to deter the Curculio from depositing its eggs in the plums, 
but they did not hatch. Later, the weather becoming dry, the succeeding deposits did hatch, and the 
larval penetrated the plums as freely as in those not limed. Further experiments with the lime proved 
that, so long as the weathor was wet, the lime, or the caustic properties of the lime, was imparted to 
the water, and entered the perforation in which the eggs were deposited and destroyed them, but was of 
no value in dry weather.” 
