ESSAY ON THE PLUM. 
485 
The Curculio .—This little beetle is perhaps the greatest 
enemy to all stone fruit we have. In some places they are so 
numerous as to destroy the whole crop for a number of years. 
I know many who say they do not want to plant any more 
plum treeSj because ^the fruit was all stung by the curculios; 
and the trees are therefore of no use to them. A^very sure 
way of destroying them is to jar the trees and catch them on a 
sheet spread under the tree, when they fall, as they always 
will when the tree is jared. Several receipts and preventives 
have been proposed within the kst few years. Of these, I 
think the only practicable one is to destroy the plums that are 
stung, as fast as they fall from the tree. For that purpose 
hogs may be kept in the orchard to pick them up as fast as 
they fall; or ^ome four inches of the soil may be taken from 
under the trees, and carried to some other place, and other 
soil put in its place. 
The plum tree will generally live from twelve to thirty 
years; but owing to the curculio, many trees are robbed of 
their fruit before its maturity; and of consequence, the trees 
make an extra effort to produce their species, and so they will 
set so full of blossom buds, for the next year, that they are 
killed by this effort to produce fruit. During our sunny days 
in winter, these trees, overloaded with buds, evaporate what 
little sap is left in them before spring arrives, and so they 
are killed outright from over exertion. Some years it may 
happen that blossoms and fruit are killed by late spring frosts 
and so there is nothing for the curculio to feed upon, as was 
the case in 1860, and then they will get thinned out, and the 
next year there will be a large crop of fruit. The oldest plum 
tree I know of, in this state, stands in the grounds of a friend 
of mine, in town of Lisbon, Waukesha county, and is now 
twenty-two years of age. It has never perfected but one crop 
of plums, and that it bore the third year from the graft. The 
curculio has taken them ever since. 
I should select a list of plums, for cultivation, from those 
that will stand the greatest degree of cold, as given above. 
All of which I recommend for hardiness in this state. Their 
