PLATE I.

TREATISE

ON THE

INSECT ENEMIES OF FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES.

WITH

ttumermta Mustrcitimtis fcrrmm from ttaturc, bg ^acljstdn, uniter tlje
tmmtiJtate swptxmsum sf tlje

BY

ISAAC P. TRIMBLE, M.D.,

ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW JERSEY ; ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE HORTICULTURAL
ASSOCIATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, ETC., ETC.

Curculio and the Apple Moth.

NEW Y OR K.-
WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY, 61 WALKER STREET.

1865.

• T75

««AINLI«ftAM>

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by

WILLIAM WOOD & CO.,
In the Clerk'» Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

R. CRAICHEAD, PRINTER,

81, 83, and 85 Centre street, Neat York.

THIS WORK

Has been prepared by one who has had an experience of many years in a vigorous and successful

contest with the

INSECT ENEMIES OF FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES,

AND is DEDICATED TO THE
FARMERS AND FRUIT GROWERS OF OUR COUNTRY,

In the hope . that it may assist in explaining some of the pages in the Great Book of Nature,

in which their interests are deeply involved.

INTRODUCTION.

No other portion of the agriculture of our country is at this time receiving
so much attention as that devoted to the culture of Fruit. The growing of young
trees in nurseries, as an art, has been greatly improved, and the supply of such trees
is enormous. Books have been prepared by men of eminent ability and mature
experience, giving all necessary information for the management of the orchard; and
the fruits that have been proved valuable have been carefully figured and described.

Some men are devoting much attention to the improvement of kinds, and with
most satisfactory results. Fruits that were highly esteemed a few years ago are now
superseded, and amateurs hope to identify their names with better sorts; and why
not '? There seems to be no limit set by nature to improvement in this direction.
The Seckel Pear was found growing wild in a hedgerow. Probably the blossom
that produced the pear, from the seed of which that tree grew, had been visited by a
bee dusty with pollen from another blossom, and thus a germ was fertilized, which
in time brought forth this hybrid of such surpassing excellence. The science of
Botany teaches us that we can hybridize as well as bees, and improvements in
fruits are now brought about as the designs of men rather than as the accidents
of insects. Grafting, budding, and the propagation by cuttings give us the means of
multiplying these better kinds with a rapidity characteristic of the age. But with all
these signs of progress, the supply of fruit is far short of the wants of the people.
The prices are often extravagant to the consumers, and do not always remunerate the
producers.

There is no subject more frequently spoken of in Horticultural and Agricultu-
ral societies than the decay of fruit trees. We must all admit, that in the older
States of our country, orchards do not flourish as they did fifty years ago, and the
crops of every variety of fruit are becoming more uncertain. I have heard many dis-
cussions on this subject, and have often been surprised how little of the cause of this
decay, or the uncertainty of the crop, is ever attributed to insect enemies. One per-
son will ascribe all this change to exhaustion of soil ; another to improper planting or
defective cultivation. Others think there has been too little or too much pruning.
Some will impute the defect to a want of the proper elements in the soil, or of
a right proportion of those elements — either the lime, the potash, the clay, the sand,
or the humus is not present, or not in the exact quantity to meet the demands of the
growing tree or of the ripening fruit. I have heard farmers speak learnedly on this
subject (quoting Liebig and other authorities), whose orchards were overrun with

XIV INTRODUCTION.

insect enemies that could have accounted for all their troubles, had they understood
them.

Modern agriculture teaches the advantages of a rotation of crops, and it would
be as unwise to plant an orchard where one of the same kind of fruit had stood
before, as it would be to plant corn or sow wheat for a succession of seasons in
the same field, unless it should be some alluvial spot of inexhaustible fertility. Most
practical farmers know well that every soil can be exhausted by almost any crop
under this improvident management. That has been the fate of large sections of
this country. But proper rotation and more systematic manuring are changing all this.
The soil is now made tb produce paying crops, and can just as well be made to pro-
duce paying crops of fruit as anything else, if the trees and the fruits they bear are
protected from the insect enemies. No farm will produce paying crops of wheat
where the Hessian fly or wheat midge has taken possession. No prudent farmer
will gather his crops year after year into barns infested with the weevil. We might
as well suppose that the owner of a valuable flogk of sheep that had been killed off
by dogs, would expose another flock to a similar danger.

Fifty years ago the land in large sections of the State of New Jersey was consi-
dered " worn out." Whole counties were in a condition similar to that of the
exhausted tobacco lands of Maryland and Virginia, but at that very time the State
was famous for its crops of fruit. According to the census of 1860, the farming land
of the State of New Jersey was worth about twenty dollars an acre more than the
farming land of any other State in the Union. This is partly owing to its proximity
to the markets of New York and Philadelphia, but chiefly to the great improvement
in the productiveness of the soil by the use of marl and lime, two most valuable fertili-
zers found in great abundance. But the fruit crops of New Jersey have diminished
in as great a ratio as the value of the lands has increased. This cannot be owing to
the exhaustion of the soiL What, then, is the cause ? In large sections of the State
the Tent caterpillar is so numerous that the Apple trees are stripped of their leaves
every year. Twenty and thirty nests are often seen on a single tree, and large
orchards scarcely cast more shade than in winter. The leaves of trees are vital
organs, the functions of which are similar to those of the lungs in animals. The
Canker worms, Palmer worms, and several other species of caterpillars that feed upon
the leaves of our fruit trees, are injurious just in proportion as they destroy these
leaves. The owners of such orchards seldom disturb these caterpillars, and yet they
complain of the premature decay of their trees, and tell you that raising Apples does
not pay.

The Apple and Quince trees have no greater enemy than the Apple-tree Borer.
One whose attention has never been called to the signs of the depredations of this
insect will not suspect its existence till too late ; while others who have investigated
it carefully, will know its presence in an orchard by the appearance of the trees, even
while passing them rapidly in a train of cars. This enemy is often brought in the
young trees from the nursery. It is three years in coming to maturity, and increases

INTRODUCTION. XV

slowly from such small beginnings. Young vigorous trees seem to resist for
years, but as they begin to bear fruit the enemy increases faster than the growth
of the tree, and the orchard dies.

The Peach worm feeds upon the inner bark, near the ground, each worm cutting
off the connexion between the top and root of the tree to the extent of one or two
inches. This insect is an annual ; the next year's crop of worms will probably girdle
that tree all round. The Peach-grower complains of the premature decay of his
orchards, and says that peach trees are too short-lived to be profitable. Other cul-
tivators understand this enemy, and " worm " their trees carefully, but will buy their
stock from nurserymen who plant pits or use buds from trees diseased with the "Yel-
lows." And they complain, too, of premature decay, and that a second crop of trees
will not grow upon the same ground.

The Black Knot on Plum and Cherry trees is another increasing evil.

The Bark Louse or scale insect, found on both Apple and Pear trees, insignificant
as it appears, often causes the speedy decay of orchards.

All the above insect enemies of fruit trees, as well as most of those of the fruits
themselves, are manageable — can be subjected to our control. The man who permits them
to increase and multiply, not only has no right to complain, but is a nuisance in his
neighborhood, and should be treated as other nuisances are, that the public may be
protected.

There are many other insect enemies quite serious at times, and not within the
reach of our control, but most of them are transient evils. They are under the influ-
ence of checks wonderfully ordered for our protection. Some are brought to a
speedy end by vicissitudes of weather. Birds come in flocks just at the right time
for the destruction of others. Still more are subdued by insect parasites.

We import fruits of southern latitudes in large quantities. Do we export ours
to a corresponding extent ? Can we, when oranges in New York cost less than
apples ?

The preservation of fruits has long claimed much attention. They are wanted
throughout the year. Men of wealth expend large sums in forcing-houses ; artificial
climates are thus created, that fresh fruits may be had out of season. People of mode-
rate means dry and preserve them. Canning has lately been adopted to advantage,
giving us in winter an approximating taste of the fruit luxuries of summer. Many
attempts have been made to retard decay by the use of ice, but the fruits soon lose
their natural flavor. There are said to be apples that will keep throughout the year. *
Many of the Russets will look like Apples till the next summer. A Northern Spy
will still be good in April, but after that we must wait for Strawberries.

Most persevering efforts have been made for many years to obtain winter Pears.
Some have been found that seemed to promise to be successful, but these have gene-
• rally failed ; and the best cultivators now have little expectation of being able to
carry this superb fruit later than December.

I have lately heard Mr. Nice, of Cleveland, Ohio, explain his plan of construct-

XVI INTRODUCTION.

ing houses for keeping fruit, and have eaten freely of grapes and apples kept in one
of these houses. The grapes had the same color, the same flavor, and almost the
freshness of stem of well ripened Catawbas in their season. It seemed like eating
them fresh from the vines in the spring instead of fall — April in place of October. A
great variety of both fall and winter Apples were submitted for examination and
tasting. Autumn apples were autumn apples still, and winter apples were not yet
ripe.

Mr. N. says he has succeeded with all the fruits he has yet tried, except the
Peach ; with that he fails — probably from some influence of the down.

This manner of retarding decay appears to be founded upon correct principles of
science, and has been perseveringly tested for several years. It seems to promise what
we all want, good fresh fruit for every day in the year.

The preceding observations are intended to show —

1st. That the cultivation of fruit in our country is not so successful as it should
be.

2d. That much more fruit is wanted than is likely to be raised, without some
change of management.

3d. That the comparative failure of fruit is not owing to defects of soil.

4th. That all fruit trees will grow well in all parts of our country, on land that
will produce good crops of anything else.

5th. That if successful plans of keeping fruit sound and fresh should be gene-
rally introduced, the quantity wanted will be greatly increased.

6th. That a foreign demand would be found for any superabundance.

As to the situation of orchards, no fruit trees should ever be planted on low wet
ground. A western exposure, with protection from the morning sun, is best.

Trees whose buds are liable to be killed by the severe cold of winter, or the
blossoms to come out early in the spring, should be planted in elevated situations.
Plum trees grow best, and the fruit is generally finer, on clay soils, but light sandy
lands are better for Peaches.

The health of your trees and your crops of frvit will depend upon hmu successful you are
in subduing the Insect Enemies. If they are conquered, all who plant trees ami tiuuuigc them
•with reasonable care can have fruit.

As it has been the wish of the author to avoid the use of scientific terms, he has
as far as possible confined himself to language that will be understood by all readers.
But some explanations are necessary. The word Insect signifies in sect/mis. Most
insects, except spiders, are in three sections. They have six legs and two feelers or
antenna. The young of insects, as caterpillars and grubs, are often called worms,
but improperly. Worms, or vermes, are never insects.

The science that treats of insects is called Entomology, and this, like other sciences,
has the various species classified and arranged to facilitate their study. The primary

INTRODUCTION. XVII

division is into Orders. The insects spoken of in this volume belong to the two
most important of these orders — the Coleoptera, or Beetles, and the Lepidoptera, or But-
terflies. Nearly all the other enemies of Fruit and Fruit trees are included in these
orders.

There are four stages in the lives of insects : the egg, larva, pupa, and imago.
The word larva means mask. That is, the larva is a masked condition of the future
butterfly. This word, larva, is commonly used to signify the embryo condition of
insects generally ; but in this work I have chosen to confine it exclusively to the
Lepidoptera, and shall call the young of other Orders by other terms. Embryo bee-
tles will be called grubs. The larva or caterpillar stage of the Lepidoptera, and the
grub of the Coleoptera, is the period of their lives when they do the chief injury.
Pupa means the chrysalis stage — the period of transformation from the embryo to the
imago or image — the perfect insect.

The word Moth will often occur in a work like this, and may lead to confusion
if not explained. The difference between a moth and a butterfly is, that the latter
flies by daylight, the moth at night. In other words, the butterflies are the diurnal,
the moths the nocturnal Lepidoptera. Butterflies and moths may be known from
each other by the difference of the antennae ; the former having little knobs on the
ends of their feelers, and the latter being without them.

This work is without plan as. a scientific book. Although treating of insects, it
does not arrange them into orders, classes, or families, but only discusses a few
species, chiefly in the order of their importance as enemies of fruit and fruit trees.

The object of the Author has been to make a book to meet the wants of the
practical man, who has but little time for the study of any subject except his business,
and least of all, a science involving, as Entomology does, hundreds of thousands of
species. To make such a work intelligible, illustrations addressed to the eye are a
necessity. The fruit-grower should be able to identify his insect enemy positively
when he sees it — there should be no guessing. The Curculio and Lady-bug, for
instance, are both beetles ; both are found upon the same trees ; they will often fall
down together when those trees are jarred. The one is our worst enemy, and the
other one of our best friends. I have known people kill the friend and overlook
the enemy.

I have been studying these enemies for many years. At first it was an investi-
gation made necessary for the protection of my own crops ; and that experience
painfully taught me knowledge that I had not been able to find either in books or
cabinets. The interest thus excited has been increased by the reading of such valu-
able works as those of Kirby and Spence, Huber, Latreille, Say, Harris, Fitch, and
many others. From this reading and personal experience, I am satisfied that the
interests of Fruit-growers would be promoted if all the practical knowledge on this
subject could be gathered into a separate work, and I have felt that it was a duty to
make a beginning by contributing my portion towards a better understanding of this
difficult subject

XVIII INTRODUCTION.

When I assert that any individual can subdue his fruit enemies if he chooses, I
speak from my own positive knowledge ; and although I do not wish to be under-
stood to say that the instructions contained in this book are the best, I do wish to be
understood to say, that some general plan of treatment should be adopted. An indi-
vidual who resolutely determines to do it can save his fruits; but if all his neighbors
for miles round shall act with him in carrying out the same instructions, the work of
each will be less even the first year, and all subsequent seasons will be comparatively
nothing. How such instructions are to be generally disseminated or such associations
to be formed, it is not for an author to determine.

The next portion of this work, both the text and plates of which are in an
advanced stage of preparation, will treat of the various Caterpillars injurious to Fruit
trees and Grape vines. But the publication of an illustrated work like this is attended
with so much expense that it is deemed advisable to await the verdict of the fruit-
growing public before completing another part. If the public show by the reception
of the present volume that more is wanted, both author and publisher will be encou-
raged to bring it out at an early period.

NEWARK, N. J., April 15, 1865.

THE CURCULIO.

PLATE I. (Frontispiece.)

1. The Promise.

2, 3, 4. The Fulfilment as it should be.

5. The Fulfilment as it is.

6. The Cause of the Difference.

THE Frontispiece of a book is generally intended to be looked at only. This
one, it carefully studied, will convey an impression of the importance of one of the
insect enemies that could hardly be realized by any arrangement of words.

Fig. i represents a cluster of the blossoms of the Apricot. This is the
earliest of the fruit trees to bloom ; the first evidence that Spring has really come.
Few of the fruit blossoms are so beautiful as these, but like many others of the fair
promises of this world, they are not always kept inviolate.

Fig. 2 is a Pond's Seedling Plum ; see how large it is ; look at the bloom ;
think how it would taste. The tree grows large and strong ; bears full crops. Any
one can have plenty of such plums if he will master the Curculio. There are
more than fifty other kinds, all good, to choose from. The Plum tree is hardy; it
will grow well in every part of our country, on every soil ; no Borer at the root ; no
Yellows ; no Curled Leaf. The buds are seldom killed with the severe cold of the
winter, and the blossoms not often nipped with late frosts:

Look at Fig. 3, an Apricot — that superb fruit. Who eats an apricot *? Look
at it again, and resolve to have some. This fruit ripens during the last of July and
early in August, between the Berries and the Peaches.

Fig. 4 is a Nectarine, the most beautiful of all the fruits. Many kinds are
delicious. The tree is closely allied to the Peach, growing where it will. Get it
clear of the taint of the Yellows, and keep out the Borers, and the Curculio is the
only enemy to prevent your having the fruit in abundance. Think of such orna-

2O INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

ments in your garden, such embellishments to your table, such presents for your
friends, and te cowards no longer. We have but one life to live in this world ; let us
enjoy it ; let us feast our eyes on such beauties ; let us indulge our appetites on such
luxuries — they are innocent. We were created with dominion, and have a right to
subdue the Curculio, the only enemy that stands between these fruits and us. It
will be hard to conquer, undoubtedly, but we can do it. Then let us all join hands,
and pledge ourselves to do both, and thus try to make the world what it should be.

Fig. 5 represents the work of the Curculio.

Fig. 6 is the Curculio itself.

PLATE tt

THE CURCULIO.

PLATE II*

i. Pear, punctured May 23, 1863.

z. Curculio cutting the crescent.

3. The position of the Curculio when making the cavity for the reception of the egg.

4. Plum. The first mark, May 25, 1863.

5. Cherry. The first mark, May 25, 1863.

6. Peach. The first mark, May 28, 1863.

7. Apple. The first mark, June i, 1863.

8. Apple with two perfect punctures, and others imperfect.

9. Apple. From a bottle containing a colony of Curculios.
10. Siberian Crab- Apple. Marked June 10, 1863.

THAT part of the season between May i8th and June loth, the period included
in the illustrations on this Plate, is an important time to the fruit-grower who has
determined to save his crops from the Curculio.

All kinds of Pears and Cherries will not be large enough for the Curculio's
operations at these dates, and most of the Plums will be a day or two later.

Apricots will generally be from a week to ten days earlier than any other fruit,
and this crop will often be attacked by the Curculio while other kinds of fruit trees
are still in blossom.

Occasionally there will be a season when the blossoms on nearly all fruit trees
will burst together ; the Apricot, Pear, Plum, Cherry, Nectarine, and Peach, present-
ing their beautiful promises at the same time.

In this case, the young Fruits will come so nearly together as to give the Curcu-
lio its choice, and the Nectarine will be chosen. The reason why the Apricot is so
generally destroyed by the Curculio, is probably owing to the fact of its being, for
several days, the only fruit large enough for its use.

* The original paintings of the illustrations of the Curculio were made in the years 1863 and 1864, at
Newark, New Jersey, in the latitude of 40° 45'. By a reference to the diaries of these two years, there
appears a difference of five days in the time of the first punctures by the Curculio in the same fruits. In
1863 it was May 23d, in 1864 it was May i8th.

22 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

If all the fruits were of the proper size at the same time, they might be placed
in the following order as to their liability to be attacked by the Curculio : Nectarine,
Plum, Apricot, Apple, Pear, Quince. Some varieties of the different kinds are pre-
ferred to others. The Green Gage, Washington, and Egg Plum will suffer more
than the Prunes, Damsons, and many of the common kinds. The earliest
Apples, as the Sweet Bough and Early Harvest, will be more injured than later
kinds.

The black knot, so often found on Plum and Cherry trees, is used freely by the
Curculio. These knots are often several days in advance of the young fruit, and
the female Curculio has been known to exhaust her supply of eggs in these knots
before the young cherries or plums on the same trees were fully formed.

Figure 2 shows the position of the Curculio when cutting the semicircle or
crescent-shaped mark. This is made by the end of the proboscis, and merely
goes through the skin. This part of the process, while the fruit is young and
tender, is soon finished, sometimes not taking more than two or three minutes.

Fig. 3 shows her position in the next part of the work. From the centre of the
concave part of the crescent, the proboscis is introduced under this cut skin, and
there it slowly works, cutting its way until it can reach no further.

The end of this cell or cavity is now dug out or enlarged, to make it a suitable

•

receptacle for the destined egg. The insect has an instinct which teaches her that
the surroundings of this cavity must be so deadened that no subsequent growth of
the fruit at this part shall press upon that delicate egg and crush it. The seventeen-
year Locust arranges her eggs crosswise in cells made in the twigs of growing wood ;
but on one side of each cell the wood is so comminuted by the boring instrument
of the female Locust that it never recovers ; and although the twig generally conti-
nues to grow, this wounded part will not be grown over until long after the eggs
have hatched. Were it not for this instinctive foresight of the necessity of so splin-
tering up the wood on a side of the cavity where one end of these oblong eggs rests,
that it would yield to the pressure from the other, in the growth of two months,
these eggs must be broken. The Curculio probably has a similar instinctive fore-
sight.

The preparation of this cell is much the most tedious part of the process,
usually taking about fifteen minutes, though sometimes half an hour. During most

THE CURCULIO.

of this time the Curculio will be found in this pitching position, and with her pro-
boscis entirely buried ; looking as the woodcock does when boring for food in the
soft ground. This cavity finished, she turns round and deposits an egg at its orifice ;
then assuming the former position, very quietly pushes that egg with her proboscis to
its destined place. Next, the crescent-shaped cut is plastered up with a gummy sub-
stance that holds the cut edges together for the time being; probably an instinctive
precaution against the weather or insect enemies that might endanger the safety of
that egg. The female Pea-Bug deposits her egg in a slight wound in the pea-pod,
and then covers it over with a tenacious paste.

Fig. 8 is intended to show an Apple with two Curculio marks perfected, and
several others partly finished. Some writers have said that the Curculio never depo-
sits more than one egg in a fruit ; but this is a mistake. Two or more grubs will
often be found ; but these instances of so many marks so early in the season are
rare except in the apple, and, if examined, most of them will be found unfinished
and containing no eggs.

Those parasitic insects that introduce their eggs into the living bodies of
other insects, graduate the number so deposited according to the quantity of
food the body of that insect will afford the young from those eggs, so that each
shall have enough to bring it to full maturity. The instinct that teaches this
knowledge is unerring. A large Ichneumon Fly will not deposit an egg in a
caterpillar too small to afford the requisite amount of food, but she will select
one that will just yield enough, and none to spare. If the caterpillar is of such
a size as to feed two, three, or more, two, three, or more eggs will be deposited
in it.

The Curculio probably has a similar instinct. A young apple or peach, dry
and withered, and not larger than a hazel-nut, will be found containing the grub of
a Curculio full grown, plump, and active, with no part of that apple or peach left
that could be used for fruit; but it would be hard to find two half-grown grubs in
such a fruit, and with nothing more to eat.

Fig. Q is an Apple that was left some time in a bottle with a colony of Curcu-
lios, and the number of punctures shows that instinct ceases to be a guide under
such circumstances. This apple was one of three that had been coated over with
the " whale-oil soap " mixture, which, with three other apples taken fresh from

24 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

the tree, was given to these Curculios at the same time, to test whether they would
make any distinction. But none could be observed. All were taken with the
same avidity, and each was equally punctured.

Fig. 10 shows that even the Crab Apple does not escape the Curculio. I have
seen the unmistakable crescent-shaped mark of this insect on that most minute of
apples, the Currant Crab.

Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10, of this Plate give good representations of the mark
of the Curculio, where the entire process has been completed, and the egg has been
secured. When first made it is not so distinct, but it soon becomes discolored,
presenting this brown appearance. There will often be a slight convex elevation
over the egg, and a gentle pressure on that spot with the thumb-nail will break it.
A very sharp sense of hearing will sometimes detect the snap.

PLATK HI

THE CURCULIO.

PLATE III.

1. Plum, June 3, Egg of Curculio hatched, and the young grub eating its way.

2. Same Plum, June 3. A slice cut off, exposing the passage-way of the grub.
a. The grub, the natural size at this date.

3. Green Gage, June 14th. Several Curculio marks. The globules of gum indicate that the eggs have

been hatched.

4. Peach, June 14. The particles of gum here indicate the same thing as in the Plum, Figure 3.

5. Washington or Bolmar Plum, June zoth. Fruit fallen, and the grub emerged from hole at a.

6. Peach, June 24. On the ground, a grub having just escaped.

7. Pear, June 24. Showing blemishes from punctures of the Curculio.

8. Perfect Cherry, June 25.

9. External appearance of Cherry containing a grub of the Curculio when nearly full grown.
10. The same Cherry when opened.

9 and 10. The kinds of Cherries which birds prefer.

THE dark line leading from the puncture in Fig. l , is a common appearance in
the progress of the Curculio, but not universal. It indicates unmistakably the
destruction of the Plum.

Fig. 2 shows that the young grub does not proceed at once towards the centre
of the plum, but soon after this it will be found feeding round, or in the pit itself

The globules of gum on Figs. 3 and 4 are proof positive that nothing can save
such fruits. Apples also sometimes show gummy exudations from the wounds made
by the Curculio, but this gum does not become so concreted as in the plum and
peach, remaining soft and sticky.

Peach-growers will recognise Fig. 6 as a kind of peach too often met with
under their trees about the last of June and the early part of July.

Fig. 7 represents a very common appearance of the pear.

In a plantation of Pear trees standing by the side of an old neglected Apple
orchard, I have caught several hundred Curculios in less than an hour, by jarring
thirty or forty trees. But as soon as the neighboring apples were large enough the
pears would be deserted. The Pear, though often injured, suffers less from this

PLATE JY.

THE CURCULIO. 2Q

PLATE IV.

1. The Plum, June 9, showing the appearance when the egg of the Curculio has been taken out.

2. The German Prune (Quetsche), July 1 8, with two Curculio marks on the neck, dried up.

3. The Fellenberg Prune, ripe September 15.

4. The Green Gage as it should be, September i.

5. The Green Gage, July 20, showing the origin of the rot.

6. Its further progress, August 7.

7. Nectar, in New Jersey, September i. Rochester, September 15.

THIS Plate indicates the condition of some of the Plums later in the season.
Fig. i shows a wound made by taking out the egg of the Curculio with the nail of
the little finger. This is, however, too large an instrument for so delicate an opera-
tion, and leaves an unnecessary scar. Apricots, Nectarines, and Plums can be saved
from destruction in this manner.

In the early part of the season, especially if the weather should be cloudy and
cold, it will often be a week or ten days before this egg hatches ; but in very hot
weather the young grub will escape in four or five days. All attempts to save the
fruit after the egg is hatched will be useless.

Those who have young fruit of valuable sorts not yet tested by the tasting pro-
cess, will be anxious that the first crop shall come to maturity ; and to know what to
do when all have been punctured by the Curculio, will be useful information. The
best instrument I have found for this delicate operation is a common quill tooth-pick
slightly rounded at the point, and pared to a cutting edge. This must be insinuated
under the concave side of the crescent-shaped mark, so as to turn over the triangular
portion of skin lying between the horns of the crescent and the end of the tube where
the egg is deposited. The egg — a white round speck — will sometimes be exposed,
and a very sharp eye will detect it without the assistance of a glass ; but generally it
will be so coated with a covering of the pulp of the fruit as to be invisible. Take
off this speck of skin, egg and all. If properly done the fruit will come to maturity,
showing scarcely a blemish.

3<D INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

I have often carried such patients as these safely through a number of these
otherwise fatal wounds. Retired gentlemen of leisure, who become amateur fruit-
growers, can find amusement in this manner of fighting the Turk ; and although
rather a tedious operation, it is much better than cutting down the trees, or swearing
at the Curculio as some do.

Figs. 2 and 3 are German Prunes, which are now becoming more popular than
other Plums, from an impression that they are less liable to be attacked by the
Curculio.

Fig. 2 represents a Prune with two Curculio marks on the neck, both dried up
and harmless. This is a very common appearance of prunes late in the season.
Why the Curculio so generally chooses the neck of this class of plums, or why the
egg so often fails, I have not seen satisfactorily accounted for. This is an inducement
for cultivating the Prunes in preference to other Plums, to those who do not intend
to conquer the Curculio.

Fig. 3 is the Fellenberg Prune, ripe the middle of September. Some others are
superior in flavor, and some ripen so late in the fall as to be more valuable on that
account. When the Curculio shall be disposed of, and plums recovered from among
the lost good things, many of the prunes will become favorite fruits.

Fig. 4, in this Plate, is the Green Gage — the good old Reine Claude.

Figs. 5 and 6 show what it becomes under the management of the Curculio.

Fig. 7. The same, when ready for the palate ; and the palate probably never
receives a pleasanter sensation. Had our Mother Eve been tempted with such fruit
instead of apples, when she " brought sin into the world, and all our woe," she would
have been more excusable.

I'l.ATK.V.

THE CURCULIO.

PLATE V.

1. The Maiden's Blush Apple, Oct. 22, about half size, showing several Curculio marks, the largest in

shape of a shield.

2. A section of the same, cut through some of these marks, and showing no injury under the skin.

3. An Apple, Oct. 22, greatly deformed by the punctures of the Curculio.

4. A section of Fig. 3. The four dark lines indicate the course of the young grubs of the Curculio.

5. An early Peach, Aug. 5. The first bite.

6. Crawford's Late, Oct. 4th.

THIS Plate shows the progress of the Curculio's operations upon Apples and
Peaches.

Figs, i and 2 are intended to show that many of" the punctures made by the
Curculio upon apples do no serious injury — merely leaving blemishes only skin
deep. These scars are of many forms, but the most common is in the shape of a
shield, like the largest mark in Fig. i. This shield varies greatly in size and shape.
If the puncture has been made on a large kind of apple very early in the season, it
will often expand with the growth of the fruit till it becomes two or three times the
size of the one in the Figure. Generally the shield-shaped mark will be wider and
shorter than here represented.

In nearly all of these wounds, of whatever shape, there may be seen a little spot
darker colored than other parts, indicating where the egg was originally deposited.
More or less of these marks can be seen on most of even the best Apples in the
markets of New York and Philadelphia, both summer and winter, no matter from
what part of the country they may have come.

Fig. 3 represents what is often called the '•'•gnarly" fruit. This deformity is
caused chiefly by the Curculio. It is very often seen in the orchard, and is espe-
cially common at cider mills.

Fig. 4 is a section of the same, showing the passage-ways of the young grubs
towards the centre of the apple. When one of these roads is cut through the
centre, it will look very much as represented in this Figure ; but if the knife should

gj INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

pass a little to one side of the centre, it will be of a green or yellow-green color, and
much narrower, looking as if it had acted as a cord, tying the centre and circumfe-
rence of the apple together, and preventing its expansion in that direction, and thus
causing the depression. Apples, when wounded in this way, are not destroyed, only
deformed. They usually hang on the trees to maturity. The grub, from some
cause or other, perishes before reaching the vital part. This was the condition of the
apple crop in large sections of the country in 1 864. There had been a period of
nearly six weeks in July and August of excessively hot and dry weather, after which
very few living grubs of the Curculio could be found. The marks, as seen in this
Figure, where they had gone just so far, were very numerous.

We sometimes encounter the grub of the Curculio in early peaches, as we do in
cherries, apricots, and early plums.

Fig. 6 was taken from a tree of the Crawford's' Late at the time the sound fruit
was ripe. The puncture of the Curculio had caused it to rot. Gum had exuded
from near the stem, sticking it fast to the twig. Such specimens of fruit, still more
dried up and withered, may be seen on Plum, Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot trees,
often hanging on all winter.

Previous to the Rebellion, cherries, apricots, early apples, and peaches, were
brought to the New York market from many of the Southern States, often from as
far south as Georgia. If there had been no other evidence that the Curculio was
common in that section of country, these fruits would have settled the question.
Terrible as this pest is with us and further north, when the same fruits from the
different sections were subjected to a comparison, the North would seem to suffer
least.

I'l.ATK VI

PLATE VI.

1. Curculio, nataral

2. Curculio, with wings cxpai
3- '

^urculio, in which they are under-

This vfK •:-•

most systematic treatise on American Entomology is that of Thomas Say.
! to those who study insects as a science such works a*
be made t:

New Yo:

» Fabr. (Rhynchjenus) Syst, Eleut.
• Curculio no i-lerh«t. Naturs)

any. 1819.
predates on

R»r

1

rv "

<-xact words, as

I

THE CURCULIO. 33

PLATE VI.

I. Curculio, natural size.

z. Curculio, with wings expanded.

3. Portion of earth, July 1 6, with the cells made by the grubs of the Curculio, in which they are under-

going their transformations.

4, 5. Front and back views of the pupa of the Curculio, July 16, greatly enlarged.

6. The Curculio more enlarged, almost matured, and just ready to emerge from the ground. It is now

of a reddish color.

7. The Curculio still more enlarged, with the wings, legs, proboscis, and antennz expanded.

8. Shows the proboscis, antennas, and lenses of the eye.

9. Pea-Bug, twice the natural size.

10. A species of Curculio often seen in September and October. This was figured from a specimen taken
from the stomach of a Toad.

THE most systematic treatise on American Entomology is that of Thomas Say.
It is purely scientific, and to those who study insects as a science such works as this
become a necessity. But little progress can be made in a field of investigation so
immense without systematic classification. Entomologists will speak of Orders,
Classes, Families, Genera, and Species, as ornithologists and botanists do. The
structure of a science would be a Babel were it not for such a fixed language.

The following is Say's account of the Curculio. I give it in the exact words, as
taken from page 285, vol. i. New York edition of 1 859.

" 7. C. ARGULA Fabr. (Rhynchsenus) Syst. Eleut.

" Curculio nenuphar Herbst. Natursyst.

" R. cerasi Peck, Jour. Mass. Agr. Soc., Jany. 1819.

" This also varies much in size, and depredates on the plumb and peach and
other stone fruits. My kinsman, the late excellent Wm. Bartram, informed me that
it also destroys the European Walnut in this country."

This conveys but a vague idea to the farmer or fruit-grower who has paid no

34 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

•

attention to the science, and will certainly not give sufficient information to enable
him to save his fruit crops from this terrible enemy. My description is addressed to
the eye. Look at the first figure on this Plate. Examine it carefully. That is the
Curculio — the Plum Weevil — the Turk — the Little Joker, that I am making such a
fuss about.

The sad effects of the Curculio upon the fruits, as shown in the preceding
Plates, will prepare the reader to understand what a terrible evil it is, and he will be
" likely to study this Plate with greater interest than if it had been the first of the
series illustrating this insect.

Of the four hundred thousand species of insects known to naturalists, the Cur-
culio or Plum Weevil is the most important. Other insects are often more destruc-
tive for a time, but their ravages are transient, most of them being brought to a
sudden end by natural causes. The Curculio has increased constantly since it was
first noticed by fruit-growers, during the latter half of the last century, and is now
found in nearly all the settled parts of North America, except the States on the
Pacific Coast. It spreads with the settlement of the country, and increases with the
multiplication of fruit trees. It has never yet been controlled in an appreciable
degree by human agencies. Parasitic enemies cannot reach it. Vicissitudes of
weather, except in localities and for a short time, have never checked it. It is
marching on, " conquering and to conquer," unless there shall be concerte'd intelli-
gence, and concerted effort to stop it.

Almost every person who owns a fruit-tree suffers more or less from this insect
enemy. The fruit-growers lose a part of every crop every year, and the fruit-con-
sumers get less than half that the same money would buy, it" it were not for the
Curculio. As a liberal supply of fruit adds greatly to the health and comfort of the
people in all countries, but especially in a climate so heated as ours, the loss thus
sustained is a serious matter.

We have no data upon which it would be possible to calculate the amount of
damage caused every year by this insidious enemy, but we may safely estimate it by
millions of dollars. A single living Curculio weighs a quarter of a grain, and it
therefore takes about twenty-eight thousand to make a pound. If we take three
quarter-ounce vials, and put 100 Curculios in one, 100 Pea-Bugs in another, and 100
grains of buckwheat in the third, each will appear about half full, and they will all

THE CURCULIO. 35

look so much alike in size and color, that at a short distance they cannot be distin-
guished from each other.

Many people think insects too small to be worthy of much attention. Such
people should consider the single grain of wheat, or the individual rain-drop. The
Coral insect, in the abstract, is wonderfully insignificant, but the Coral insect in the
concrete changes the channels and currents of the ocean, and builds up islands from
the sea.

Fig. i, in this Plate, represents the Curculio, as nearly correct in size, form, and
color, as can be made in a drawing on stone. The antennae are rather too heavy, but
it is difficult to get the exact size of an object so minute ; and the chest appears too
deep, but a close examination will show that this apparent disproportion is owing
to the position of the upper part of the fore leg. With these corrections under-
stood, any one will be able to identify the living Curculio by comparing it with this
figure.

Fig. 2 does not represent the Curculio as seen flying — that would be difficult —
but as a dead one appears with the wings and legs spread out.

Fig. 3 shows a portion of earth with the young Curculios in their cells, under-
going their transformations. This piece of earth was taken from the centre of a
flower-pot that had been filled two-thirds full of common garden mould, and on
which the punctured plums that had fallen from a Green Gage tree had been thrown
every day as they fell. The number of cells will be in proportion to the number of
Plums thrown into the flower-pot. I have seen such earth almost as cellular as a
honey-comb.

The effect of drought can be tested readily by experiments of this kind. Place
one such flower-pot in a building, and throw water on it occasionally, as it would be
rained upon out-of-doors, and let another remain perfectly dry. The grubs in the
first will come out beetles; in the other they will perish apparently for want of
moisture. This fact will have an important bearing when We come to consider the
effects of the vicissitudes of the weather, not only upon this but upon many other
insects which have a great influence upon human affairs.

The Plum crop fails for a series of years, and then for a single season will be
abundant. I have raised full crops of Nectarines, Apricots, and Plums, every year
for ten years in succession ; but all those crops, except one, were the result of most

36 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

persistent fighting the Curculio. The year of that one exception had been preceded
by a local drought. For several weeks during July and August it had not rained in
that neighborhood. Showers were often threatened, so that farmers hurried to secure
their hay and grain ; but the rains did not come. The earth became as dry and
parched as if it had been in flower-pots and under cover.

We often complain of the weather. The severe cold pinches us, and is hard to
bear, especially as we outgrow the love of skating or sleigh-riding. Excessive heat
is equally uncomfortable. Rains, to some, never seem to come exactly at the right
time. Crops will be injured in harvest; pleasure parties will be broken up. Long
continued droughts, with a brazen sun setting day after day, unmistakably indicating
no rain to-morrow, make us feel how powerless we are to avert impending famine.
What was planted gives no increase. The pastures fail, " the Grasshopper becomes
a burthen," and we complain. But since that season's exemption from the Curculio
I have learned to be more patient. These rough extremes have their compensations.
I have known a terrible raid of Mosquitoes ended by a cold night in June. The
papers in some of the Western States told us that one of the insect enemies of the
wheat crop was killed by that same cold night The Chinch bug goes on increasing,
and its ravages become more and more serious until arrested by a rain-storm. The
Aphides, that sometimes fairly blacken the young shoots of grape vines, will be
melted into mere stains by a single shower. Wasps kill their young after the first
frosty night. No insects are more attentive to their broods than the wasps, but they
seem to know from instinct that the days of these young will be " few and evil,"
after such a warning.

For years a species of Thrips had been living on some Sugar Maple trees near
my house They had become so numerous that every leaf had its colony, and the
foliage had turned grey by reason of their sapping operations. On the 25th of June
the mercury in the thermometer rose to 100° in the shade, and next day not a living
Thrips could be found on those Maple trees. A slight breeze drifted them in eddies
upon the piazza, looking like the seeds and chaff of timothy on a barn floor.

Almost every one will remember an occasional crop of Plums coming to matu-
rity. I have heard of many such instances ; and where there has been a chance to
investigate have found that they have been preceded by a summer drought the
year before.

THE CURCULIO. 37

The cells in Figure 3 are usually made from three to six inches below the sur-
face, and the grub shapes them by a succession of turnings and twistings as a bird
forms her nest, or as a dog will prepare his bed. The grubs of many beetles that go
through their transformations in the ground do just so.

Figs. 4 and 5 are greatly enlarged representations, both front and back, of the
pupa, giving very satisfactory views of the appearance of this insect in its intermediate
stage between the grub and the beetle. The Curculio in this stage has no power of
locomotion, but it shows its sensibility when- the cell is broken into by a restless,
wriggling motion.

Fig. 6 is a representation of the matured beetle before it has emerged from the
ground. It will be found of various shades of color, but generally of a pinkish red ;
these colors, however, soon change into those of Figure i of this Plate, after the insect
comes to the surface.

Fig. 7 is only a greatly enlarged view of Fig. 2, to make it more satisfactory.

Fig. 8 gives a good view of the origin of the antennae or feelers.

The eyes of most insects are wonderfully formed. They may be said to be
compound eyes, each made up of many hexagonal lenses. If a comb of the hive
bee, containing one or two hundred cells, could be photographed down to the size of
the head of a pin, it would look somewhat like the eye of a beetle. Each eye of the
Curculio contains about 150 of these lenses. The number in the eyes of Butterflies,
Moths, or Dragonflies, amounts to many thousands. In some microscopic expe-
riments made last summer upon the eyes of plant lice from different trees and plants,
it was found that the number of lenses in the eyes of these insects varied from every
tree and plant. Each thus proved to be a distinct species, no matter how close the
resemblance in other respects. Thus, should the rose bushes of a garden or a neigh-
borhood be cleared of these pests they would not be re-inhabited by those from other
plants. While examining one of these aphides it brought forth a young one, and
this in turn being tested its eye was found to contain the same number of lenses as
the mother's. This peculiarity of the eyes of insects, and the knowledge of the exact
number of these lenses in the eye of each species, become important in investigations
where only the comminuted parts can be obtained. In a long series of examinations
of the contents of the stomachs of birds, for the purpose of ascertaining more posi-
tively how far the insectivorous kinds frequenting orchards are useful in feeding upon

38 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

these enemies of the fruits, the microscope has enabled me to demonstrate many facts
otherwise difficult to prove.

Figure 8 of this Plate shows the arrangement of the lenses of the eye. An ordi-
nary pocket-glass will reveal this in many of the beetles, some of the large flies, and
many other insects ; but so minute are these lenses in the eyes of Butterflies, Moths,
Dragonflies, etc., that a glass of much higher power will be required.

I'l.ATK VII

THE CURCULIO. 39

PLATE VII.

1. The Canvas.

2. Long Stretcher.

3. One of the Short Stretchers.

4. Slip to Straddle the Tree.

5. The Mop Stick padded for jarring the branches of large trees.

6. The place where a branch has been cut off, leaving an inch or two of stump for striking upon with a

mallet.
7.* Plum with a Curculio as it appears after the first blow or jar — having withdrawn her proboscis and doubled

up her limbs ready for the fall to the ground when the jar is repeated.
8 & 9. The Curculios and dead Plum buds — showing their resemblance.

THIS Plate is an illustration of the only effectual way of managing the Curculio
when it comes upon the fruit. " An ounce of prevention is said to be worth a pound
of cure." But if there has been no effort at prevention, the canvas, mallet, and mop-
stick become a necessity. This manner of mastering the Curculio involves much
labor. Few will undertake it, and many who do will not persevere to the end.

My plans of fighting the Curculio are few and simple. Destroy all in the embryo
condition, if possible. Every fruit, whether nectarine, apricot, plum, apple, pear, or
quince, containing the grub of the future Curculio, falls prematurely from the tree.
This grub remains in that fallen fruit long enough to give plenty of time for its
destruction. All our domestic animals, horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep, will eat these
fruits if they have the chance. Poultry are also recommended, but are not to be
depended on except for cherries. Where it is impracticable to use animals for this
purpose, let all these young fruits be gathered by hand as soon as possible after they
fall, and then destroyed. They may be fed to the stock or burnt. Let there be no
exceptions on the whole farm. Some Apple or Cherry tree may stand in an out-of-the-
way place, an unsuspected breeder of this pest for years. If the fruit on such a tree
is not valuable enough to have it attended to in this way cut it down at once. By
all means cut down all useless or superfluous Cherry trees, and see that the remaining

4O INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

trees of this fruit stand where the hogs and poultry have free access. Form neigh-
borhood associations — fruit-growers' clubs, where all shall do the same thing. Do
this faithfully a single year, and the benefit will be so apparent, in more and better
fruit, that it will be done the next year as a matter of course, and every succeeding
year the labor will be less and the benefit greater. Don't stop because one surly
fellow will not join you, or because other neighborhoods will not do it. If there
should be but one such fruit-growers' club in a county or state, the members will have
the more labor, of course, but there will be the greater profit. If your neighbors will
not join you, then fight the battle alone. Show them it can be done ; let them see
the fruits, and shame them.

Plant Plum, Apricot, and Nectarine trees — plant orchards of Apple, Pear, and
Peach trees. Have fruits so plenty, and of such valuable sorts, as not only to pay
the expenses of the extra labor but leave a handsome profit, after using all you want
of the best for yourself and family. If you have not destroyed all the Curculios when
grubs, or if your neighbors have not joined you, and they come upon your young
fruits, then at them -with the canvas. If this is properly managed your fruit can be brought
to full maturity as certainly as if there were no Curculio.

If your trees are young — the first, second,, or third crop — a canvas six feet
square will answer well, and you can manage it alone. The palm, or rather the heel
of the hand, will do the jarring. Some of the Turks will come down with the first
blow, more with the second, and but few after the third. This bringing down the
Curculio is to be done with a blow — a sudden jar — not a shake. Though the wind
shakes a tree, the Curculio does not stop work on that account, but a jar alarms her
instantly.

Fig. 7 of this Plate indicates the position of the Curculio on a Plum under the
alarm of the first blow ; her proboscis is withdrawn at once, the claws cease to hold
fast, the limbs are drawn up, and the fore legs doubled at the knees, and one placed
on each side of the proboscis. Another jar, and she falls to the ground, and there,
among the grass and dead buds, as seen at Fig. 8, feigns death — an instinct of self-
preservation common to insect life. Children find collections of brilliant little
beetles, looking like beads, and they string them with needle and thread. The
beetles cannot " play possum " long after such an operation, and the beads are found
to have legs. The travelling lady-bug stops if you touch her. A little " bouncing

THE CURCULIO.

4>

beetle " will throw itself to a distance if you attempt to catch it, and there lie per-
fectly still. Kirby says the cockchafer will feign death if it sees the approaching
rook, and has not time to secrete itself, not, as the Curculio does, by drawing itself
up into a round ball, but will spread its legs out at full length, and look as a dead
cockchafer should, knowing that a rook will not eat a bug that he does not kill, and
that this sprawling position is a sign that it is already dead. This may be so, but I
do not take the responsibility. We have no rooks.

Caterpillars are sought after as food by birds, just in proportion as they are clear
of hairs. The Geometers, as the Canker worms and Span worms, are of this kind. I
often encounter one of these on fruit trees, that will so resemble a short, stubby,
dead twig, sometimes standing straight out, sometimes partially bent like an elbow,
as to deceive the sharp eye of even the wren itself.

This instinct of insects, and especially of the beetles, to escape their bird ene-
mies, led the late David Thomas, of Western New York, one of the best of the
early horticulturists of our country, to use this canvas trap ; and of all the many
plans that have .been employed it is the only one that has stood the test of experi-
ence. If the Curculio is to be conquered, the destruction of the embryo in the
punctured fruit must be the chief remedy, and the canvas the adjunct.

This work would not be complete without a more circumstantial account of the
Thomas mode of fighting the Curculio. The following, written by himself, is taken
from the Cultivator of August, 1851 : —

" It is more than twenty years since I caught this troublesome insect on sheets,
and secured my crops of plums, nectarines, and apricots; and whenever the busi-
ness has been thoroughly done, I have never been disappointed.

"An average of 1,500 Curculios, caught in the first ten days of summer,
though sometimes rather earlier, have proved a sufficient reduction of the tribe.

" This method of protecting stone fruit I first published in the New Tork
Farmer, and afterwards I several times introduced the subject into the old Genesee
Farmer. Of late, however, I have seen reports of its inefficiency, and as the word
'shaking' has been generally used, perhaps the following extract from the latter
journal, which I wrote in 1832 (vol. ii., pp. 155-6), may throw some light on the
difficulty.

" The first statement was dated 6th Mo. 7, 1 832, and describes the imperfect
mode as commonly practised : —

42 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

" ' On the first day of this month I observed some Curculios on the Plum trees in
my fruit garden ; and not knowing how numerous they might prove, or how much
danger was to be apprehended from them, we spread the sheets which we keep
exclusively for this purpose, and by shaking we caught from about fifty trees more
than thirty of these insects. Since that time, on different days, we have made
similar trials, but we soon became satisfied that only a few were left ; and unless
others migrate hither, which the movement of the hogs will be likely to prevent, I think
their depredations will be very limited this season.'

" Three days afterwards I furnished the following statement, containing a very
important improvement on the mode before described : —

" ' Not three days ago I saw that many of the plums were punctured, and began
to suspect that skating the tree was not sufficient. Under a tree in a remote part of
the fruit garden, having spread the sheets, I made the following experiments : — On
skating it well, I caught five Curculios ; on jarring with my hand I caught twch-e
more ; and on striking the tree with a stone, eight more dropped on the sheets. I was
now convinced that I had been in error, and calling in the neces.sary assistance, and
using a. hammer to jar the tree violently, we caught in less than one hour more than 260
of these insects.'

" Now I should think that these statements would explain all the failures that
have occurred in this business.

" At that time my trees were not large, but they have long since become so ;
and to attempt to shake them now, or to jar them with the hand, would be out of
the question. IPe strike them with an axe, and the blows may be heard to a considera-
ble distance. To muffle the pounder to prevent its bruising the bark, would be
preposterous in the extreme ; for the stroke, to be effectual, must be a sharp and sud-
den jar. A short stump of a sawed limb has been found best. Some of the success
of these operations, however, depends upon the temperature of the weather. Thus,
many of these insects fly off in the warm part of the day, and in the coolest
mornings we catch them in the greatest numbers. — DAVID THOMAS, Grcatfield,
6th Mo., 1851."

After such clear and explicit instructions from the practical man, modified,
improved, and perfected after twenty years of experience, it is unnecessary for me to
say one word as to the modus operand! of the canvas remedy, except that probably
the form recommended in the Plate will be an improvement on the plan of Friend
Thomas, and the mop-stick for jarring the branches will be found greatly superior to
the mallet or axe, where the trees are old and large.

THE CURCULIO. 4.3

As soon as the jarring is finished, go to work as you see the boy in this Plate.
Get each Curculio between the thumb and finger, and kill it. Some have recom-
mended to empty the whole contents of the canvas into hot water; this is not
always effectual ; a few will hold fast with their claws, some will fly away, or the
water will soon cool. Better hunt them out individually, and crush them.

Early in the season many dried buds, the withered petals of the blossoms, and
some insects, as Lady-bugs, will fall upon the sheet, requiring it to be turned or
emptied for every tree. This can be done in taking up the sheet. The usual way
of carrying this small canvas from tree to tree is to hold all the stretchers, long and
short, in one hand, with the fold of the sheet hanging down. As you approach a
tree, drop the long stretcher, and pass one of the short ones on each side, till the
centre of the slip comes up snug round the body; then jar, and then crush, and so
on, to every tree ; and then begin again at the beginning, and go on over the entire orchard
just as often as you find Curculios.

In cold, windy, or wet weather, the operations of insects are in a great measure
suspended, and on such days the Curculio will require little attention. But as all
insect life is active in proportion to the heat of the weather, when the hot days do
come, and especially when the sun breaks out suddenly between showers, it will be
found necessary to hurry this work.

The more vigorously the war is waged early in the season, the sooner it will be
over. Watch the young fruits carefully as they approach the sizes of those on Plate
II.; and the day that one of those crescent marks is seen, is the time to begin.
Each female now will contain from twenty to twenty-five eggs, and she will want a
fruit for each. Later in the season she will often be found with but few, sometimes
only one or two, and, of course, she is not then capable of doing much more
mischief.

If your trees are full grown, a larger canvas — ten or twelve feet square — will be
required. This can easily be managed by one person, with the help of a small boy.
Middle-sized trees can be jarred sufficiently with a common mallet, provided you can
afford to cut off a good-sized branch, as shown at Figure 6 in this Plate. The edges
of this stump should be carefully pared, so as to leave a convex surface to receive
the blows. With proper care, such a stub will last during the season. The branch

should not be less than an inch in diameter, or the stub would soon be split to pieces.

6

44 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

Old trees lose their elasticity, and cannot always be jarred enough with the mallet to
cause the Curculio to let go ; in this case the common mop-stick, used against the
limb as shown in the Plate, answers perfectly. It should be properly padded to
avoid bruising the bark.

The illustration on this Plate fairly represents the form of canvas I have always
used. It is made of common strong white sheeting, and if properly taken care of
will last for years. Many other forms have been described. Some use a common
sheet, and that will answer for a very few small trees in a garden ; larger ones would
require two ; but the stretchers will save much time, and will be found indispensable
if the weather should be windy. One gentleman, whom I know, has arranged his
canvas upon a frame, fitting loosely so as to sag to the centre, that the Curculios may
roll down together; and this frame is fitted to a two-wheeled barrow, the slip pro-
jecting beyond the barrow, and that part of the frame thus brought against the body
of the tree made strong and padded for the purpose of giving the necessary jar — a
butting machine — something in the goat style. Such a contrivance, if made strong
enough, will save the labor of one hand.

Most people of our country, who have attended the large agricultural and horti-
cultural exhibitions, have seen the contributions of plums sent by Ellwanger and Barry
of Rochester, N. Y. Often twenty, thirty, or even more varieties will be found on
the tables from their orchards. Pears, apples, and grapes are contributed by many
others, but they are often the only exhibitors of plums.

The Horticulturist of 1 859, page 527, contains the following :

'' Curculio Remedy. — The Valley Farmer publishes the manner which Ellwanger
and Barry, of Rochester, take to rid their fruit-trees of this enemy. They employ
two men, whose regular business it is to carry out this operation. A light wooden
frame is made, on which canvas or cheap muslin is stretched, made large enough to
cover the space under the branches of one half the tree. Also a similar one to occupy
the remaining space. A branch of the tree has been previously sawed off, thus leaving
a stump three or four inches long (one inch, only, would be better). After the
Curculio catchers are placed beneath the branches, which can be quickly done, one of
the men with the mallet strikes the stump a sharp, quick blow. The little Turks
drop, and are immediately removed from the ' catchers,' and the men proceed to the
next tree. Many hundred trees can thus be gone over in a few hours."

THE CURCULIO. 45

Twice last season I visited the plum orchard of these gentlemen. I certainly
saw nothing in Western New York so beautiful, nor have I tasted anything So good
as their plums. They have all the best kinds, both old and new, two, three, or more
trees of each. These are trained as dwarfs and planted quite close together. The
use of the canvas in such an orchard is much more difficult than where trees are
planted in the ordinary way ; still it is used successfully, for every year they have
plums. The Curculio is probably as common here as in other places. In a careful
examination of the pears and apples on their grounds, the unmistakable mark was as
often met with as in other fruit establishments in Western New York. Charles
Downing resorts to similar means of saving his plums.

I know a gentleman in New Jersey who not only has the taste for fruit-growing,
but the energy necessary for conquering the enemies of fruits. You see in his
grounds, in the most perfect order, pears, apples, grapes, cherries, and all the smaller
fruits ; but he takes no special interest in pointing them out to visitors. They are
common — others have them ; but when you go with him among plum, apricot, and
nectarine trees loaded with fruit, you see his consciousness of triumph, and oh, how
beautiful they are ! Why will not every one who has retired to the country for
enjoyment have such enjoyment as this, by conquering these enemies, and making
for himself a primeval Eden, with all the modern improvements ? Mother Eve
managed the fruit business badly in her day, and gave Adam, and all the rest of us,
a great deal of trouble ; but if we face that trouble resolutely we shall find a recom-
pense.

""" »

LISTS OF PLUMS TO CHOOSE FROM.
I.

From Charles Downing.

^

Bradshaw, Bleecker's Gage,

Coe's Golden Drop, Green Gage,

Denniston's Superb, Imperial Gage,

Jefferson, Lawrence's Favorite,

Lombard, McLaughlin,

Prune d'Agen, Purple Favorite,

Royal Hative, Reine Claude de Bevay,

Imperial Ottoman, Jaune Hative,

46 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

Washington, Yellow Gage (Prince),

Magnum Bonum (Yellow), Parsonage,

Red Gage, Schuylcr Gage.
Schenectady Catherine,

To which I would add Pond's Seedling, Victoria, Fellenberg Prune, Pear Prune,
and the Mellen Gage. The last a remarkable plum, both as to quality and for its
long period of ripening.

Africots.

Breda, Large Early,

Peach, Moorpark,

St. Ambroisc. Purple or Black.

Nectarines.

Boston, Downton,

Early Violet, Elruge.

To which I will add Early Newington and Stanwick.

II.

American Pomological Society's Catalogue of 1 864.

Bleecker's Gage, Bradshaw,

Coc's Golden Drop, Columbia,

Damson, Duane's Purple,

Early Favorite (Rircrs), Fellenberg,

German Prune, General Hand,

Green Gage, Goliah,

Rulings' Superb, Imperial Gage,

Jefferson, Lawrence's Favorite,

Lombard, McLaughlin,

Monroe, Orleans, Smith's,

Peach Plum, Prune d'Agen,

Purple Gage, Purple Favorite,

Reine Claude de Bevay, Royale Hative,

Royal de Tours, St. Catherine,

St. Martin's Quetsche, Victoria,

Washington, White Magnum Bonum.
Yellow Gage (Prince's), ,

THE CURCULIO. 47

American Pomological Society's List of Apricots.

Breda, Early Golden,

Large Early, Large Red,

La Fayette, Moorpark,

Orange, Peach,

Red Masculine, St. Ambroise.
Turkey,

American Pomological Society's List of Nectarines.

Boston, Downton,

Early Newington, Early Violet,

Elruge, Stanwick.

I have nothing to say on the cultivation of fruit trees in general. The instruc-
tions in the books are ample. But upon the management of the Apricot Orchard
some account of my own experience may be appropriate here. I commenced with
ten trees, five from a North River Nursery, and five from Andre Leroy, France.
The former had been budded near the ground on Plum roots, and were Apricot trees.
The latter were budded five or six feet up on Plum trees — making Apricot tops on
Plum stocks. The former never grew large and soon died — the latter grew as large
as Plum trees and were long-lived.

A few years' experience proved, that in that particular situation, as to climate,
soil, and exposure, I could have as regular and full crops of apricots as of plums, and
with no more trouble from the Curculio. I changed whole orchards of young plum
trees, then just beginning to bear, by budding; inserting the apricot buds into all the
branches of the young plum trees. The success was perfect; and in the third
summer such trees were bearing very valuable crops — the fruit large and beautiful.

The trunks of some Apricot trees, like those of some Cherry trees, in our cli-
mate, suffer badly from extremes of weather. This may be guarded against by
budding high up on the Plum. The Apricot bud early in the winter will bear a
greater degree of cold than the Peach bud, the latter being killed at a temperature
of 18° below zero. But the Apricot bud will begin to swell with the early warm days
of spring before the Peach bud shows any change, and then the liability to injury
from cold becomes reversed.

By blossoming so much earlier than other fruit trees, the Apricot is considered

48 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

too uncertain to be depended upon as a crop in most parts of our country ; but if
situations were chosen, such as are generally selected by apricot growers in Persia,
Italy, and France, it would be found to flourish just as well here as there. It does
not require warm countries, neither should the climate be very cold. But always
plant on your high hill-sides ; on mountains, if you have them. And if in such a
situation that the sun shall not strike the trees until an hour or more after rising, so
much the better ; frost on the blossoms would then have time to evaporate, and the
heat of the sun's rays could do no injury.

In the cultivation of the Apricot as a market fruit, much of its value will
depend upon the perfection of its ripening upon the tree. Like the Green Gage and
other superior plums, it should remain upon its native- stem until the exact time has
come — no pulling to take it off, only gently coaxing. During the last two or three
days that such fruits hang upon the trees, before they become what is called dead
ripe, they increase greatly in size, and the richness and beauty of their colors
are then fully developed. Fruits thus perfectly ripened are always wholesome, and
are as superior to those picked prematurely, as the blackberry which surrenders to a
touch is to the one torn off when only red.

Some may suppose that such fully ripe apricots, plums, or nectarines, cannot
be carried any distance to market. That will depend upon the packing. They
must not be bruised, of course ; and if that is guarded against it will be found that
fruit fully ripened will keep better than that gathered prematurely. It will not
wilt, and is not so liable to rot. Small baskets are best. I had them made one foot
long by six inches wide and four deep. Two, side by side, made a square. Two on
the top of these, crossing them, and then two more — the six going together brick-
fashion — made a very convenient package for a small-sized square crate. Two rows
of the Moorpark Apricots, packed with intermediate layers of their own leaves,
would nearly fill one of these baskets level with the top, and fifty apricots were the
usual allowance. The six baskets contained about half a bushel. The crates were
made entirely of slats, the lids fitted with hinges and locks. If carefully managed
they will last for years. Some crates were made double this size, to contain two
packages of six baskets each.

Few sights in the markets are more refreshing than the opening of such crates
filled with perfectly ripe Moorpark Apricots, picked the day before. The extra

THE CURCULIO. 49

expense caused by the Curculio is soon paid for when you can sell at such rates that
a bushel comes to forty, fifty, or sixty dollars, as it would now.

One of my young Apricot orchards was an object of special interest on several
accounts. It was so situated that all the Curculios that attacked the young fruit had
to come from a distance. Every day some of these would be found on the outside
rows, but so systematic was the warfare made upon them, that they never got within
these rows. Every punctured fruit in that orchard was destroyed, but the next year
it would be the same thing, the Curculios coming from a distance. The boys
with the canvas would go over that orchard, with others, in the mornings, and I
would make my calls at intervals during the day, to assure myself that no mischief
was going on. Occasionally "a Curculio could be seen at work, and then I would
experiment with the jarring process, beginning with a gentle shake, then a harder
shake, then a very gentle jar such as a blue-bird or bob-o'-link would make alight-
ing on the tree in its cautious fluttering manner, then the decided jar ot the robin or
oriole. Such experiments led me to the opinion that the Curculio has an instinc-
tive fear of birds.

I have often watched this insect on the ground after the taps had caused her to
let go. She will lie on the bare earth or among the grass as quiet as if dead, as long
as the danger lasts, and then unfold her legs, that had been closely drawn up, and
creep off towards the tree. Soon you will see her moving rapidly up the body, on
the limbs, and out on a branch of that tree. If the weather is very hot, the speed of
her motions will be extremely rapid. If any one who reads this book is at a loss for
employment, let him plant some high hill with an Apricot orchard, protected from
the east, and keep off the Curculio. It may be made both pleasant and profitable.

Nothing has been said as to the jarring process for saving Apples, Pears, or
Cherries. Young trees of these fruits just beginning to bear may be easily jarred
with the hand ; but larger trees will be found very unyielding to anything except
the mop-stick to the branches. The Plums, Apricots, and Nectarines will be
enough for any one to take care of by this troublesome process ; and if all the young
fruits on the farm, and especially on all the neighboring farms, have been properly
disposed of the year before, there will be little occasion for its repetition. What the
Curculio will then take of such fruits will hardly be missed. I have sometimes found
great benefit from jarring young peach orchards for three or four days, and espe-
cially the trees bearing the very earliest kinds.

I: viir

THE CURCULIO.

PLATE VIII.

1. A twig from a Plum Tree that had been profusely washed, or syringed, with what has been called the

" Whale-Oil Soap Mixture."
2.2.2. Three Plums on this twig, painted exactly as they appeared June 24th, 1863, each Plum showing that

it had received a portion of the mixture in the general syringing that the tree had been subjected to.
3. A Curculio as seen at work at the time.

PEOPLE who have had the fewest opportunities of acquiring information on the
subject of medicine, and who are often totally ignorant of the science, are those
most likely to be the dupes of quacks ; and the vast sums received by the publishers
of newspapers for inserting quack advertisements, testify to the number of such
victims.

On the subject of Insects nearly all, educated and uneducated, are alike ignorant.
Few have the time, still fewer the inclination, to devote much thought to such a
subject; and those who do, usually study it strictly as a science. They arrange
insects in orders, classes, families, genera, and species. They learn their Latin
names, and what those names signify — -in fact, become entomologists. Such people
are often enthusiastic collectors of insects, and much of their time is pleasantly
employed in arranging them in cabinets. The discovery of an undescribed species is
as gratifying to an entomologist, as the finding of a new plant to a botanist, or a new
fish to Agassiz. But these investigators seldom inquire which are the useful or
which the injurious.

Others become interested in studying the habits or instincts of particular classes.
The elder Huber spent forty years in the study of Bees and Ants alone, and left the
subject unfinished. But his works have made many friends for these two species,
who are continuing the investigation, and the general interest in them is constantly
increasing. The great work of Kirby and Spence has made a friend to insect investi-
gations of every one who has read it.

In our country, Harris and Fitch have laid broad foundations for usefulness —

J2 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

too broad, perhaps, to complete the superstructure, but greatly useful as far as they go.
Their works have created an interest in such studies that is doing much good. But
still a vast majority of people — even religious people — have such a prejudice, such a
repugnance to insects, that they do not hesitate to crush all indiscriminately. Such
people*seize with avidity all the nostrums they see recommended, especially in the
Agricultural papers.

As the science of Surgery emerged from the deep darkness of the early ages, an
eminent physician wrote, "Millions have died of medicable wounds." It might
now be written that hundreds of millions have died from nostrums prepared by men
who knew little of medicines, and still less of the human system.

Of all our insect enemies none have had so many remedies proposed for their
extermination as the Curculio. For twenty years I have been making collections of
these, and I cannot imagine anything of less value, unless it should be a similar
collection of quack remedies for consumption or rheumatism. A few of these I pro-
pose to introduce here — some to be examined seriously, and some to be laughed at.
Many of the newspapers of the large cities publish country editions, some of which
have an immense circulation. To make these more useful to farmers, a column or
two is often devoted to agricultural reading. Many of the religious papers have a
similar department. One of these latter, published in New York, has printed
annually for several years a Curculio remedy, of which the following is a copy:

" We have received requests from several persons to republish the directions for preparing and applying
this mixture. The following are the proportions. If any are unable to obtain the whale-oil soap, strong
soft soap may be used.

" THE' MIXTURE. — To one pound of whale-oil soap add four ounces of sulphur. Mix thoroughly, and
dissolve in twelve gallons of water.

" Take one half peck of quick lime, and when well slacked, add four gallons of water, and stir well
together. When settled and clear, pour off the transparent part and add to the soap and sulphur mixture.

"To this mixture, add four gallons of strong tobacco water. Apply this compound when thus incorpo-
rated with a garden syringe to your plum or other fruit trees, so as to drench all parts of the foliage. If no
rains succeed for three weeks, one application will be sufficient. If washed by rains, it should be renewed."

I find attached to the above quite a number of articles clipped from Agricultural
papers, alluding to this remedy ; and among them the following from the Country
Gentleman. It was an extract from a letter from Maryland :

THE CURCULIO. 53

"As to the Curculio, I am dead beat — but not subdued. A remedy vaunted in a New York
paper had my confidence for two years,, in each of which the frost killed my plum blossoms. In the
third the plums appeared, and so did the inevitable Curculio. Nothing loth to encounter him, I mixed my
nasty ammunition — whale oil, soap, tobacco, sulphur and lime — seized my squirt, and charged the enemy in
front, flank, and rear, windward and leeward, right, left, and perpendicularly. The consequence to the
Curculio did not seem important — perhaps he rather enjoyed the aspersion — but I got not a single plum."

In the report of the Yale Agricultural Lectures, Dr. Fitch alludes to this mix-
ture, and thinks that two of the ingredients may be useful.

To ascertain positively whether this mixture had any effect in repelling the Cur-
culio I submitted it to many tests. The Apple, Fig. 9, Plate II., was the subject of
one experiment ; but as that was punctured when the insects were in confinement it
was not conclusive. I next washed a branch of a Plum tree profusely with this mix-
ture, prepared exactly as recommended, and liberated a number of Curculios upon
it. They commenced the puncturing operations on the plums coated with the fluid
with the same avidity as upon the unwashed ones.

Next, I watched some Plum trees in the garden of a neighbor who used this
mixture most perseveringly through the season, and they were just as much punc-
tured as were the plums in neighboring gardens, where nothing was done to protect
them. To settle this point still more positively, I made a visit to the Agricultural edi-
tor of this paper, at his country place in Westchester county, New York. The mix-
ture was prepared here by the barrel, and used profusely not only on the Plum trees
but on rose bushes. The gentleman being absent at the time, while waiting his
return, I experimented with the gardener on various insects. After the mixture was
thoroughly agitated, so as to be almost thick with the ingredients, Curculios were
put into it and kept under, and then, when they would come to the surface for
breath, were forced under again and again. But still these Curculios, as soon as they
had time to rid themselves of some of the mixture, would creep away, and when
fairly dry would unfold their wings and fly off.

Several slugs from the rose bushes were treated in the same way, and although
they seemed to be more inconvenienced than the Curculios, they all survived it
The rose bushes at this time, June 24th, showed the presence of very few of these
slugs, and it might have been inferred that the mixture that had been used so
freely had killed them ; but at this time of year this pest has generally come to

J4 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

maturity as a feeding insect, and has formed its cocoon, preparatory to its transforma-
tion. The leaves on the rose-bushes in this garden were as much injured by this
slug as in other gardens where nothing had been used to prevent their ravages.
Rose slugs, like many other insects, appear with considerable regularity, and
nearly all disappear about the same time. Remedies used at the latter period will
apparently be effectual, and thus acquire a reputation to which they are not
entitled.

Soon after these little experiments were concluded, the gentleman arrived. We
made a tour of observation, during which I was able to point out the Curculio
of which Fig. 3 on this Plate is a representation, in the very act of mischief, in spite
of the mixture with which the tree had been deluged.

In a pleasant ramble through these beautiful grounds I discovered one great
source of the number of Curculios here. The roads and avenues on the lawn were
lined with shade and cherry trees interspersed. These trees were now old and large,
and the cherry trees had a fair crop of fruit. Birds were present in great numbers, but
not enough to eat so many cherries ; probably not enough to eat that portion of them
containing the embryo Curculios so often found in this fruit.

This gentleman, who has had such undoubting faith in the efficacy of this
mixture as a remedy to protect fruit from the attacks of the Curculio, has probably
had plums some seasons after using it, as many others have had after applying the
various other remedies that have been in vogue. Often when they have such crops,
had they examined their neighbors' trees where nothing had been used, they would
have seen just as many plums. I have shown why we occasionally have such seasons
of abundance. The general or partial droughts of the preceding season killing the
embryo Curculio during its transformation, is one of the contingencies in the life of
this insect, that has probably given to many of the Curculio remedies their adven-
titious reputation.

Much has been written about planting fruit trees so as to lean over water as a
way of preventing the depredations of the Curculio. On the 2jth of July, 1863, I
was one of a party to visit the vineyards of Dr. Underhill, at Croton Point, on the
Hudson River. That gentleman had solicited the appointment of a committee at a
meeting of fruit-growers, to examine his mode of cultivating grapes. The visit was
a most pleasant one. The number ot grapes, and the manner of cultivation, were

THE CURCULIO. 55

subjects of general admiration. The diseases of the vine and fruit, and some of the
insect enemies, will be spoken of hereafter.

While here, we visited the Doctor's Plum trees planted round an artificial pond.
They stand at an angle of about 45°, and so close to the edge of the bank that the
greater part of the branches are over the water, so that when the fruit comes to
maturity on these trees a boat will be necessary to gather the greater part of it.
In a very careful examination of those trees having fruit on at this time, we found it
badly punctured by the Curculio. On the plums high up on the trees, and especially
on those branches leaning furthest over the water, it was impossible to see whether the
crescent mark was there or not ; but wherever near enough to be examined, we could
see no difference between those plums hanging over the water and those over the
land. They were just as badly marked with the punctures of the Curculio as were
the plums on some trees at. the neighboring station of Croton ; just as badly stung as
in Newark and other places I have visited this year on purpose to see the extent of
the ravages of the Curculio. Gentlemen who have often seen these trees other years,
have told me that they have always had a similar experience.

Dr. Underbill, like others, has had crops of plums, and these crops have probably
been ascribed to the circumstance that they grew over water; and he believes that
the merit of the plan is attributable to the sagacity or instinct of the insect : That she
must not deposit her eggs in fruit so situated that it will fall into water. To carry out this
theory, it would be necessary for the Curculio to know that the plums in which she
deposits her eggs will fall from that tree ; that if they fall into the water, the grubs
they contain -will perish ; that if they fall on land they will be safe. The question
here arises — Has the Curculio such instincts, or such sagacity ?

In this world of wonders in which' we live, there is nothing so wonderful as the
instincts of insects. The impulses that control their actions are strangely perfect.
They are no more likely to go wrong than a machine. We do not know what
instinct is. We cannot define it. No matter how we put words together, they will
give no adequate idea of what this blind impulse is. We cannot weigh, measure,
see, or feel what is called gravity. But it is that something that keeps the universe in
order ; that something, in the ordering of the Almighty, that prevents one world from
jostling another, and creation from falling into confusion.

Who can understand how the Cicada septendecim, after passing nearly seventeen

56 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

years underground, should come to the surface in the evening of a certain day of
the month, with almost exact regularity, generation after generation, for centuries ?
How should a certain kind of wasp know, that when she builds a cell of mud for the
reception of her egg, she must put in a supply of insects for food for the young that
will be born of that egg, and that on a certain future day she must break open that
cell, and give her young a fresh supply? Who teaches the neuter bee — that .non-
descript that cannot be a parent — how to fabricate a cell for the young of another ?
Such curious instances of the instincts of insects could be multiplied till they would fill
a volume, and all would be wonderful — equally beyond our understanding, but all
consistent with their wants, and in accord with the rest of nature. Those who care-
fully observe these things will feel that they are in a world overruled by an Omnipre-
sent Guide of all things. But the Superintending Guide that teaches the little Curculio
to deposit her eggs in fruits where the future young will find food, would hardly
give her an instinct to guard her against depositing that egg where fruits never grow
except on trees planted contrary to nature.

We were told to-day that the tides were sometimes so low as partially to drain
this pond, and it was then the Curculio punctured the fruit over where the water
should be. The same special instinct that would teach her to avoid the water, should
also admonish her to avoid the danger of the tide-water mud, the one being as fatal
to the future grub as the other.

Planting fruit trees in this way will certainly diminish the number of Curculios;
but as long as millions of young apples are permitted to lie undisturbed on the
ground in the orchards in the neighborhood, to bring forth their vast armies for the
next year, it will hardly be worth while to dig such ponds and plant trees round them
in such an awkward position for the little good they would do. The embryo Cur-
culio in the fruit that falls into the water will perish undoubtedly ; but that water, or
the fear of it, will not prevent the parent using that fruit. The teachings of instinct
are so exact and unvarying that one punctured plum over water explodes the theory ;
and if the theory is correct, a tub of water under a tree must protect a column of
plums of the tub's circumference from the bottom to the top of that tree, and that
certainly would be a curiosity with some of the light-colored, full-bearing varieties.

It is not at all likely that many will plant trees in this way; but as some have

THE CURCULIO.

57

done so, I have been thus explicit on this point, to guard others against such an
expensive and awkward way of trying to outgeneral the Curculio, since reason and
observation teach us that it is of very little value.

Salt and Lime as Curculio Remedies. — In Hovey's Magazine for 1851, C. Good-
rich, of Burlington, Vt, gives the following experiments : " Flower-pots were filled
with garden soil, on which a layer of fine salt, a quarter of an inch thick, was depo-
sited. On this bed of salt were laid punctured plums containing grubs of the Curculio.
The grubs came out of the plums, and passed down through the salt into the soil, from
which perfect Curculios emerged some weeks afterwards. The same result took place
when fresh air-slacked lime was substituted for salt, and where soil alone was used.
The pots being exposed to the weather, the salt was soon washed into the soil, but
there was no difference in the appearance of all the insects."

I have often performed such experiments, using the lime and salt not only
singly, but mixed. Ashes have been tried, flour of sulphur, snuff; but none of
these seemed to interfere with the safe transformation of the grub into the perfect
Curculio. The placing of such flower-pots in buildings where the earth would
become perfectly dry, gives a serious check to this process. My experience has been
that almost every one perishes, and this circumstance should be constantly borne in
mind when we are investigating the Curculio remedies, about which the testimony
is so conflicting. There are seasons when the ground becomes so dry that almost
the entire generation of this insect will perish from this cause. The next year the
plums will be but little injured wherever the drought prevailed the year before.
Remedies used in such seasons may possibly receive the credit they are not entitled
to from many who have not the knowledge to trace an effect to its cause.

About the time that I was commencing the great battle with this insect for the
protection of my orchards of Plums and Apricots, I searched the books and agricultural
papers most carefully for Curculio remedies. Washes containing lime as the chief
ingredient were often found. In several numbers of the Horticulturist there were
communications from T. W. Ludlow, Jr., of Yonkers, on the Hudson River, N. Y.,
so circumstantial that it really seemed as if the long-look ed-for remedy had been
found. I tried it faithfully. A coating of this lime mixture, thick enough to make
a plum look as a man does when his head is being moulded for his bust, would protect
them, but nothing short of that would. Ordinary whitewash was not regarded in the

58 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

least. The next year, about the middle of June, I visited Mr. L. to ascertain how it
was that he and I should have such a different experience. His trees were white
with this lime mixture — they had been fairly deluged with it ; but the fruit was badly
punctured. Fresh marks were everywhere visible, gum was exuding from others,
and many were already on the ground containing the grubs well advanced in growth.
Mr. Ludlow acknowledged promptly that it had proved a failure that season, and
seemed very much at a loss to understand it. At that time I was not aware of the
influence of droughts, and did not inquire whether the season, when his remedy had
apparently been successful, had not been preceded by such weather.

Whether Mr. L. ever published an account of this failure I do not know ; but
he certainly should have done so, that those who had been induced to try the mixture
from his recommendation should have been undeceived. A prompt report of failures
is often of more value than the reports of success.

In the Cultivator of May, 1851, will be found the following on the subject of
Lime for the Curculio, by the Horticultural Editor, J. J. Thomas :

" Much having been said in favor of lime as a remedy for the Curculio, and as the time is approaching
for its yearly assault on young fruit, the knowledge of past experiments becomes desirable. A near neighbor
— who is a distinguished fruit raiser — tried lime in nearly all imaginable ways last year, and with the following
results : Nectarines^ Plums, and Apricots were thoroughly syringed with thin lime wash ; and as each
successive rain and heavy dew carried it off from the smooth surface of the young fruit, it was re-applied as
often as necessary. Special attention was given to the Nectarines, which for six years of blossoming had
yielded no crop ; and to be still more secure against this, the lime was applied carefully with brush to each
young Nectarine. About three days in the aggregate were spent in this way ; and the result was, that the
full number of six entire specimens of the Nectarine were saved from destruction out of the whole orchard.
But on further inquiry it appeared that these six all grew on a tree under which a young calf was kept
confined during the season of operation ; and to whose presence, chiefly, these specimens owed their escape.

" The lime was believed to have a repelling influence, and some hopes were at first entertained of its
efficacy ; but it was soon discovered that the coating was disregarded, and the eggs were thrust through it
into the green pulp. The whole trees, with their entire crop of leaves whitened with lime, did not present
a very ornamental appearance. v

" The application of lime appears to have been elsewhere in some cases quite successful. It becomes a
subject for inquiry whether any collateral influence assisted it; whether the favorable result was not owing to
something else, and was erroneously ascribed to the lime."

Friend Thomas, with such evidence before him, should have taken the respon-
sibility of pronouncing judgment in this case, and announced that lime was of no use

THE CURCULIO. £Q

Paving to prevent the Curculio. — This is one of the remedies about which so much
has been written, and some who have tried it testify so positively as to its usefulness,
that it will be proper to devote some space to its consideration.

In the horticulturist, Vol. iv., p. 62, 1849, Lewis F. Allen, of Buffalo, New
York, gives a long article about Lyman A. Spaulding's plan at Lockport, which he
considered successful. The Editor of the Horticulturist (Downing) testifies to the
plan as being excellent. •

At page 128, of the same volume, H. W. S. Cleveland, of Burlington, New
Jersey, writes to show that " Paving is not a preventive? And the Editor says it will
not answer in all cases. Probably only where the Curculio is not very abundant.

The following is from the same volume, p. 244 :

" Paving Plum Trees. — Mr. Downing : Paving about Plum trees to thwart the Curculio always
appeared to me to be the sheerest nonsense. Whether they fly or not, the value is precisely the same. It
presents no obstacle to wings, and certainly facilitates progress to legs. Why won't gentlemen who are so
fond of recommending it, try the same experiment with their Cherry trees, to keep off the birds, or build
bridges over their garden fences to prevent the inroads of unruly boys, and enrich us with the record of their
sagacity ? If the Curculio passes up the body of the tree, as is claimed to be ' conceded,' why not invest
funds to the extent of a cent per tree in tar ? A sum not so exorbitant but most plum-growers might be
tempted to risk it ; and the expedient would certainly be more embarrassing to footsteps than brick
pavement.

" The true worth of a recommendation for the preservation of fruit, in addition to being effectual, is its
capability of universal application. Paving, at $3 per tree, is as generally impracticable, and would be as
rarely adopted, as inclosing trees in glass houses. Its expensiveness and doubtful utility at least condemn it.

" There is nothing known of the nature of the Curculio opposed to the probability that, having wings,
they fly, if necessary, to perpetuate their race ; nor of the grub, that, having legs, they also have wit
enough to convey themselves, after escaping from the fallen fruit, from where they can't burrow to where
they can, though in passing over pavements they sometimes doubtless perish, like bigger worms over the
deserts of Sahara. The sagacity of the Cur^lio provides against this difficulty, where it is possible, by the
selection of localities more favorable to the prosperity of the rising generation.

"Hence, paved trees are shunned where others can be found. Let all be paved, and all would suffer.
I venture to predict that, unless Mr. Spaulding of Lockport has near neighbors, whose plum trees are not
paved, every one of his own will hereafter be attacked. By cultivating two sets — one for himself and
another for the Curculio — he has hitherto preserved his share ; but by paving the whole, I am mistaken if he
will not be the loser. Paving, on such terms, may by some be considered advisable ; but I don't apprehend

a scarcity of brick will grow out of it. — J. C. H., Syracuse, Sept. 18, 1849."

8

60 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

At page 246 of the same volume, Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati, commences
a defence of the paving plan :

" The Curcvlio. — A correspondent of yours, for a single year, tried paving to save his plums from
the Curculio, and failed ; and therefore concludes, paving is not a preventive. He is confirmed in this
opinion, because ' the insect has wings ; and presumes, as the pavement insured a crop with Mr. Allen, that
his plums belonged to the Dutch family.'

" It appears to me singular, that persons will, from a single year's experience, undertake to express an
opinion. I have for twenty-two years had about twenty plum trees surrounded by a brick pavement, and
have never failed to have a crop of fruit from them. A few of the fruits, in some varieties, are occasion-
ally stung by the Curculio. In my adjoining grounds I have as many trees of the same varieties ; and two
years out of the twenty-five, have had a fair crop of fruit. The other twenty-three years the Curculio left
not a single plum. The safety of the fruit in a pavement does not arise from no Curculio being bred in the
ground. If a person does not raise them his neighbors will give him a liberal supply. As an experiment, I
planted a small plum tree, 1000 feet from any plum tree. The first year of its bearing every plum was
stuftg by the Curculio, and for years after. The safety of a pavement arises from the instinct of the insect.
It will rarely deposit its eggs over a pavement ; as the young, when they fall from the tree, cannot secure
winter quarters in the earth. The mother feels too strong an interest in the children to subject them to
such a fate. — N. LONCWORTH, Cincinnati, Ohio, September, 1849."

In the Horticulturist, vol. vi., page 243, N. Longworth speaks again of the
paving plan — thinks the Curculio is timid, and afraid of pigs, poultry, and people.
And in the same volume, page 374, Mr. L. alludes again to his practice of paving;
repeats that the insect is a timid one, and says the proximity of his trees to the house,
where persons are constantly passing, may aid in keeping off the Curculio.

In the same volume, page 383, Wm. Quant, gardener to W. C. Langly, Esq.,
Third Avenue, Long Island, has a short article. He says he has had a long battle
with the pest, and when he sees the accounts of success, he wants to be invited " to
come and see and believe." He says also that he was at one time a gardener for Mr.
Longworth, and that the reported success of the pavement plan there was not true.

In vol. viii., page 428, the Hon. James Matthews comes out with a remedy,
but it having cost so much time, etc., etc., he wants something before it can be
made known. There are numerous allusions to the Matthews plan. The New York
State Agricultural Society appoint a committee to examine it, and the editor of
the Country Gentleman is one of the members. The people become impatient, and
call upon the committee to report ; but the Country Gcntknun replies — that the

THE CURCULIO. 6l

plan is a secret and cannot be explained — that they want more time, but recom-
mend the pigs and jarring process. I have been able to find a few more allusions
to this Matthews remedy, but have never seen the report of the Committee.
Once in the garden of a friend I noticed a peculiar kind of pavement under
his Plum trees, apparently made of small stones, or chippings from a quarry, and
cement. I was left to infer that it was a specimen of the Matthews plan — but it was
a secret.

The whole system of paving as a remedy for saving fruit has so generally gone
out of use, of course from its want of success, that it will not be worth while to say
much more about it. My near neighbor, Mr. Pierson, tried it most faithfully under
the immediate directions of Mr. Longworth himself (who often visited Newark),
but without the slightest- effect.

This, like planting over water, was supposed to be effectual, in consequence of
the instinct of the Curculio teaching her not to deposit her eggs where her young
would be in danger. We have seen that the Curculio throws herself to the ground
when disturbed. If she falls upon a pavement, and poultry are about, she is certainly
more liable to be caught. So also with the grub. It passes into the ground at once
upon leaving the young fruit — if it can ; but upon a pavement that would be diffi-
cult— it would be a longer time exposed to its enemies. The grub of the Curculio
laboriously at work on a pavement in a poultry-yard, would have a poor chance for
life.

But that the Curculio will abstain from the use of fruit because it grows over a
pavement, I do not believe. It is certainly not an established fact.

In the Cultivator of June, 1852, is the following communication relative to the
Curculio in Michigan:

" I propose to speak of the progress of the Curculio in Southern Michigan. I have been a resident
of Lenawee county for the last eighteen years. The first depredations of this insect commenced about six
years ago, the first season attacking a few only of our choicest Plums ; the succeeding year they were more
numerous, and since, continuing from year to year, puncturing every variety of Plums, and also Cherries, to
considerable extent, and in some instances Peaches, and even Apples. All reputed remedies have utterly
failed to save the fruit the last season. Previous to last year, those who were careful to jar their trees daily
lor two or three weeks, and to destroy the captured rebels, succeeded in saving a portion of their fruit.
But the last season, this practice too was an entire failure, even when persevered in for months. In some

62 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

sections of our country confining hogs in the plum orchards has been thought advantageous, and which has
been the practice of the writer with signal success until within two years — my hogs being regularly fed under
one tree, treading the ground so much as to destroy all vegetation — this tree retained its fruit until ripening,
excepting last year.

" The cultivators of this fruit are entirely discouraged. One object in this communication is to inquire,
through the Cultivator, if the Curculio has ever been known to absent itself from any district where it has
been known to be prevalent — if not, then we may as well cut down our trees at once.

" Before the appearance of this insect, finer Plums were never grown, perhaps, than in this section, fine
crops being obtained from grafting on the wild plum (Prunus Americana) in three or four years' time.

"ADRIAN, February, 1852. B. J. H."

The above is a remarkably straightforward account, and is valuable as showing
the time of the appearance and the subsequent progress of this insect in a new country.
Last year ( 1 864) there was a section of country around Buffalo, N. Y., where only
plums and peaches appeared to suffer from this insect, the apples escaping. I sup-
posed the wonderful exemption of that neighborhood was owing to a partial drought
in the season preceding; it was so like what I have seen and heard of so often before.
I would let the trees stand, even if nothing else should be done to save the plums
except to wait for favoring weather. It appears that the tree under which the hogs
were so constantly fed was the last to yield to the enemy. David Thomas's account
of his experience in jarring, as shown in the preceding chapter, will probably explain
the cause of the failure when " persevered in for months."

In the same number of the Cultivator from which the above extract is taken,
there is a short account from the Prairie Farmer, of a man who kept his hogs in his
Plum Orchard for seven years in succession, during which time he had plenty of fruit,
though none came to maturity outside of that orchard ; but on changing the hogs to
another part of the farm every plum was stung.

In the Genesee Farmer of 1848, p. 1 14, is an article from the Horticulturist, in which
it is said that " a heap of fresh manure under the trees proved a remedy, and the
Editor (A. J. Downing) gives his testimony to this plan, by stating that two Nectarine
trees, standing by a fence near his stable, bore fruit to ripen, when other trees within
a short distance shed all theirs in consequence of being stung by the Curculio." This
question of the influence of manure or other strong smells under trees, for repelling
the Curculio, has been more or less discussed from that time till now. I have tried

THE CURCUUO. 63

/

the experiment often, but with no perceptible effect. It might here be asked, does
any one know that a Curculio is conscious of a smell from a manure heap ?

C. E. G., of Utica, writes to the Cultivator, March, 1850 : — " Having read, some-
where, that fresh stable manure put round fruit trees in flower would repel the
Curculio, I put some round my Plum trees. As I had to take the manure when it
was offered for sale, I was obliged to apply it a little earlier than I desired. Soon
after a heavy rain fell, washing, of course, the soluble portion of the manure down
upon the roots of the trees. Quite a number of valuable bearing trees died outright,
and a number more were seriously injured. This was dear-bought experience." He
says further, " I doubt the feasibility of this plan of repelling the Curculio. If the
weather be dry or windy it can do very little good unless the quantity be large, and
then you endanger your tree."

In the Horticulturist, Vol. x., p. 1 89, a friend of the editor proposes to flood the
Peach Orchard once or twice a day, and drown the scamps ; and the editor wants
him to try it. In the same Vol., p. 357, Henry Croft, Vice-President of the Toronto
Horticultural Society, C. W., recommends the use of the sulphuretted waters, such
as that of Avon. These might be called the Hydropathic remedies.

In the same, p. 479, John Brush, of Brooklyn, N. Y., proposes branches of
Tansy to be placed in the crotches of the trees. He had found it successful. But
the Editor says in reply that all he had been able to save was by the use of Milliner..
As to the latter, my neighbor, Mr. Pierson, has tried 100 yards of it at one time,
enveloping the entire tree ; but the Curculios would find their way in.

In the same, p. 431, Mr. J. R. Gardner, of Sunny Side, Montgomery Co., Va.,
piles small stones round his trees — it is successful. He does it because he has seen
trees growing among stones in Pennsylvania.

In the Ohio Cultivator, 1850, vol. vi., p. 189, Z. Hampton, of Pennsville, Mor-
gan Co., O., says : " Caleb Hall, a respectable citizen of Muskingum Co., thinks
he has found a preventive for the ravages of the Curculio. Those wishing to save
their plums, I think, will do well to try, and now is the time. His method is to
melt brimstone, into which dip woollen rags cut into slips, say three or four inches
wide and five or six inches long, stick them one at a time on the end of a pole of
sufficient length, split a little at one end to receive them, set on fire about dark, and
hold them burning under and among the bearing branches a few minutes, two or

64 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

three evenings each week, for three or four weeks, by which he has saved his plums,
so as to sell over sixty dollars' worth a year." I fear Friend Hall is one who is in
the practice of killing his bees by fumigating with burning brimstone, and believes
the Curculio can be killed in the same way. So it can. If he will make a box
large enough to cover each tree, and as tight as a bee-hive, and then fill it with the
fumes of his burning matches, until brimstone will no longer burn in it for want of
oxygen, the Curculios will probably be in very much the same condition that bees
are, after such a Satanic visitation ; but the effect would be very bad upon the trees.
There was some other cause besides an occasional smell of brimstone that kept the
Curculios from Friend Hall's Plums.

The Cultivator of Sept., 1847, states, that — " Some time ago a remedy was pro-
posed in the Ohio Cultivator, on the authority of Gen. J. T. Worthington, consisting
of tubs, whitewashed inside, and containing an inch of water, placed under the trees
in the night, with a lighted candle in each." The light attracts them, and it was
averred that " hundreds had been caught in this way, in one night, in a single tul" and
that it had been practised with much success by " one or more " fruit-growers of
Chillicothe.

In a subsequent number of that paper, J. Dille, an intelligent nurseryman,
states that he has " tried this remedy without any success whatever ; that some of
these insects were under water half an hour, without any apparent inconvenience ;
and that they ascended the side of the tub as readily as a sailor would a rope." Not
many would have had the patience to try this experiment, as Mr. Dille did. We
thank him for thus promptly proving and recording its worthlessness.

If there were a person connected with the Agricultural Department of the
Government whose duty it should be to test the merits of new things, it might often
do much good. I write a great deal by lamplight on summer evenings. I have
caught hundreds and hundreds of insects that have been attracted by my light, but
I never yet have caught a Curculio in that way. .1 have been in the habit, for
years, of carrying a small vial of Curculios in my pocket Sometimes I meet a
person who talks as if he knew all about the Curculio. At the proper time my
vial comes out for information, but the insects are seldom recognised. Even Agri-
cultural editors do not always know what they are. Very likely General Worthing-
ton's friend would be equally at a loss.

THE CURCULIO. 65

On the same page of the Cultivator is the following short notice : — " A. J.
Downing recommended, in the Horticulturist, throwing up the ground late in autumn
in trenches and ridges, for the purpose of freezing them, and stated that a correspondent
had found it quite successful. The writer tried this same way last fall, but this year
they were thicker than ever. On one little tree of the Italian Damask Plum, not
seven feet high, thus treated, eighteen Curculios were found at a single shaking."
The grub of the Curculio goes into the ground several inches, and there it changes
to a beetle, and this beetle comes to the surface, showing that as a beetle it has a
power of making its way through the ground. Had Mr. Downing known positively
whether the Curculio lives above or under ground in the winter, it would have been
a beginning for an investigation of facts on which to found this treatment. If these
insects live under ground in the winter — how far, exactly ? and if brought to the
surface in the autumn, would they not creep back again ? or if they did not, would
the winter kill them ?

In the Ohio Cultivator, 1849, 'vol. v-> Page 42> George W. Dunn, of Chillicothe,
writes :

" This is frequently called an age of improvements. It may be also called the age of oddities, one of
which I will send you for the public benefit. I am acquainted with a Highland County farmer of the name
of Martin, who is well known in the neighborhood for growing fine plums. A few weeks ago his son was at
my house, and I asked him how they could raise such fine plums when no one else could. He replied, that
as soon as the fruit was formed, they took a pocket-knife and made a slit through the bark, through the main
stem and larger limbs of the tree, and this, he said, was all."

Now, strange as it appears, this was actually published in a respectable Agricul-
tural paper, and the man who wrote it said he intended to try it himself. That was
in Ohio, in 1849. Here is something from a Norristown, Penn., paper, in 1863:

" How to Prevent the Curculio from Destroying Plums. — A perfectly reliable man who lives in this
vicinity, was telling me, a few days since, how he managed to raise Plums. He says, just as the trees are
coming into full bloom, he takes a ragged stone and bruises the bark in the crotches of the trees j he leaves
the stone there. That, he says, arrests the gum which will exude from the wounded place, and prevents its
going to fruit, thus cutting off" what he supposes to be the food for the larvae. He says he has tried it for
many years, and never fails when the trees blossom, except when he neglects to bruise. My informer says,
do not be afraid of hurting plum-trees by bruising them ; he says the more they are bruised the more they

66 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

will bear. Now, my friends, try some of your old lazy plum-trees ; give them a regular trouncing, and
report results."

We all know what Captain Cuttle said of his friend Jack Bunsby's judgments,
'* wisdom as is wisdom." Even so we may characterize a communication from A. C.
Hubbard, in a late number of the Michigan Farmer, telling of some one who had been
told by an " old Frenchman," that he must hang elder-bushes in his trees. He did it,
and had plenty of plums. So Herman Dousterswivel, by means of " suffumigations,"
found a casket of gold and silver coins in Misticot's grave. To faith like this, the witch-
hazel tells where to dig for water, and a horse-shoe nailed over the door insures good luck.

Those readers who have had the patience to follow me through the last few
pages, may suppose that such articles can only be found in obscure newspapers.
Read the following :

" To Prevent Fruit from being Wormy. — I have a communication to make in reference to the worm
nuisance. You will, I think, receive the thanks of two cities by publishing the following :

" With a large gimblet or auger bore into the body of the tree, just below where the limbs start, in
three places, a groove inclining downwards. With a small funnel pour a shilling's worth of quicksilver into
each groove. Peg it up closely, and watch the result. Had it been done when the sap first started on its
upward circuit it would have been more efficacious — yet, even now, it will greatly abate the nuisance.

"The plan was first tried for a wormy apple-tree by Samuel Jones, Esq., of Canaan, Columbia county,
New York, and with entire success. It is believed that, far from damaging the trees, it will even add to the
beauty of the foliage. In the case of the fruit above mentioned the cure was surprising, not only the fruit
becoming perfect and beautiful, but the very leaf seemed to be larger and far more dark and glossy.

" Any one desiring further particulars (though no other is needed for doctoring our city trees), is
referred to an eye-witness, the daughter of the above named gentleman, at 225 Union street, Brooklyn.

" BROOKLYN, May j. A CONSTANT READER."

When such nonsense can find its way into a paper like the New Tork Evening
Post, it may be asked — What are the people to do ?

Crude quicksilver is as harmless as water until it undergoes some chemical
change, and this it cannot experience when plugged up in wood. But suppose
it should change into corrosive sublimate, and so much of it get into the circulation
of that tree as to poison it, how is it to interfere with the insects ? They know
enough not to eat poisonous food, and will not remain on a dying tree.

Every year many accounts go the rounds of the papers, that some one has saved

THE CURCULIO. j

his Plums by plugging sulphur in his trees. Others are equally successful by simply
driving in nails. Here, too, faith is necessary — without it, they are certainly useless.
Some cover the bodies of their trees with tar, that the Curculio may be stuck fast
when travelling up and down. I have tried this, and a few have been caught, but
tar soon becomes so glazed that they can travel over it without danger, and to be of
any use it must be constantly repeated. Tar applied directly to the bark of a tree,
even if only a narrow belt, will often injure, if not kill it. Cotton, or cotton bats, are
sometimes bound round the trunks or larger branches of fruit trees, so as to make it
hard travelling for these little insects. Some make little troughs of tin, and fill them
with oil, and fit them to the trees, and all the Curculios that are so incautious as to
fall into this oil will be killed. Insects have a breathing apparatus — air is as necessary
to them as to us — it is the breath of life ; the openings to their lungs are numerous
and are on their sides — oil closes them instantly, and then they die. Had the Cur-
culio no wings these last remedies would seem to be effectual in theory.

Plums are brought to the New York market in large quantities almost every
year ; some seasons in great abundance. The usual varieties are the Damsons, Horse
Plums, Frost Gages, and other more common sorts. They are often packed in bar-
rels, and although roughly handled they are generally but little bruised, being too hard
for that. The plums alluded to in these pages would be as different from these as
"Stump the World" peaches are from green persimmons. I am often asked
where all these plums come from, and is there no Curculio there ? They are
shipped from Catskill and other places on both sides of the Hudson River, and are
said to come from the mountains twenty and thirty miles back. There are neighbor-
hoods in Albany, Schenectady, and Washington counties, N. Y., where it is rumored
that plums always escape the Curculio. I have often visited places with such repu-
tations, in the hope of finding the promised land, but have always seen more or less
evidence of the presence of the Curculio. Still there is a difference in different
localities, as to the extent of the injury done by these insects.

In the City of Hudson, N. Y., I have seen trees bearing fair crops of plums
every year, even of the better and more delicate kinds. One old cultivator told me
that the Curculio was rather useful than otherwise. It was there certainly, and took
a portion of the crop ; but always left enough, and those which remained were the

68 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

larger for the thinning out. The soil here, as in many other places along the Hud-
son River, is the stiffest and most tenacious clay. Bricks are made there. Cisterns
have been dug in this city that required no walls, the cement being applied directly
to the clay itself. In this kind of ground the grub of the Curculio is unable to work
fur down, and such soils suffer more from droughts than any others. The Curculio,
in passing through its transformation, will consequently more frequently perish in this

4»

than in other soils. In this way the comparative exemption of neighborhoods may be
accounted for. We may often see the Damsons, Little Gages, Petite Mirabelle, and
other varieties of the very small kinds of plums, that bear such prodigious crops,
bring as large a portion to maturity as Cherry trees do, after losing much of the fruit
from the Curculio ; and persons not accustomed to investigate these matters, would
be likely to come to the conclusion that these varieties were either entirely exempt,
or that there was no Curculio there. If I intended to make a business of cultivating
plums, I certainly would choose a clay soil, and the stiffer the better ; and I should
prefer that all my neighbors for many miles should also live on just such a soil, unless
they would all unite with me in forming a Fruit-growers' society, that would tho-
roughly exterminate the insect pests that interfere with the success of this business.

In the Gcnesee Farmer, 1851, p. 96, we read that Mr. Harvey Green, of Jefferson
Valley, Westchester Co., N. Y., " says he repels the Curculio by tying up straw in
bundles as large as his arm, takes a long handle, sets the straw on fire, and passes
quickly round the tree. They fly into the blaze and perish. Mr. Green says he
gives it for what it is worth." This might have been worth something if Mr. Harvey
Green had proved that he knew a Curculio when he saw it, and that he was sure that
the insects that flew into the blaze and perished were genuine Curculios. My expe-
rience has been, that a disturbed Curculio does not often attempt to fly away, but
falls to the ground.

W. N. Read, of Port Dalhousie, Canada West, writes in the Gcnesct Farmer,
1853, p. 125: "It would have done you good had you seen my Jeffersons, Wash-
ingtons, Hulings' Superbs, Green Gages, Columbias, Golden Drops, Apricots, and
Nectarines, last year, all bending under a tremendous load of the finest fruits ever
beheld in the neighborhood of Port Dalhousie, saved as follows : Placed two or
three well-made wind-mills in the head of each tree, with a clapper attached to each,
which struck upon a piece of sheet iron, and when the wind blew kept up a terrible

THE CURCULIO. 60

jingling noise ; one and a half yards of flag tied up so as to float nicely in the air as
close to the tree as possible without touching it; and, lastly, when dinner was over
each day, I would catch up a sheet made for the purpose, and say, ' Come, boys, hold
the sheet,' and I would jar the trees, and kill all that fell upon it. Operations to
commence as soon as the blossoms have fallen, and continued until the stone became
hard in the fruit, after which the Curculio cannot make it drop, though some half or
one-sided fruit will appear by his work, but will be small and hardly be missed." As
wind-mills are at rest except when the wind blows, and as the Curculio does the chief
part of her mischief in the stillest weather, I think wind-mills, even with clappers,
cannot be relied on. And as to the flags, I do not believe that the little Turk cares
one straw for all the flags that fly in all the British dominions. It was the " Come,
boys," that saved the JefFersons at Port Dalhousie.

In the Genesce Farmer of 1845, p. 91, is the following short article taken from the
" Maine Cultivator."

" The Curculio, or Green Moth, which commences its ravages on the Plum about the first week in
June, by depositing its eggs in the fruit while it is yet in its infant state, can be easily exterminated by
preparing a mixture in the proportion of a bushel of wood-ashes to a quart of soot and half a pound of
sulphur, applied in the morning while the dew is on the fruit, in a sufficient quantity to coat the tree." And
the Editor says, " The remedy presented is an easy one, and if effectual will be of great value. The
Curculio has long and justly been considered one of the 'most troublesome depredators upon the fruit orchard,
and its destruction is a consummation devoutly to be wished."

The above is replied to in the same volume, p. 103.

" The Curculio. — MR. EDITOR : In your last number I saw an article copied from the Maine Cultiva-
tor, professing to give a ' remedy against the Curculio,' and names the destructive as a 'green moth.' (! !)

" It is not a matter of wonder that every person does not know what a Curculio is ; but it is a matter
of wonder that constant readers of agricultural papers, most of which have again and again described and
treated of this insect, and given engravings showing size, shape, &e., should not yet have 'made his acquaint-
ance,' or at least have known whether he was a worm or bug. It is not a moth, or other worm, that does
the mischief, as I have many times watched the Curculio and seen him perform the process, and this he does
with the skill of a professor of surgery — first cutting a segment of a circle, and then depositing the egg,
after which the juice exuding from the wound forms a 'sticking plaster.' I am very sceptical as to the
exterminating properties of the remedy he gives (ashes, soot, and sulphur sprinkled on the tree), it cannot
reach the egg ; and as for the Curculio, he inhabits a sort of coat of mail, hard and resisting, and seems to
care little for what surrounds him, plums excfpted.

JO INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

" The remedy which mil prove effectual, if the gardener does his duty, is to anticipate him, and never
let him exist ; which is done if all the punctured plums that fall to the ground are burned, or given to the
hogs.

" Now, sir, one word in relation to copying the article into the Farmer. I shall believe it was done
without your supervision, as its erroneous description of the Curculw must at once have satisfied you that
the writer knew nothing of the insect of which he wrote. " Yours obediently,

" Rome, June 5. J. H."

J. H. very properly reproves the editors of both these agricultural papers for
publishing an article written by one, calling the Curculio a " green moth." Could
all the foolish recommendations that find their way into the papers be as promptly
met and as properly answered as this was by J. H., they would not do much
harm.

This long account of Curculio remedies might be much extended. Many others
have been proposed,- but, like the above, have been found wanting when fairly
tried.

About ten or fifteen years ago there was great activity in the search for a Cur-
culio remedy, chiefly with the idea of finding something available in connexion with
the supposed instincts of the insect. We had the paving, planting over water,
powerful smells, and heaps of manure ; but all these, as well as the various mixtures
for coating the young fruit, are now abandoned. The agricultural papers seldom
speak of any of them, and few new ones are proposed. The destruction of the
grub in the young fruit and the jarring process for killing the beetle during the sea-
son of mischief are all that have survived ; and so little is now said of these, that
most people have settled down into the belief that Nectarines, Apricots, and even
Plums are to be given up. They say if these fruits could be had without trouble
they would be very nice ; but they can do without them. There are people who, if
they find it troublesome to raise wheat, will live on rye or corn bread. But now,
since the signs of the times indicate so plainly that even Apples must soon be given
up also, unless we make fight against the insect enemies, perhaps the public will be
aroused to a sense of danger.

I hope all who have followed me through this chapter on remedies, will reso-
lutely determine that the question as to their usefulness is no longer an open one ;
that they at least are not to be depended upon ; that the fight hereafter is to be

THE CURCULIO.

71

directed to the killing of this insect, either as grub or beetle ; that everything short
of that may as well be given up first as last.

Here I would like to comment at some length upon many valuable articles
which I have met with in the journals on the Curculio, but this chapter is already
very much extended. Some remarks on the early history of the Curculio, by David
Thomas, appeared in the August number of the Cultivator, of 1850. In this will be
found a notice of a correspondence between Peter Collinson, of London, and John
Bartram, of Philadelphia, about this insect, so long ago as 1736-7. D. Thomas also
speaks of the early contributions of W. Bartram, Dr. Tilton, and the late Judge
Darling, of Connecticut. The Horticulturist, especially while under the management
of Mr. Barry and Mr. Mead, contained many valuable articles on this strange and
important insect — one by the late Dr. Harris is full of interest ; but really the very
best, to my fancy, is from William Hopkins, of Pomona, Brunswick, Renssellaer
county, New York.

EXTRACTS FROM A DIARY KEPT IN 1864.

As soon as I had determined upon the preparation of this book, I commenced a
systematic investigation of the time of appearance, the habits, and the depredations of
the various insects that would be likely to come under review, and have taken down,
almost every evening, notes of what I observed during the day. During the season
of 1864 this diary makes many volumes. That portion relating to each insect spoken
of in this work will be introduced under its appropriate head. The part relative to
the Curculio comes in here, and it will constitute a narrative of the important events
of its career.

May 12. — Visited Trenton to-day. The Quince trees in blossom. The seasons
are usually a week earlier here than at Newark, though there is not a difference of
half a degree in latitude. Mr. Voorhees, President of the Agricultural Society, told
me that they had already caught many Curculios by jarring the trees over a sheet.

May 13 — Caught three Curculios this evening by jarring a Green Gage tree.
The Plums are now just forming ; indeed many of the blossoms are not yet off the
tree. Apricots are as large as the end of the little finger.

In a record kept for ten years in succession, near the Hudson River, latitude 42°,
the time of the blossoming of the Apricot varied as much as three weeks — from the
l ith of April to the 3d of May, but the young fruit attained the size at which the
Curculio chooses to use it, on the i8th of May — not varying more than two days in
all that time.

Many writers say that the war upon the Curculio must begin when the trees are
in blossom. Had this advice been followed from the l ith of April to the i8th of
May, on an Apricot orchard, it would have proved an almost total waste of time ;
probably few would have been found, as they do not concentrate till the fruit is of the
proper size.

May 14. — The Curculios caught last evening are now exceedingly active. They
appear to be of both sexes, and are as restless and full of life as birds are in the early
days of summer. They had been placed in a wooden pill-box ; and in holding it to

THE CURCULIO. 73

the ear they can be heard moving about, both day and night. This evening I have
been subjecting them to an examination under the microscope. The eye appears to
have 147 lenses, and one of the females was found to contain twenty-five eggs. The
head, twenty minutes after being separated from the body, was still in motion. The
nippers at the end of the proboscis could be seen moving as if biting. A living insect
being placed so as to show the under side of the body, gave a complete view of the
ball and socket articulation of the head and legs, very perfect illustrations of that kind
of joint. This accounts for the curved form of the mark made in the fruit. The
body of the Curculio remains immovable while the incision is being cut, and, of
course, it must conform in shape and size to the turning of the head on this ball and
socket axis.

Portions of beetles are often used as settings for the microscope. The Diamond
Beetle is very brilliant, but far less so than the Curculio. There are probably no
combinations of colors so gorgeous as those exhibited in the wing-covers of a living
Curculio under the microscope, where the rays of strong lights are concentrated by
properly arranged reflectors. All the parts of this little beetle — eyes, limbs, and wing
covers — develop bright metallic tints, while the minute hairs found on all parts of the
Curculio appear as pearls. I have often wished that these vivid colors could be
transferred to canvas ; and my friend Hochstein has several times made the attempt,
but he has now abandoned the undertaking as beyond his power.

One would think, in contemplating a Curculio, that it was as unpromising a
subject to develop beauty as would be the head of a Toad to bring forth jewels; but
" sweet are the uses of adversity," as Shakspeare says, in alluding to the contrast
between good and evil, as exemplified in the Toad. In his days it was believed
that there was a stone in the head of the Toad endued with singular virtues, and this
was a compensation for the venomous effects of its touch. I am a firm believer in
the doctrine of compensations, but the tongue is the Toad's jewel. All gardeners
know the trouble we have with some insects, and few are more provoking than the
striped bug on the young Melon vines. Place one of your pet Toads (and all gar-
deners should have such pets) among these vines, and watch him. See how like a
streak of lightning that tongue flashes out, and how the Melon Bug flashes in.
If you are a collector of insects, and want those that are active at night when
you are asleep, take from the Toad early in the morning the supply he has gathered
to ruminate upon during the day. Many of them will be as perfect as if you had
caught them with your own gauze net. And what a variety ! Yes, the Toad is
ugly and venomous — to insects, but has a jewel in his head for us.

The Toad is a funny creature, and if you look at him as a philosopher should,

74 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

without being angry, because he sometimes eats strawberries, you may find a great
deal of amusement in him. I have seen animals go backwards into their burrows,
but except the Toad, I have never seen any make their burrows backwards. Find
one a little belated in the early morning — confront him, and watch sharply as if you
suspected lie had been eating strawberries or lady-bugs, and his eyes will begin to
wink and blink ; soon his head will be averted, as if he were ashamed, but all this
time he will be settling away, going down as a canal boat doeg -in a lock ; his hind
feet have been throwing out the earth from under him, reminding you of the descrip-
tion of the first steamboat — " a grist-mill afloat, with the water getting out from
under."

Toads are fond of strawberry beds. The partial burrow beneath and the broud
leaves of the Hoveys above ; the hosts of insects and the ripening fruit around
make such a residence comfortable. I know a little girl who is a great lover of fruit.
She watches the strawberries. Some very large ones are taken in the hand in the
evening — turned all round and carefully examined — but not being quite ripe are
allowed to remain. In the morning they are gone. She asks me why? I say it is
hard to know what has been in the garden in the night. Near by is a mutilated
strawberry ; the mark of a bite is plainly to be seen, and close by, under a broad leaf,
I observe something like the eye of a Toad — a crescent-shaped streak of white just
disappearing. Could that concave wound in the strawberry be brought into juxta-
position with the convex mouth of that Toad, there would probably be found a
remarkable adaptation between the two ; but nothing is said about it. This little
girl is old enough to appreciate strawberries, but not old enough to appreciate Toads.

When I was young I was told that if I killed the Toads the cows would give
bloody milk. Children in the country are fond of milk, and the fear of such a
catastrophe saved the Toads.

The Toad, like the Snake, sheds his skin once a year, but the manner of doing
it is very different. The snake contrives to start his akin near the head, and then by
drawing himself through some tight place strips it off — skins himself — the cast-off
garment being left for collectors of curiosities. The Toad works at his with his
mouth, first taking off the coat, then the pants, and eats them both.

It may be asked, what has all this to do with the Curculio ? Although I
have often found different species of this beetle in the stomach of the Toad, the fore-
going notes are more appropriate here, in connexion with the doctrine of compensa-
tion— the mixture of goc^d and evil in this life.

May 16. — Tried my Plum trees this afternoon for Curculios, but found none.
These trees are in a city garden, and have now been jarred several times. Were the

THE CURCULIO. J$

young plums large enough for the puncture of the Curculio, the jarring would not so
often prove unproductive ; until the fruit is to a certain extent developed, they are
almost as likely to be found on one tree as another. To-day, in examining the blistered
leaves on some Peach trees in a neighbor's garden, I found a Curculio on the upper
side of one of these blisters.

May 17. — Tried again this evening for the Curculio, but found none.

May 18. — Have seen both Pears and Cherries with the Curculio mark to-day.
Found knots on young Cherry trees this afternoon, and caught a Curculio on one of
them. Gave it a thorough examination under the microscope. If I had had the
slightest doubt of its identity with the Curculio that is bred in the Plum and other
fruits, it would now have been removed. The microscope settles all such uncertain-
ties. By a careful examination of this knot, a crescent-shaped mark was found, with
an egg in it. This egg, together with one from a punctured Apricot, was placed
under the microscope, and their identity was conclusively proved. The Curculio
taken from the Cherry knot was now dissected, and only two eggs were found.

May 20. — I have had quite a search for Curculios to-day, but found none upon
the fruits, although a few of the earlier kinds of Pears, Plums, and Cherries are
marked. Caught ten on the knots of Plum and Cherry trees ; four of them on a
single knot on a Cherry twig.

May 21. — The Curculios caught yesterday on the Cherry knots were taken to
Mr. Hochstein to-day, that he might have an opportunity of catching the positions
they assume when cutting the crescent, depositing the egg, and then securing it in
the place so carefully prepared for it. Two Apricots were given them, and in less
than a minute they were all on those Apricots, and the females were making the
crescent-shaped marks instantly — two on one, three on the other. The males
attached themselves to the stems, where they seemed to be feeding. Some of their
attitudes were very amusing. Could the Elephant be photographed down to the size
of one of these male Curculios, as it was attached to the stem of an Apricot, it would
be very like a Curculio.

The time consumed by the female in cutting the crescent in fruit so young as it
is now, is very short, not more than two minutes ; but the making of the cavity in
which the egg is to be stowed away, is a much more tedious operation. I waited
half an hour, and none of them had finished. Many times for years past, when not

10

76 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

so hurried as now, I have patiently watched the whole process. It is one of the
exemplifications of insect instinct. The Curculio works and works at this little
cave leading from the middle of the concave side of the cut in the skin of the fruit,
until it attains the proper size for the easy passage of her thin-skinned and delicate
egg; and at the further end of that cave or passage-way she will carefully prepare the
chamber for its resting-place, larger than the passage-way, and with the adjacent pulp
of the fruit so deadened that the egg will not be dangerously pressed by subsequent
growth. This done, she withdraws the proboscis, or operating instrument, turns
round, and drops an egg at the mouth of the cave ; then turns again, and carefully
pushes it to its destined place, using her proboscis for the purpose, and assuming the
same position as when making the opening. If those who have seen the common
woodcock boring in the soft ground for food, will carefully watch this operation of the
little Curculio, they will be struck with the similarity of the positions of the two.
But all is not yet finished. This crescent-shaped cut in the skin of the fruit is now
carefully plastered up with a gummy deposit, of which she seems always to have the
requisite supply ; probably a necessary protection to prevent the separating of the
•wound, and the consequent exposure of the egg. It is an instinctive operation, and
of course necessary and invariable.

Any one who is curious to watch all these stages of the operation to advantage,
can do so by placing some Curculios in a large clean vial with some young fruit —
Plum, Apple, Pear, Cherry, Apricot, Peach, or Quince — the Japan Quince, or even
some of the wild berries. But I have found the following a more satisfactory way of
seeing this curious procedure than viewing it through glass. Thrust the point of a
knife into a young fruit, then present it to some Curculios that have been kept some

/

hours without having a chance to deposit eggs, and they will take to it at once, giving
you no trouble by trying to get away till the entire operation is completed. If your
knife has a blade at each end, the point of the other blade can be pushed into some
soft wood ; and thus, with the Curculio at the top of the fruit on the upper blade,
there will be a good chance of seeing all round.

I now jar my plum trees every day, but so far have found no Curculios, except
three a week ago.

May 23, 1863. (A year ago.) — First marks on Plums and Pears. Caught
three Curculios on one Green Gage tree to-day.

May 23, 1864. — Have tried three Plum trees to-day but could find no Curculios,
though some Plums show marks. I now live in a city and have but a small garden.

THE CURCULIO. 77

(

For twelve years I had large orchards, both of Plum and Apricot trees. During all
that time, except the first two years, when I was trying the various nostrums and
quack Curculio remedies, I faithfully pursued the tv/o plans recommended in this
work— destroying the young fruits as they fell, so as to diminish the number of the
enemy for the next year — and when the Curculio made its appearance on the young
fruit, to jar — -jar — jar — every day, or three times a day if necessary, till the battle was
fought out and the victory won on my side. Every year of that ten years, every crop
on every tree in those orchards of Plums, Apricots, and Nectarines, came to perfection.
If the crop started thin I kept them all ; if too abundant I let the Curculio take as
much as was required for a proper thinning out, but no more.

Found several Curculios to-day on the same knots of Cherry trees and tried them
with an apple of last year, but they knew it not. When portions of it were cut off
and given to them, they tasted moderately.

May 25. — Found one Curculio on Green Gage tree, and two on the same Cherry
knot. Killed an Oriole (Baltimore) — a male of one year ; it did not have the bril-
liant colors of the fully matured bird. I had followed it from tree to tree for a long
time, listening to its peculiar notes, and watching its habit of feeding. In a very
careful examination of the contents of the stomach, what appeared to be the wing-
cases of a Curculio were discovered ; and on further scrutiny I found the head with
the proboscis attached. This was exciting. Here was some evidence that one bird
at least was feeding upon our most formidable insect enemy ; but as the Curculio is
one of a large family of the Coleoptera, and many of the different species bear a striking
resemblance to each other, both in form and size, it was necessary to pursue the
investigation still further. On placing the wing cases under the microscope, the
peculiar protuberances — the brilliant metallic colors — the hairs resembling pearls, when
a strong light is directed upon them, that I had so often seen, were all visible. The
mutilated head was now tested. There was the proboscis with its cutting apparatus,
and the 147 lenses in the eye. I have examined the eyes of many others of this
family, but not one of them has the same number of lenses. The larger species
figured in PI. 5, Fig. 10, lias more than double this number.

All this evidence taken together was ample to settle this question for ever. The
Baltimore eats the Curculio ! Let the death of this martyred bird secure the protec-
tion of its race for all future time. The remains of three other beetles and three
leaf-curling caterpillars were also found in the stomach of this Oriole.

May 27. — There was rain all night, but it was over in the morning ; cleared off

78 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIf.

during the day; just such weather as makes all insect life active. The great business
with all insects in the last or mature stage of life is to arrange for the generation that
is to succeed them. Cold and wet suspend these labors, but when the clear hot
weather comes they seem to be conscious of the necessity of making up for lost
time. All who have determined to protect their fruits from the Curculio must be
active now.

May 28. — Caught a few Curculios to-day, llpon a close examination found
the Plum crop very thin; much of the fruit stung. This must have been done
between showers or one of the wet days, as the jarring has been faithfully continued,
though it is certain that jarring will not invariably bring them all down, particularly
on large trees. I have found them on the leaves, apparently with all their claws
sticking in, as the shell of the seventeen-year locust does, as the beetle of the apple-
tree borer does, after hard knocking ; but when they are at work on the fruit, or
moving about, as on warm days, the jarring seldom fails to bring them down — jarr-
ing, not shaking. There is a decided difference in the signification of these two
words, in the Curculio business.

The wind shakes the tree, and these insects do not mind it ; a bird alighting on a
twig jars it, and the Curculio's instinct quickly tells it that the attraction of gravi-
tation is its best resource from the appetite of that bird, and it falls to the ground.
This any one can ascertain who has young trees just bearing. By looking carefully
over the tree where the fruit shows signs of the presence of the Turk, he can easily
see the Curculio at work. That tree or the branch can be bent over without disturb-
ing it; but let it go, so that it springs back with a jerk, and off will come the Curcu-
lio. I often bend a twig so as to place fruit where I suspect one to be at work over
my inverted hat, and then give it a gentle tap, and the Curculio will be in that hat
instantly. A large newspaper laid down on one side, and then the tree bent over it,
and tapped, answers well in the absence of the canvas. I have caught hundreds
upon the New York Evening Post.

My Plums, I find, are half stung, many of them thrice, and some have three
marks. I have spent hours to-day in taking out the eggs from the young fruit on
three trees. Had the crop been a full one, I could have spared to advantage all that
are now stung; but the rain that rotted the embryo Cherries within the calyx, rotted
also most of the Plums, and there are none to spare for the Curculio this year.
" What would Mrs. Grundy say " if the author of a book on the Curculio should
have no plums !

My experience of this year in saving the fruit by the jarring process has not

THE CURCULIO. 79

been so favorable as it was when the trees were smaller. There is a want of elas-
ticity in old trees, that makes it more difficult to give the requisite jar ; probably this
accounts for the partial failure this year. My practice at first was the same as usual ;
but as soon as I saw so many of the Plums marked I came to the conclusion that
merely striking large old trees with a mallet or axe was not enough, and now I use
the mop-stick, as seen in PL 7, Fig. 5.

Caught two Curculios to-day on the same Cherry knots ; also saw two Ichneumon
Flies on the same knots.

X

May 29. — Still get two or three Curculios from the Plum trees. Try them three
times a day. I had three Curculios in a small wooden pill-box. I filled the box with
a saturated infusion of tobacco, and it was so tight as scarcely to leak. I have but
little sympathy for Curculios. It is cruel to shut them in a pill-box at this busy
season of the year ; but to fill that box with such an infusion is a refinement of torture
that should relieve my character of that lackadaisical reputation I have acquired with
some, of being a universal friend to insects. Just at this time I was called to tea.
When I returned the pill-box had exploded, and the Curculios had travelled off to
parts unknown. To morrow I expect to find them when I jar the Green Gage tree.
This was the strongest possible solution of the nastiest kind of tobacco. The
experiment was tried over and over again. An infusion of tobacco will not kill the
Curculio ! It will be hard to make some people believe this ; still it is so.

May 31.— Get about two Curculios a day from our three Plum trees.

June i. — Bright, hot day. Thermometer at noon 87° in the shade, 107° in the
sun. Two Curculios to-day. Have now quite a number. Dissected seven of them,
five females and two males. The latter presented nothing worthy of remark ; three
of the females contained one egg each, although one of them was found coupled with
a male ; another three, and the remaining one nine. Twenty-five eggs are the largest
number I have yet found. The assertion of some writers, that they deposit several eggs
a day for weeks, is one of that kind of mistakes so liable to occur when people guess
at things ; and guessing at conclusions in the insect world is particularly hazardous.

Visited the old orchard to-day. As the orchard here spoken of is one I shall
often have to allude to in the progress of this work, I will here describe it. It contains
about thirty acres of land, and is now owned by a company of speculators waiting for
a rise in real estate. It is about a mile from the central part of the city, and not yet
wanted for building lots. There are about 300 Apple trees still standing, the remains

8O INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

of one of the large orchards that formerly made Newark so famous for its cider. As
an orchard it is now very irregular ; the trees are old, and many are dead. These trees
were planted forty-five feet apart, and many are very large — measuring from six to
seven feet in circumference.

This orchard is now used year after year as a cow-pasture ; the fences being kept
up for the income derived from the board of these cows, otherwise it would soon be
a common. It borders the salt marshes, being separated from them only by a belt of
swampy woods. Here great numbers of birds are found early in the season, but the
idle boys of the city hunt them and rob their nests, so that they become scarce by
midsummer. It was here that I shot most of the birds which I have examined,
preferring to kill for scientific purposes those that were so liable to be destroyed in
mere wantonness.

This has been a favorite resort for many reasons. Here I have been watching
the myriads of plant lice and their effects upon the leaves and young fruit. Here I
could see how closely the cows pick up the falling apples. These great Apple trees,
of course, show none of the effects of the Borer, so often witnessed in younger orchards.
Here I can idle away hour after hour in watching the lower orders of animated nature ;
and here I can shoot birds without being fined five dollars apiece. It is, in fact, a kind
of Sherwood Forest for many of the younger outlaws of Newark.

Stopped to-day at the Cherry knots, but found no Curculios. The first time I
have not I now always see Ichneumon Flies more or less about these knots ; they
are quite small, but all of the same species. Their ovipositors are remarkably long.
Find one or two Curculios a day. The Plums first stung are beginning to fall ;
they are so young and tender, that if placed in the hot sun they soon wilt, and the
grubs die.

The Plums, where the eggs were dug out, are doing well, and will survive. Shall
have a crop yet. The curled leaves of the Apple trees have generally fallen off, and
the aphides that caused them have nearly disappeared ; the foliage is now coming
out vigorously, and is of a fine color, but the crop of Apples will be thin. Yester-
day I noticed on some trees that nearly all had been stung by the Curculio. If this
should be general, as I suppose it will, apples will have to come from somewhere
else. Some Peach trees are well filled, but where the leaves curled badly most have
fallen off, and the Curculio is at work at the remainder. Mr. P. has a fine crop of
Plums; the German Prune, as usual, thin, but the black knot does not trouble it
much, and the Curculio is less destructive. The Green Gage, Bolmar, and other
American sorts are suffering badly, but a number of large trees of common kinds are
quite full yet.

THE CURCULIO. 8l

June 6. — The Green Gages, Bolmars, and some other plums are now falling,
from the Curculio punctures. Those who have waited till June before attacking the
Curculio, will be too late this year. Had a long conversation to-day with my neigh-
bor Pierson about his Curculio experience. He told me that at one time he
bought 100 yards of musquito netting, and covered his young Plum trees with it;
he bound cotton saturated with sweet oil round the trees, but neither did any good.
Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati, visited him, and saw his plums falling, and told him
to pave under the trees. This he did, using cement to make it more complete, but
after a trial of ten years he took the pavement all up as useless. Then some Yankee
told him to shake the trees, and this was done every morning for a long time ; but to
use his own expression, " I got some plums nevare." Lately he has been changing
most of his trees into the Quetsche or German Prune, in the belief that this variety of
Plum is less liable to both the Curculio and black knot, which to some extent is
true. If there were as many Green Gages or Egg Plums as the Curculios wanted,
the Prunes would escape, just as Peaches would escape their attacks if they could
find plenty of Nectarines.

June g. — To-day Mr. Pierson told me more about his experiments upon the
Curculio. Many of the trees still bear, the mark of the tar with which they had been
surrounded. He said that this tar injured many of them, having a binding or girdling
effect, and doing no good. He said he also tried a mixture of potash, molasses, etc.,
" and everything."

Mr. P.'s experiments were made years ago, when he was a more ambitious
and enthusiastic fruit-grower than now. I have never known a more ardent ama-
teur than he was for the first ten years of his labors. His grounds were visited
and admired by all who took an interest in such pursuits. His Pears and Grapes failed
from necessity — the trees and vines had been brought from Europe. All other culti-
vators who have tried that experiment have shared a similar fate ; but the Curculio was
the cause, and the only cause, of the failure of his Plum crops, and he seemed to feel
that it would be a disgrace to be overcome in a contest with" a little insect. This
was a vastly different affair from fighting the uncongenial climate of a Continent.
Then, too, the books told him precisely what to do, and with equal precision he
followed their direction ; supposing, of course, like most other people, that what is
printed must be true. After a faithful trial, all failed to secure the desired result.
Had Mr. P. taken the time to carefully investigate the nature and habits of the Cur-
culio, or had he been able to find a treatise on the subject as elaborate as its import-
ance demands, his good sense would have enabled him to see that all these nostrums

82 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

must be useless, and he would have been saved the labor, the loss of time, and the
final disgust. Speak to him now of the Curculio, and he shrugs his shoulders, but
tells not what he thinks. French gentlemen will not say anything uncivil ; therefore
he will not say anything to one who believes the Curculio can be conquered.

\f I can change all this ; if I can only succeed in convincing all fruit-growers that
there is no nostrum of the least value ; that not one of the mixtures, washes, smokes,
or smells now known will do any good, I shall have cleared the way for laying a
foundation on which to build a rational system of management.

June 11. — In a visit to the old orchard to-day, it was apparent that the crop of
apples was thin. The blossoms were profuse, and there had been no frost or other
atmospheric cause to interfere. But the first crop of leaves had been so injured by
the visitation of plant lice that most of them fell off. The ground for a few days was
thickly strewn with these speckled and yellow leaves. Then soon fell also a large
portion of the young fruit. But now the leaves and fruit both look well. The plant
lice here, like those on the Peach trees and Maple trees that came in such vast num-
bers with the first bursting of the leaf-buds, are now all gone.

The apples in this orchard are less punctured by the Curculio than in any other
orchard I have yet seen this year. About thirty cows are now grazing here. In
other seasons the grass has been kept short all over the ground, but this year the
weather has been so favorable that the growth has been greater than thfi cattle could
consume, and the grass is now browsed close only under the trees. Here the cattle are
attracted partly by the shade, but chiefly by the apples — the wind-falls — or more pro-
perly speaking, the apples that fall from being destroyed by the grub of the Curculio
and the larva of the Apple Moth. The cows eat these apples ; the embryo enemies
are digested by them ; and the next crop suffers less on that account. Scarcely a
young Curculio will escape in this orchard. Were all the fruit establishments within
ten miles as faithfully attended to, but few of the apples would fall to the ground so
unseasonably next year. But the neighboring orchards are meadows, or under culti-
vation ; the punctured fruit that falls there lies undisturbed, and the young enemy
escapes, and will be on hand the next season to torment not only the owner but his
neighbors.

June 12. — Found two Curculios to-day. Plums that were stung early are now
falling rapidly.

We have been eating green peas from the garden since the first of the month,
but I have not yet seen the Pea Bug. This beetle, called Pea-weevil — Pea-bruchus,

THE CURCULIO. 83

is the Bruchus Pm of Linnaeus, Plate 6, Fig. 9, and is so well known to farmers and
gardeners as to require little further description. This insect is somewhat similar in
size and appearance to the Curculio, and some writers have said they are identical.
A reference to the figures of the two, as drawn on Plate 6, will show a marked dif-
ference ; the crushing test between the thumb and finger will give additional proof.
The Pea-bug comes to its growth and undergoes its transformation in the substance
of the pea. By opening peas containing them, late in the fall, you may see the young
insects fully matured, but they will remain there till the warm weather of the next
spring, unless the peas are kept in apartments artificially heated ; then they will escape
in the winter.

Where the great army of Pea-bugs keep themselves from the beginning of
warm weather till this time (June nth) it is difficult to say. We sometimes meet
with them in places of concealment, as we do ants, spiders, flies, lady-bugs, squash-
bugs, &c., &c. — torpid when cold — animated into life when warmer weather comes.
We find them in the crannies of wooden buildings, fences, and walls, and there they
wait their proper season. These early peas, planted in winter, are evidently too
early for the Pea-bug. She is- not yet ready. The Imperials, the Champions, and
Marrowfats, and those sown in the fields, will come at her time. Those planted in
midsummer for fall use will also escape. I have seen no account of the exact num-
ber of days that this crop is in danger from this enemy, but it is a shorter period than
is occupied by the Curculio for depositing her eggs. This beetle, like the Curculio,
and most others of the Coleoptera, has but one generation in a year.

The Curculio comes to maturity in the last half of July, during August and
September, and some even in October. The mystery with many writers has been —
Where does it live till the next May, or till the fruit comes to the proper size for it
to use ? and many of these writers lay great stress on this, as if it was important to
be ascertained. Naturalists should know ; they should know a great many other
things that could be learned by patient investigation ; but practically, fruit-growers
have no occasion for such knowledge. They know that with the coming of their
young fruits will come also the Curculio, unless they have destroyed it in its embryo
condition in the blighted fruit the year before. Where they come from or how they
pass the winter will be of little avail to prevent them from destroying the coming
crops. Let all the young grubs of the Curculio in the blighted, wormy fruits, be
destroyed while in that state, and the natural history of its winter condition will be of
little consequence. Let this be done throughout a neighborhood, a township,
county, or state, and the sheet and jarring process will not be so much required.
The man who owns an island can, with proper care for a single year, rid himself

84 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

. i

not only of the Curculio, but of nearly all the other insect enemies of fruits and fruit
trees. But ignorant, careless neighbors, who cannot be brought to terms, are a
dreadful encumbrance to the man who fights these enemies single-handed. Either
fruit-growers' associations, including all who own fruit trees in a neighborhood, and
having laws that shall be enforced absolutely, and that will compel the necessary
attention at the proper time, or total isolation of the individual, will soon become
indispensable to insure success.

To-day I strolled through a fruit establishment in this State that a few years ago
was quite celebrated. Great pains were taken with it for many years ; more thorough
and systematic manuring than I have ever known in any orchard was practised ; but
nothing, absolutely nothing, has ever been done to guard against the insect enemies;
and a more melancholy wreck than it now is could hardly be imagined. Hogarth's
"Last of all Things" would serve to tell the story of this fruit establishment. Apple
trees so infested with the Borer as to be irreclaimable — mere nurseries for propagating
this terrible insect throughout the neighborhood; Cherry trees becoming all knots;
Peach trees full of worms ; Plum trees mostly cut down — the few left, bearing profuse
crops of choice kinds, but all felling to the ground when half grown. Pear trees have
been grafted and re-grafted till the right kinds are at length found ; and as there are few
Borers in them, and little blight in New Jersey (the Curculio takes but a part of the
fruit, and the Apple Moth leaves some of the remainder), the owner generally has
some proceeds from his Pear crop. Had this man understood his insect enemies, and
fought them resolutely from the beginning, instead of neglecting them till they
became masters, he might now have had a fruit establishment not only to be proud of,
but one greatly profitable, besides being a public benefactor; for he who contributes
largely to the supply of wholesome ripe fruit to cities like New York, also contributes
vastly to the pleasure and health of a people who are necessarily confined to such a
residence in summer.

Jyly 10. — After an interval of ten days I am again in the old orchard.
The same herd of cows is still here ; but, of course, the rich pasture is somewhat
subdued, though much of the first growth is still standing ; it is dried up, however,
and not so tempting as a young crop. Under the Apple trees the grass is everywhere
browsed close, and the apples arc not seen lying on the ground as in unpastured
orchards. Under some trees I could find five or six — seldom more — and they always
show that they have recently fallen, as may be seen by the stem. Cows feed in
company. In such a large range as this they cannot go all over the ground in a
single day, "but the apples are gathered up just as often as they do go all over; and

THE CURCULIO. 85

what is more for fruit-growers, the embryo enemies within them are placed for ever
hors-de-conibat. How in a single season could every cow in this state — in every state-
be made to double her value if only properly managed ? How long — oh ! how long —
must we wait for this better management ? Amateurs have improved until those fruits
figured in the Frontispiece of this book are but common samples of what we could
have in abundance everywhere — Apricots, Plums, Nectarines, a galaxy of luxuries—
except for these insect enemies. We have the nurseries to furnish the supply ; we
have lists to choose from, compiled carefully by competent authority; we have
elaborate instructions how to prepare the ground, to plant, to prune ; but we let these
little insects come without hindrance to take the greater part and deform the remainder.
And this goes on year after year, of course growing worse. Could there be a year
without a blossom, most people would look upon it as a misfortune. Some would
interpret it as a visitation from the Almighty in punishment for our sins. Still it
would be a blessing. The Curculio and Apple Moth would be checked. The former
would probably prolong its race to a limited extent in the black knot ; but still its
ravages would be greatly diminished. Let it be known that in a single season the
hogs and cattle could do an equal amount of good without the punishment of a year
of privation. Let there be fruit-growing clubs everywhere, that shall make rules and
enforce them, that the fruit shall le protected from the manageable insect enemies. Impose
fines, punishments, disgrace, upon all who neglect the duty. The Hessian Fly, the
Wheat Midge, and other insect enemies have compelled farmers for a time to stop
the cultivation of certain crops so as to starve them out. Our hogs and cattle have
both capacity and inclination to eat the Curculio out of house and home in a single
season. I have been now for weeks killing poor little innocent birds, to ascertain
positively what they feed on; and one object was to find which would destroy the
Curculio. In one, the Baltimore Oriole, I have found the bird I sought, The Baltimore
Oriole eats the Curculio. Probably many other birds that frequent the orchard in pursuit
of food, and feed upon beetles, do the same thing; but none of them search it out
exclusively. Therefore, good as most of the birds are as consumers of injurious
insects, and though the world, for our purposes, would soon become topsy-turvy
without them, the birds cannot be relied on to subdue or control the Curculio.

A few minutes ago I gave fifty apples to one of these cows. I had rambled
over much of this orchard to find them. She ate them all in less than five minutes,
and then looked up at me as Oliver Twist looked up at Bumble, and almost as plainly
said, " more."

July 11. — Examined the Curculios to-day. The earth in the flower-pots and

86 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

boxes in which I have been throwing the fallen plums, is teeming with the grubs. A
few begin to show embryo legs and wings ; but none are yet as far advanced as Figs.
4 and 5, Plate 6. Most are still larva?, and seem to be busy making their cells.
Nearly all the plums are now empty, showing the .holes, as in Figs. 5 and 6, Plate
3, where they have gone out. Have placed gauze over them to prevent escape.
Find no Curculios on my own trees. I notice that Green Gages and Bolmar plums,
now falling from the puncture of the Curculio, show specks of rot. This certainly is
not caused by wet weather,

July 12. — Tried my Plum trees this morning, but found no Curculios. Took
the canvas and mop-stick to Mr. P.'s, and got sixteen from four trees. Would have
tried other trees, but had only two pill-boxes ; and owing to the heat, the Curculios
were so quick in their motions, I could manage but few in each. Two did not
always escape when I put one in, but one was pretty sure to get away when I tried
to put two in.

I am not an entomologist, and never expect to be. If I knew all about all the
insects, I would be willing to accept the title. The fact is, I do not believe I know
all about any one insect Here I have been watching this thing twenty years. I see
it come into the mature or winged condition in the summer and fall. The next
spring, in May, it will be depositing eggs in fruit. I see it still in the same condition
in the middle of July. The Pea bug, which somewhat resembles it in appearance,
runs a similar career ; but most other insects pass much the largest period of their
lives in the larva state. The Cicada, for instance, is sixteen years, nine months, and
ten days in the earth, and about twenty days above ground in its perfected form.
Some varieties of ephemera will be four years under water, and perhaps only that
many hours in the winged state, in the air. How mysterious — how wonderful is this
little insect world ! I am now watching these sixteen Curculios in a glass covered
with gauze. They have two plums, and a few of them creep over and examine
them, especially the specks of gum; but the greater number are restless, and
try to get out. The last time, about two weeks ago, that I examined the
operations of a company of the Curculios on fruit, several of them passed a
long time cutting the crescent marks ; but I could not see them deposit the
egg. I now wish to test this matter further, with reference to the rot in plums about
this time.

Mr. Pierson's man has been gathering the blighted apples that lay in the walks,
but only because they were a deformity to the garden. They were thrown upon the
manure heap, where the Curculios will probably have just as good a chance to come

THE CURCULIO. 87

to maturity for next year's mischief as if they had been left on the ground. Mr. P.
has hogs, cattle, and horses, that would have been glad to eat them, worms and all,
but he has been so disgusted with his experience in fighting the insect enemies, that
he will hardly listen kindly to further advice. He probably feels as Job did towards
his comforters : " Ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value." But to-day,
finding he had done such a foolish thing, instead of following my advice, I gave it
to him sharply. I gathered up the apples under the half of one tree, where they
had not fallen on the walk. I was just sixteen minutes in doing it, and picked them
clean, too, and there were 960 ; that would be l ,920 for the tree. Probably hun-
dreds more will fall, some from the effects of the Curculio, some from the Apple
Moth. In many of these apples the larva both of the Apple Moth and Curculio
had escaped, especially the latter. In some I counted three and four holes. Of
course the fallen fruit should have been gathered sooner than this; even apples
should not be permitted to lie on the ground later than the last week in June.
Let us carry this further. All the fallen fruit under an Apple tree, to the number
of 2,000, can be gathered by hand in about half an hour — twenty trees in a day. If
your trees are so situated that the hogs, or cattle, or horses, or sheep, cannot do it for
you, have it done by hand. Do it yourself, if possible, but have it done, and well
done. Children that can do but little else can attend to this. Stimulate them with
a fixed pecuniary reward for every bushel. No money could be better invested.
Let a neighborhood do it, and what a difference in the fruit crop the next year !
Hundreds of people ask, " Is there any cure for the Curculio ?" I answer, yes ;
this!

July 14. — My sixteen Curculios from Mr. P.'s are still alive. The two plums
given to them at the time are now punctured in at least one hundred and fifty
places ; cut with the end of the proboscis, as usual. Eggs were found in about
a dozen of these crescent cuts. In some the insects had eaten cavities, as if for food,
but in most there was only the crescent mark, though in others they had also made
the centre opening, as if destined for the egg.

I examined my box of young Curculios to-day, and found that eleven had come
up out of the ground fully matured, the colors as dark as those of the old ones, but
of much brighter tints than the parents are in their old age. Here is another com-
plication. Two generations of Curculios at the same time ! One is trouble enough
certainly, but I shall try to see and record the doings of both. I have placed this
new brood in a glass vessel with a gauze covering, and given them plums and pears.

A near neighbor has an Apricot tree that stands against his house. I have

88 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

watched it for years, and I have not seen a mark of a Curculio on any of the fruit.
He has also many Plum, Peach, and other fruit trees in his yard, but none of them
so near the house as the Apricot tree. All these suffer severely from the Curculio.
Instances of such exemption from Curculio depredations have often come to my
knowledge. I had such on my own place. This neighbor has many common Plum
trees, standing where they came up as sprouts ; common sorts, proper subjects for the
black knots. These knots are now perforated in all parts, though generally from
one end to the other in the centre, by grubs of Curculio. The yellow-brown powder
is issuing from openings all over these knots. Many of these have now come out,
as from plums or apples, and gone into the ground. Let any one who doubts this
try the experiment; it is easily done. Earth in flower-pots will do; and if covered
up with gauze, the beetles can be secured for examination. Those bred from the
plums and plum knots will be found identical. In this I do not wish to be under-
stood to say that it is the Curculio that causes the black knots on Plum and Cherry
trees, but I do intend to be understood to say that the Curculio is bred in many of
the black knots on both of these trees. Some years ago one of the agricultural
papers gave an account, from a correspondent in Canada, of an Ichneumon Fly breed-
ing in the Curculio ; but it was in the grub as found in the black knot.

July 15. — The young Curculios I find nibble at a pear, but cut no crescent
marks, and make no holes with the proboscis, as the old females do. I dissected eight
of them, but found neither eggs nor signs of tliem. I then examined three old ones, and in
one found a single egg, and on a careful examination of a plum, which these three
had had for two days, I found three eggs more. This having two generations of Cur-
culios on hand at the same time is not so complicated an affair as it appears to be at
first. These experiments prove that those of this year are not so far matured as to be
ready for the great purpose of their lives — the propagation of their species. Female
insects which pass but a short time in the winged or perfect condition, as moths, but-
terflies, cicadas, etc., will be found to contain eggs at the time of emerging from the
chrysalis, and the sexes come together almost immediately. But with these young
Curculios the case is different Some that have been kept in a green-house until
mid-winter, as they have been by Peter B. Mead, myself, and some others I have
heard of, will be found pairing, but this must be considered as the effect of the artifi-
cial temperature. Out of doors they will be in the condition of others of their class,
as lady-bugs, asparagus beetles, and pea-bugs, too nearly dormant at all times in the
winter to show much activity; often they will be frozen solid. Occasionally there

THE CURCULIO. 89

/

will be a day so warm that many of these insects will be noticed peeping out, but
there will be no signs of intercourse between the sexes.

That degree of temperature that draws forth the bud and the blossom the next
spring, brings these Curculios to that stage of life that their eggs will be ready for
the young fruit when the young fruit will be ready for the eggs. The idea of some
writers, that there are two generations of this insect that prey upon the fruits the same
year — one generation early in the season, another later — has been proved to be erro-
neous. Two generations there are undoubtedly living at the same time, but I have
only been able to find the egg in the female of the older generation.

July 16. — The last time I was at the orchard of my friend, Mr. P., jarring some
of his Plum trees for Curculios, I tried also the experiment how many of the little
apples I could pick in a given time. I had put about a bushel of these blighted
apples in my canvas, and tied them up so that I could see on my next visit how many
of the grubs of the Curculio and larvse of the Apple Moth would have come to their
growth, and escaped from the fruit. But the sheet had been seen lying there, and
was supposed to be the cover of the carriage. It was ordered to be taken up, and the
apples, worms, and all, being emptied upon the ground, my experiment was spoilt.
These apples had been emptied in a heap, and we gathered them up carefully ; the
little spots of brown powder that had fallen out where the worms had made the holes
to escape from the apples were plainly to be seen. Many of the openings could also
be detected where the grubs had gone into the ground. Some I found about an inch
under the surface. But the ground here, from the excessive drought, was too hard to
dig much with a pocket knife (and I had nothing else), and hundreds of my friend's
enemies will probably come up from this spot to torment him next year, unless this
dry weather should last a few weeks longer.

July 17. — I have been jarring four of Mr. Pierson's Plum trees to-day, and caught
nine Curculios. The jarring brought down a great number of plums. I counted 160
that fell from one side of one tree, and all the effect of the Curculio.

July 18. — The nine Curculios caught yesterday have been kept in a bottle with
two Plums (the Quetsche). They have left many marks, and deposited a few eggs,
but this kind of plum seems too hard to suit them. The Green Gage or Bolmar
would have shown more marks in the same time.

July 20. — On a tour of observation to Western New York. In a ramble in the

90 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

outskirts of Buffalo and Black Rock, I found some fruit trees in the pasture lots and
gardens. The black knots were on the Plum trees, but I saw none on the Cherry
trees, as in New Jersey and many other places. In this ramble of several hours I
examined all the Apple trees that I could approach without seeming to be too curious
about the gardens of strangers. I saw no marks of the apples having been punctured
by the Curculio. A few showed signs of the Apple Moth ; but apples so fair I had
not seen for many years. It was truly refreshing. I had just come from the orchards
of New Jersey and Eastern New York, where half the apples had already fallen, and
most of the remainder were blighted and deformed by the Curculio, and I was amazed
at such a vision. It was a new sensation. Whether this is so every year in this locality,
or whether there had been a drought the preceding year just at the right time, I was
unable to find out. At 3 p. M. I started in an omnibus for Williamsville, ten miles
east of Buffalo, and two or three miles further, on foot, brought me to the home of
the parents of my friend Anthony Hochstein, the artist, to whom this book is indebted
for its artistic merits. The apple orchards here were, like the few trees near Black
Rock, well loaded with fruit, and there were no signs of the Curculio. I was told
that the plums were entirely destroyed every year by the Curculio, but I saw none;
a few peaches in the garden here were badly punctured.

July 21. — In returning to Buffalo I preceded the stage on foot several miles to
examine the orchards along the road, and found scarcely any Curculio marks. The
Apple Moth had been at work, though not badly. There were plenty of the tent
caterpillars. In the afternoon, took a long stroll about the city. Saw one Plum tree
full of fruit, but it stood close to a house. Bough apples were on the stands in the
shops. They were badly marked by the Curculio, but they had come from further
South, probably from Cleveland, Ohio. The season at Buffalo is two weeks later
than at Newark, New Jersey. Cherries and Doolittle Black Caps were now in per-
fection here, but they were all gone many days before I left home.

t

July 23. — The- nine Curculios caught last I found dead when I returned. The
Bartlett Pear given them was untouched.

July 28. — Took a trip down the New York bay to enjoy the sea breeze during
the heat of the day. In a ramble on the eastern end of Staten Island I examined
the trees as far as possible, but most of them were without fruit, and showed signs of
rough usage. A man with an excitable temper should not live near a steamboat or
railroad landing, or, if he does, should not attempt raising fruit. Those who do not

THE CURCULIO. Ql

believe in the doctrine of original sin can know very little about boys, who, it
was plainly to be seen, had been at work here. Some boys would be as useful as
pigs or cows in destroying defective fruit, but others are good for nothing, as they
spit out the worms.

July 31. — I have been examining the colonies of young Curculios. Those from
the plums are nearly all perfected ; that is, the grubs have become beetles. The
worm, as we call it, as met with in the fruit, has become a winged insect, as unlike
its former self as a bud would be unlike a blossom, or a tadpole unlike a frog.
About one in ten were still under the ground, their transformation not yet completed.
One only had not yet begun to change, but had made its cell, and was waiting.
The apples are producing very few Curculios in proportion to the number stung,
which appeared to have fallen prematurely from that cause.

The Curculio, during the fall, feeds on both leaves and fruits. It will make
plums or soft apples or pears cellular with little excavations into the pulp. Often
it will be found stuck fast and dead in the fruit that has rotted.

The Curculio requires plenty of air. It will soon die in a box or vial if the air
is excluded ; but I have kept them for weeks in pint or quart glass bottles with large
mouths, if covered with milliner., or corks with holes in. In their efforts to escape
they will often work through botli millinet and cork. I have known them nibble
the latter till it became perfectly cellular, and they were covered with the dust, as
a bee often is with pollen.

Aug. l. — In a walk in one of our quiet streets, where most of the houses have
neat little gardens attached, I noticed two Apricot trees with a fair crop of fruit, and
quite ripe. Apricots this year are small, owing to the excessive drought, and these
were a small variety, but very pretty, the rich yellow giving them a tempting look.
Moorparks would have been three times the size. These Apricot trees were as large
as old Plum trees. There are few more elegant ornaments of the home than such
trees when loaded with ripe Apricots; which besides giving plenty for the family,
enable us to send a basketful to an invalid friend, or the wounded soldier in a mili-
tary hospital. This world is not yet quite all bad, and it can soon be improved if we
go to work resolutely and save the fruits. Reader, take another look at the Apricot
in the Frontispiece, and then say, the Curculio shall no longer stand let&een thee and me,
and let all the neighbors say Amen.

In a further walk to-day through several of the streets of this city, where
well-to-do mechanics live, I noticed that most of the Plum trees bore some fruit,

12

C)2 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

and some were quite full. These trees are generally old and large, but being in
small gardens, and planted too near together, grow tall. Many were near build-
ings; those with most fruit on were very near white houses. The principal
varieties were Bolmar's, Yellow Egg, Green and Blue Gages, Golden Drop, and
some of more common sorts. Probably none of the newer kinds are planted. The
people have so universally yielded to the dreaded Curculio, that the raising of Plum
trees in the nurseries in this part of the country has been abandoned

In a visit to Mr. P.'s to-day, I jarred four of his Plum trees over a large sheet,
but caught only one Curculio ; probably the last of the season, but its terrible effects
still remained. Down came the plums by dozens. These were all superior sorts,
and now nearly as large as when ripe. In another month they would have been very
tempting. Upon a careful examination of a great number, I could find the crescent
mark in all, but not a single grub. Many were quite rotten, some half, some only a
speck ; and some had fallen without any sign of decay, as they do earlier in the sea-
son. Many people attribute the rotting of plums just before the period of ripening,
to the weather. This year, if the weather was the cause, it was too dry. Last year,
as it rained all the time, it must have been too wet. The weather is always a con-
venient resource to those who do not look for causes beyond it. With some, be it
hot or cold, or wet or dry, it is all the same. The weather, undoubtedly, has an
influence upon delicate fruits when nearly ripe. Cherries, apricots, plums, and even
some pears, will spoil rapidly, if the weather should be wet, foggy, and hot (what is
usually known as dog-day weather), at this critical time. But now, a month before
the plums are ripe, no weather will cause them to rot, unless there is a wound. I
have known the striking of hail-stones on plums make a bruise sufficient to cause
them to rot But there seems to be a poison from the punctures of the Curculio late
in the season that is peculiarly fatal ; what it is, it would be difficult to say. It is
certain that the egg is not often hatched when deposited in fruit when the pit is
maturing. This may be observed not only in the plum, but in the pear, nectarine,
and apricot. Many such fall, more or less decayed ; others will remain upon the
tree and dry up (see Plate 1 , Figure 5, and Plate 5, Figure 6). Early in the season,
in the plum, nectarine, and apricot, the egg is nearly always hatched, and the young
grub comes to maturity. I have sometimes thought that the acid juices of the
maturing fruits may interfere, but I have no proof, and my readers must not mistake
a mere suggestion for a theory. I have had too much experience to indulge in any
theories on insect operations.

The plums that fell to-day on jarring the trees had been punctured by Curculios,
and most of them were more or less rotted. 'Those without Curculio marks were

THE CURCULIO. 93

sound, and stuck fast in spite of the jarring. Wet weather could not have been the
cause, for we have had but one rain for six weeks, and that lasted only half a day. It
has been very warm at times; so it is every year. You wicked ones, who are so
prone to ascribe your misfortunes to the weather, refrain from all such croakings.
The weather is regulated with a wisdom far beyond man's comprehension ; cease to
blame it, and look to other causes. Your own want of knowledge, or your own
neglect, will often account for your troubles. When your Plums rot just as you think
they are safe and almost ready for the market, ascribe it to the Curculio and not to
the weather.

Ten days ago I left a bag at Mr. P.'s to be filled with the falling apples. To-day
I examined it. The bag was open. I had requested it to be tied up when filled ;
but John's knowledge of English being poor, and mine of French not much better,
the young enemies had a chance to escape. In this bag I found thirty-one worms of
the Apple Moth. Most of them had formed their cocoons, attaching them to the
inside of the bag. Some were still among the apples. How many I should have
found had the bag been tied cannot be known. Only three grubs of the Curculio
were to be seen ; but there was a hole in the bottom of the bag that one had made,
and many may have escaped there. This experience was the reverse of what might
have been expected, certainly different from that of other years.

On examining these apples scarcely one could be found that had not been punc-
tured by the Curculio, and many have more than one mark. Cutting these little
apples into pieces I readily saw the minute roads which the young grubs had made,
as in PL 5, Fig. 4, but all had come to an untimely end before they had reached such
a size as to be plainly visible to the naked eye. In other seasons I have found the
grubs in such proportions to the apples, in experiments of this kind, that a double
handful might have been gathered from such a bagful. And this has been my
experience nearly always for twenty years till this season. What had brought them
to this sudden end this year I do not know. The influence of the weather on some
insects is well known. That a drought of some duration during the period of trans-
formation in the ground is fatal to the Curculio, I have proved again and again. I
suppose the earlier drought of this season killed them in the fruits ; but I have no
proof to offer, and it is only an opinion. We have had two days this season when
the mercury in the thermometer indicated 1 00° in the shade. This intense heat may
have killed these young grubs even in the apples; but of this I am not certain.

. 4.— CROOKED LAKE, YATES Co., N. Y. — The Peach trees here have a
very thin crop this year, and most of the fruit on those I have been able to examine

94 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

is badly stung by the Curculio. The crop of apples is better, but it also is badly
injured by this enemy.

Aug. 5. — This part of the country is devoted to wool-growing, Merino sheep
abound. I encountered a company of some twenty bucks in an orchard. They are
queer-looking animals. Imagine a Broadway exquisite and one of these sheep
brought face to face, and the former to be told that the coat that makes him about
all he is, had been worn a whole year by the latter, before it had fallen to his portion-
that the man is the shoddy of the sheep ! What man owes to this uncouth Merino
woman owes to a repulsive caterpillar ; and how little credit either ever gives to the
real producer of what they are so proud of. " Such is life."

I have been called the " Curculio man." I certainly have tried to find out how
most successfully to secure our fruits from the depredations of this insect. Some
men write long articles about the comparative values of the domestic animals, but
the Curculio-destroying merit has seldom entered into these calculations. Those
who have Merino bucks valued at a thousand dollars a head, may, after the experi-
ence of to-day, add a good many more dollars to this thousand. No apples were to
be seen lying on the ground here. I picked some green and hard from the trees,
and the sheep ate them with avidity. One of them amused me by his repeated
attempts to help himself from a pendent branch ; he could just touch the apple with
his nose, when standing straight up on his hind feet, but the fruit would slip away as
he attempted to take it. The part he could reach was a segment of too large a cir-
cle for that narrow mouth. He tried again and again ; the seventh attempt was
successful. " Patience and perseverance overcome difficulties." Sheep may be
added to the other domestic animals qualified to settle the Curculio question.

Aug. 6. — The approach to Rochester from the east shows to what an immense
extent the nursery business is carried on, and a visit to Ellwanger and Barry proves
that it must be profitable, at least in one instance. I was in pursuit of an apricot for
illustrating this book — a Moorpark, such as I have grown by hundreds of bushels on
the Upper Hudson, but could find none — a few trees, but no fruit The Plum
orchard in this establishment is superb, and well loaded with fruit Here can be
seen most of the kinds now known ; and how any one who has seen such an
orchard can resist the temptation to have one for himself, is marvellous. — Let us hope
that this magnificent fruit, now so neglected, will soon be restored. These gentle-
men have it every year. The Curculio is in Rochester, and would take. their plums,
but they do not let it Others can do the same. There is no mystery about it

THE CURCULIO. 95

They have no nostrum, no Curculio cure, and they know there is none. There is
prevention ; but if it has not been practised, and the Curculio comes upon the young
plums, they are jarred down upon canvas and killed.

The Jaune Hative was now ripe, and looked tempting ; but, like the earliest
Peaches or Pears, not so fine as later kinds. Some varieties were rotting, and where
they grew in clusters were affecting all they touched. It was easy to see that the
puncture of the Curculio had been the- cause. The foreman remarked that the
jarring had not been continued long enough.

dug. y. — NIAGARA FALLS. — Rambled round Goat Island before breakfast. It
contains sixty-two and a half acres, chiefly the original forest. Great trees of bass
wood, elm, maple, some that had trembled every moment for centuries from the
pouring of this mighty torrent of water. Near the bridge is a house and garden. A
few fruit trees were growing here. The apples were very badly deformed by both
the Curculio and Apple Moth. Peaches also suffered from the former. A tree of
Sweet Bough apples at Suspension Bridge was examined. Half the fruit was spoilt
by these two enemies.

Aug. 10. — Home again, and have been examining some of my insect propa-
gating houses to-day. The Curculios from plums have all escaped, having forced
openings through the millinet or gau/.e coverings. The Curculio is hard to manage,
but wire gauze would have prevented this. Those from the bushel of apples from
Mr. P.'s are now in the ground, undergoing their change ; but I see very few of them,
considering the number of apples, and the proportion of other years.

Aug. u. — Much has been written about catching injurious insects in wide-
mouthed bottles partly filled with sweetened fluids. Some have said that they have
caught the Curculio in that way. I have an impression that a great many people do
not know the Curculio when they see it. For some days I kept a bottle thus pre-
pared, hanging in a tree in the garden. When I returned from my recent trip of a
few days it was full. It was bridged, so that more insects could go in and not be
drowned. It is said that there are ants in South America that, when they emigrate,
move in a straight line, never turning aside, no matter what may be the obstruction.
If they encounter a stream of water they rush right in, until it is so bridged with
their bodies that the rest can go over with safety. So it was with this trap. I
took out the insects, separated and counted them. There were 571 flies of eight
different species, 8 small moths, 3 mosquitoes, i lace-wing fly, and i wasp.

96 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

Not one of the white moths that are now so numerous — the mature insect from the
army of caterpillars that made such sad havoc with the foliage of our fruit trees a
month ago. The flies I have not yet examined closely. Many of them are the
blue and green bottle-flies, the maggots of which are the consumers of decaying ani-
mals. A very large proportion were those flies that extend their wings out at right
angles from the body, and have brown heads and bodies. These breed in and con-
sume the filth about our houses and barns. I noticed some varieties of the sulphus-
fly that deposits its eggs in colonies of plant lice, on which the young maggot feeds,
and thus befriends the gardener. Many also of the parasitic class, that deposit their
eggs on the sides of large caterpillars, near the head. The young from the eggs eat
into these caterpillars, and, there feed upon their living flesh, finally destroying
them ; and these also are often our friends. The lace-wing is also an enemy to the
plant lice. The wasp's reputation is equivocal. He destroys insects, but will also
eat our ripe fruits.

In order to make a more exact test, I repeated this experiment for twenty-four
hours. The number of victims was 281. The kinds of insects were about the
same, and nearly in the same proportions as at first. To this statement I find
appended in my diary the following observations : " This is a poor business, and I
shall stop it What right have I to destroy these hundreds of flies, when we are cer-
tain that most of them are useful, and we do not know that any of them are injurious!
If I had found the Curculio, Apple Moth, Aphides, Pear or Apple Tree Borers, or
Mosquitoes in any proportion to the vast army of this pest now filling the air ; had the
flies been of the kind that annoy us in the house, or had I caught the moths of the
caterpillars that have been so troublesome, there would have been some excuse.
But this is like firing into a crowd of friends in hopes of killing an enemy."

Aug. 13, 14, and 15. — Am passing a few days in the northern part of New
Jersey, to escape the distressing heat of the city. I spend hours in the old orchards-
Have been cutting the blighted apples till knife and hands are black and sticky with
the juice. Find no grubs of the Curculio, but thousands of their marks. The cres-
cents had been made, the eggs deposited, most of them had been hatched, and the
young Curculio had started on its rambles towards the centre of the fruit. Its path-
way could be traced by a brown or green mark, as seen in Plate 5, Figure 4. This
mark is not visible when first made ; but, like a wound in the flesh of the apple
from any cause, soon becomes discolored. My experience here was similar to that
in Mr. P.'s orchard in Newark. The grubs of the Curculio were nearly all dead.

Aug. 16. — I have seen an old apple orchard to-day so different from others in

THE CURCULIO.

97

the neighborhood of the same age, that I visited the owner to find out the cause.
He told me that thirty years ago the ground in this one had had a coat of lime, the
others none, and that this was the cause of the difference ; but he could not tell me why
the fruit was so much fairer and the crop larger. I asked him if it had generally been
used as pasture ground for horses, cows, and hogs, as it was then. He said it had.

Aug. 17. — While detained at the neighboring village of Dover, waiting for
the train, I inspected an old apple orchard with broken fences, and where the cattle
and other animals grazed without restraint. The fruit here was like that seen yester-
day, quite fair. These are suggestive facts.

Aug. 19. — Yesterday was warm and wet, such weather as hurries on the ripening
of the fruit. Green Gages, with dry weather, will last in perfection a week or ten
days ; but now many of them are cracked, and the wasps and flies find how good they
are. The period of nectar that these fine old plums afford will be short this year. After
the hard fight with the Curculio it is a disappointment to be able to enjoy them so
short a time. In England and other parts of Europe where they have no Curculio,
most people know practically what the Green Gage is ; but here the knowledge is
confined to the older generation, and with most people it is only a tradition. Almost
every one has a standard of excellence in fruit. I have seen a catalogue of the great
nursery at Angers in France, in which the Seckel pear was pronounced the best in
the world. I have eaten this pear from the original tree in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania,
and from other trees equally good. Were it not for the Green Gage I should say
that it is not only the best Pear but the best fruit in the world. But though other
Pears are not equal in excellence to the Seckel, yet in other respects many have great
advantages over it. The same may be said of Plums. There is one that many would
pronounce equal to the Green Gage in flavor, and the fruit will ripen in succession
for several weeks, and still I cannot find this tree in any of the nurseries I visit. I
allude to the Mellen Gage, a native of Hudson, N. Y. I could name thirty other
varieties of great excellence, either for flavor and size of fruit or for bearing qualities.

Aug. 23. — Have tried Mfr P.'s Plum trees again for the Curculio and found
none, either old or young ; but how the rotten plums did come down ! Several of
these trees were the Flushing Gage, and had been very full. What bushels and
bushels this gentleman would have had with proper care !

Sept. i. — Mr. P. told me that he had gathered his plums to-day, "Had

98 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

thirty in all instead of thirty bushels." The ground under the trees presents a sad
appearance. I have seen, where over-ripe persimmons have fallen from the trees in
winter, the ground covered with a yellow mash. The ground under the Plum trees
presented a somewhat similar appearance. Many were still on the trees, looking like
those in the Frontispiece, Fig. 5.

Sept. 10. — NEW VERNON, MORRIS Co., N. J. — Here are Peach orchards cele-
brated for the excellence of the fruit, and especially for its beauty of color. The best
trees as well as the best fruit grow where the soil is strongly marked with the presence
of iron. The owners of the principal orchards here were from Monmouth Co., N. J.
They understood the cultivation of the Peach thoroughly, and were making the
business profitable. They told me that they considered the Yellows a good thing;
without it peaches would be so plentiful as not to pay ; as it is, good cultivators can
make money. The Curculio they found troublesome in thin crops, but it does good
to heavy ones. These men might be called Peach Philosophers ; they seemed to be
satisfied with everything excepting only the war ; that preventing them from getting
Peach pits from a part of Virginia where the trees are still free from the Yellows.
The favorite peaches here were Jaques or Yellow Rare Ripe, Mountain Rose,
Stump the World, Crawford's Early and Crawford's Late, and Keyport White.

• 13-15- — United States Pomological Convention at Rochester. — I shall long
remember this meeting with pleasure. The characters of men devoted to Pomology
are probably influenced by the pursuit. The intellectual man is moulded into shape
by the beauties of nature, and he becomes intelligent and good. A very small per-
centage of the whole people of this country are members of the Society of Friends,
but a very large percentage of the members of this Convention were of that deno-
mination.

Dec. 5. — I find no notes in my diary about the Curculio for nearly three
months. I see its marks on the apples every day. No matter where I go or where
the apples have come from, there the Curculio has been. The signs of its former
presence on many of these are generally in the form of a little shield, as seen in Plate
5, Figure i, a mere discoloration, without causing any injury — not even a deformity.
In many the mark will be little more than a slight depression. In some there will be
several of these, and the apple will be much injured both externally and internally,
as in Plate 5, Figure 3. All this may be seen in the fruit that comes to the markets ;
but go to the orchards or cider mills, and it is ten times worse. With all this,

THE CURCULIO. 99

becoming worse every year, many people, when told that they must promptly destroy
the falling fruit, will say, " That is too much trouble. I cannot have the cattle or hogs
in my orchards, I want to plough them or mow them." Or, " If I should do this, my
neighbors will not, and what's the use ?" Well, go on then " in your old shiftless
way," and those who do take the proper care will have the greater profits.

I expected to have had a colony of Curculios for investigation this winter. I
had prepared a frame covered with wire gauze in the shape of an old-fashioned wire
trap, about two feet in diameter. This was to be placed on the ground under an
Apple tree, and the Curculios from a bushel of apples to be kept under it ; but the
bushel of apples produced but eight instead of a thousand, as I expected. The eight
I found dead when I returned from one of my trips, and it was too late then to repeat
the experiment this year.

Whether the Curculio, after undergoing its transformation in the ground as it
always does, and then coming to the surface, ever goes back again as winter
approaches, I do not know. Once, in repairing the roof of a house late in the fall, I
observed some of these insects in a torpid condition under the shingles. I have met
them in the chinks of stone walls, and once I found one under a scale of bark of an
apple tree near the ground early in the spring.

A favorite practice of the writer for years, has been searching under the rough
bark of different kinds of trees, to see what species of insects find shelter there, and
what condition they are in during different degrees of temperature. Lady-bugs,
asparagus beetles, spiders, flies, great varieties of beetles, and ants are there, but I have
not found the Curculio except in the one instance. -Peter B. Mead, Mr. C. Marie,
and I, have kept them in green-houses in the winter, and found they will feed on green
leaves and fruits when warm, and the sexes will sometimes be together ; but when
colder, all become quiet and seem torpid, though a momentary warming, as under the
thumb in the palm of the hand, awakes them into activity at once.

Many believe that the Curculio lives through the winter in the immature condi-
tion of the grub, and undergoes its transformation in the spring. This is not so. In
all my numerous experiments made year after year, even with the latest stung apples,
the grubs become beetles the same season, and as beetles they live somewhere
through the winter. When the warm weather of the next spring is fairly established,
and before the young fruits are formed, a few Curculios can occasionally be found by
jarring almost any kind of tree over canvas, provided that tree is in the neighbor-
hood of where fruit grew the year before.

1 2. — In a conversation to-day with Mr. Marie, about the Curculio, he

13

1OO INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

told me that he had kept some as pets until late in November, feeding them
with pieces of apples. Finally they were thrown out accidentally, and swept into
the fire. I have often kept them in the flower-pots in which they have undergone
their transformation, by covering them with milliner.. Some try to escape through
this covering, but most of them will be found curled up and torpid, lying among the
little clods of earth. During the warm weather of early fall they will nibble a
little at fruit or leaves, but as the cold weather approaches they become quite torpid.

Mr. Marie's experience has been like my own, as to the great tenacity of life of
this insect. He has experimented with many things, with reference to finding some-
thing that might be made available towards its control. He told me to-day that he
had tried them in the strongest mustard, all kinds of pepper — even the hottest
cayenne, French vinegar, and chloride of lime. They not only survive all these,
but soon appear as lively as ever. Tobacco smoke, puffed upon them, if long con-
tinued, will kill them. Oil is fatal to them, as it is to all insects.

The following short communication appeared in Moore's Rural New Torkcr, of
Jan. 28th, 1 865 : —

" How to Catch Curculios. — Eds. Rural New Yorker : In May last we had occasion to use some
lumber. It was laid down in the vicinity of the Plum yard, and on taking up a piece of it one cold morn-
ing, we discovered a number of Curculios huddled together on the under side. On examining other boards
we found more, so we spread it out to sec if we could catch more, and we continued to find more or less
every day, for two weeks. We caught in all one hundred and sixty-one. So I think if people would take a
little pains they might destroy a great many such pests. These were caught before the plum trees were in
flower. What is most singular is, that we never found a Curculio on a piece of old lumber, although we
put several pieces down to try them. They seemed to come out of the ground, as we could find them
several times a day by turning over the boards,

" JohnsonvilU, N. Y., 1865. MRS. H. WIER."

Upon which the Editors remark :-r-

" These facts are interesting. Observers do not agree as to whether the Curculio remains in the
ground during the winter or not. Some assert that it lives above ground somewhere in its perfect state or
form. Any facts relating to the settlement of this question will be interesting."

The above struck me as containing important facts, provided the insects found
were really the Curculio, and I at once wrote to this lady to send me some specimens,
if she had kept any. In a few days I received an answer, stating that they had
killed them all at the time, but would certainly try the experiment in the spring
again, and send some then. She stated that she was perfectly familiar with the Cur-
culio, from having so often seen it at work on the Plums, and she had no doubt that

THE CURCULIO. 1O1

those found collected in clusters under the boards were the same. I immediately
wrote again, inclosing a few dry specimens in a quill, and a part of Plate 8 of this
book. The following is her answer : —

" JOHNSONVILLE, March \, 1865.

" Yours of the 2/th was received last night, and I hasten to reply. The Curculios you send, we con-
sider identical with those we caught under the boards ; although dry and contracted we can see how they
ought to look. The one in the drawing looks very natural, but they do not always wait till the fruit is so
large here, before they begin the work of destruction.

" I will keep these specimens and the drawing for further comparison.

" MRS. HENRY WIER,
" Johnsonville P. O., Pittstown,

"Rensselaer County, New York."

•

Mrs. W. states in one of her letters that she has no record of the time when
these insects were found, but that the trellises for the grape vines were put up on the
12th of May, and that these boards had been drawn for that purpose and laid under
a plum tree near by, a few days before. If the printers now at work setting the
types of this volume would wait patiently another month, I think this question of the
winter condition of the Curculio could be ascertained ; but as this cannot be done, I
will here indulge for once in a theory — a speculation : That this insect remains
through the fall, winter, and early spring, very near the surface of the ground, in the
little cracks or fissures where bare, and about the roots of the grass where in sod. If
this should prove true, it may lead to some new modes of treatment ; though I can-
not imagine at present anything that would supersede the plan of thoroughly destroy-
ing all the young fruit containing the embryo insect.

Poultry have been proved to be useful. If these little beetles lie at all in sight
of their sharp eyes during the winter, keep them as much as possible among the fruit
trees, provided the crop had been troubled with the Curculio the season before.
There is much weather of every winter when the ground is bare of snow that the
poultry will be found searching the fields and meadows for insects. If the Curculio is
within reach, let the sharp eyes of the poultry have a chance.

In February a year ago my friend John T. Hicks, of Westbury, Long Island,
N. Y., showed me a box containing the contents of the stomach of a crow that had
been shot a few days before. The box contained a few beetles, and about fifty grass-
hoppers. Some of these were of the variety so plentiful late in the fall, but the greater
part were of that kind that we find in the spring about half grown, and not yet hav-
ing their wings matured — such as are at full size in July. Many do not know that
grasshoppers live through the winter ; many do not know that crows eat insects. The

102 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

farmers, when they see flocks of crows ransacking their fields and meadows, instead
of offering bounties for their destruction, should be thankful that there is something
to keep the grasshoppers and other insects in check.

In April last I dissected a Meadow Lark. I found its stomach filled with the
rings or sections of what are often called thousand-legged worms — lules. These
insects are found about the roots of grass a little under the surface. The beak of the
Lark is long, strong, and tapering to a very sharp point. The beak of this one was
coated with earth.

In July I shot another. It had been feeding on beetles and other insects com-
monly found on the ground in pastures. In December, when the ground had been
covered with snow for several days, a Lark was opened. It had been feeding on
seeds, chiefly oats and wheat. Crows shot at this time were found to contain black
marsh mud, with here and there the off-shoots of bulbous roots.

The winter birds as well as the poultry, except when the ground is covered with
snow, will help us in the destruction of our insect enemies. The Grasshoppers in the
stomach of the Crow, and the lules found in the Lark, show that they have a faculty
of detecting the hiding-places of these insects in their torpid condition, or a sense of
sight wonderfully acute. It is a recognised fact that the Crow knows from the
wilted appearance of certain plants where to find the destroying grub at the root.
Could we know exactly what the stomachs of a party of hens contain after a foraging
expedition to an orchard, we should probably re-arrange our figures giving the profit
and loss account of Poultry.

" Protection against the Curculio. — It has frequently been remarked that fowls were more or less a
protection against the Curculio. A striking example of this has been shown the present reason in the grounds
of Wm. H. Southwick, New Baltimore, N. Y. He has many very handsome Plum trees, of good size, healthy,
and vigorous. Several of these trees of different kinds are inclosed in yards where fowls are kept — separate
inclosures being necessary for the different breeds which are here bred. The trees in the fowl-yards are
loaded with plums, while on the trees not so inclosed almost all the fruit has been lost by the sting of the
Curculio." — Cultivator, Sept. 1861.
1

NOTE. — On page 49 of this volume, on the next line to the bottom, the word "peach" is printed instead
of "pear." Thi» is an error of so much importance as to require an explicit correction.

The young Pear crop will be much benefited by jarring off the Curculio for a few days. After this
the Pears will be deserted for other fruits ; but if the Peach crop is to be protected from the Curculio
the jarring should be continued as with Plums or Apricots.

IM.ATK IX.

APPLE MOTH— CODLING MOTH.

COMMONLY CALLED APPLE WORM.

PLATE IX.

1. The Larva or Caterpillar of the Apple Moth resting on a part of the Core of an Apple.

2. Pear, July 6, showing the Borings of the Apple Worm.

3. Pear, July 1 8. The dark spots near the blossom end indicate the worm at work under them. There is

usually a depression at this part.

4 and 5. A very common appearance of the early Summer Apples from the operations of the Apple Worm
during the month of July. The Worm, Fig. I, was taken from the Apple, Fig. 4, and is not quite
full grown.

6. Is the half of a Westfield Seek-no-further, cut open March 1 7, and is an exact representation of the original.

This shows that even such injuries will not always prevent the fruit from keeping through the
winter.

7. The Moth at rest, natural size.

8. The Moth with the wings expanded. These were painted from living specimens on the i8th of June.

MORRIS calls this moth Penthina pomonella (Carpocapsa). Emmons, Carpocapsa
pomonella. Say does not mention it in his works. Harris says, " it is not a grub but
a true caterpillar, belonging to the Tbr/ra tribe, and in due time is changed to a moth
called Carpocapsa fomonella, the Codling Moth, or Fruit Moth of the Apple." Kirby
and Spence speak of it as one of the enemies of the Apple in England. Reaumur gives
its history, and says, " It is a species of moth common in Europe (Carpocapsa pomonella),
the caterpillar of which feeds in the centre of our apples, thus occasioning them to
fall." An anonymous writer in the Entomological Magazine of London has well
remarked, " that this Moth is the most beautiful of the beautiful tribe to which it
belongs ; yet, from its habits not being known, it is seldom seen in the moth state ;
and the apple-grower knows no more than the man in the moon to what cause he is
indebted for the basketfuls of worm-eaten windfalls in the stillest weather."

1O4 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

In a very careful examination of large collections of pears and apples sent
from France to the exhibitions of the American Institute, I have found the marks
of the Apple Moth in some, but in no instance have I seen the crescent mark of
the Curculio.

As the result of experience, founded upon close observations for a number of
years, and extended through large sections of several states during the summer and
fall of 1864, I have come to the conclusion that this Apple Worm, as it is generally
called, is as destructive to apples, pears, and quinces as the Curculio, but not so to
the stone fruits. When we shall have subdued the latter we shall have cherries,
plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines, without much further trouble from insect
enemies ; but we must control both the Curculio and Apple Moth before we can
secure the apples, pears, and quinces.

Although the Apple Moth is an imported insect, it seems to have become as
widely extended as the native Curculio. When we see a butterfly fluttering about
our fields or gardens, and know that it lives a very few days, we would think that any
one species, starting from a given point, would be very slow in spreading over a
continent What is Jhc rate of speed of a butterfly, or the length of time it can
continue its flight, I have never seen estimated. Most kinds are visible for a moment,
and then out of sight. Probably no calculation has ever been made that would
approximate the truth. Kirby speaks of the male of one of the Silk Moths (Attacus
papkia), as supposed to be capable of a flight of one hundred miles. A dragon-fly
will hover for hours on the wing over a pond of water, passing rapidly to and fro in
pursuit of insects. One species of this tribe has been known to alight on ships 500
miles from the nearest shore. But insects of this order greatly excel the butterflies in
wing power ; they have the speed of the fleetest birds, and more than their quickness
in turning. If we know little of the travelling power of the butterfly whose flight is
by daylight, how much more difficult will it be to observe the flight of moths, which
only takes place at night

The caterpillars of both butterflies and moths are nearly all vegetable feeders.
Many species feed on one kind of plants, as the. silk-worm on the mulberry; some
on two or three, as the tent caterpillar, which will grow to maturity on the apple
and wild cherry, but will starve on the pear. Other caterpillars will feed indiscrimi-
nately on the leaves of many trees or plants, provided these leaves come early enough.

THE APPLE MOTH.

The larva of the Apple Moth, like the grub of the Curculio, has usually a fruit
to itself, the parent moth depositing but one egg on a fruit, and it is supposed that
another Apple Moth will seldom duplicate that egg.

The first part of the life of this caterpillar is usually passed in feeding on the
substance of the fruit near the blossom end, and while there it is quite small.
Afterwards it will be found in and around the core. The holes drilled through the
pulp are tunnels for passage only, not excavations made in feeding — the contents
being a mere pomace, and not the castings of the insect. This indicates that the
chief food this caterpillar requires is to be found in the core, including the seeds, and
is in limited supply ; hence we seldom meet more than one in each fruit. If the
whole pulp of the fruit were suitable for food, most of our apples and pears would
afford ample nourishment for a dozen of these worms.

The Apple Moth, like most other moths and butterflies, has a great number of
eggs to dispose of. She will have the appropriate nidus for her young if she can
find it ; and how far she will go in pursuit of Apples, Pears, or Quinces, if there
should be none near her native tree, or if they have all been appropriated by others,
before she was ready, is a difficult question to decide. One of the most interesting
subjects of contemplation to the naturalist is to watch the movements of moths in
the dusk of summer evenings. They will slow up to a plant or tree, as a steamboat
to a landing — merely touching, then on again to another, and again and again, till
they find what they want, deciding, as they go, whether the leaves that come upon
those trees after an intervening winter will be the proper food, or will appear early
enough for the little ones that are to issue from their eggs.

Kirby and Spence say that the progress of the Hessian Fly was at the rate of
fifteen or twenty miles a year. Dr. Fitch, in his most valuable account of the Wheat
Midge, says, that the spread of this insect along the country bordering the St. Law-
rence and Lake Ontario, was at the rate of about nine miles a year. But the history
of the appearance of these two insects, like that of the Apple Moth, in the different
parts of the country which they have visited, shows that they had no fixed rate of
progress. Speculations as to where an insect came from, or when it arrived, or at
what rate it can travel, will avail but little as to this Apple Moth pest. // is kere,
it is all over our country, wherever Apples and Pears are cultivated, in many places
appropriating half these crops every year, and it is rapidly increasing. While the

1O6 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

two wheat enemies have been subdued in a great measure by parasites, nothing of
the kind has made much impression on the Apple Moth ; and from its habits of life
we have little reason to hope for relief in that direction. We must help ourselves,
and the sooner we begin the better.

Figure i , Plate 9, represents the larva or caterpillar of the Apple Moth rest-
ing on a portion of the core of an apple. It is usually five-eighths, sometimes three-
quarters of an inch in length, and is about one-eighth in thickness or diameter —
nearly double the size of the grub of the Curculio. It is of a reddish color, often a
decided pink. This worm has all the characteristics of a caterpillar ; six true legs at
the head end of the body, and eight prop or fleshy legs. The head is sometimes
dark-brown, and sometimes glossy black. It is to some extent a silk-making cater-
pillar. Throw it off suddenly from its resting-place, and it will often let itself down
with a cord, as a span-worm does. This will never be done by the grub of a beetle
or the maggot of a fly. It will not go into the ground, as the grub of the Curculio
does, but will climb up the body of a neighboring tree. The Pears, Figures 2 and 3
of this Plate, are the Beurre Clairgeau ; a variety that often suffers from the depreda-
tions of this enemy, though not as often as the Bartlett, or some of the small early
kinds. The borings on Figure 2 are an uncommon appearance, and show where a
well-grown worm has made an entrance from the outside. The borings of the Apple
Worm are nearly always found in the shape of a round plug of the pulp of the fruit,
forced out from within through a hole about the size of one made by a small gimlet.
This indicates that the worm or caterpillar has come to its growth, and will soon push
out this plug entirely, and then escape. Whether this worm leaves the inside of the
fruit at night only, has been a subject of investigation to some extent, but I have not
evidence enough to establish the point. It may be an instinct in common with many
other insects, to leave such retreats only in the dark, when it will be more secure from
bird enemies. I certainly often see these plugs filling up the holes in the daytime,
and find next morning that they have been pushed out, and I have never seen one
of the worms escaping during the day.

The appearance in Figure 3 is a very common one. The Moth usually deposits
her egg at the blossom end of the young fruit; and just within the calyx is a tender
spot, where the minute larva from that egg finds an easy entrance to the interior. In
that part of the fruit under these dark spots it will be found feeding until it is aquar-

THE APPLE MOTH. . 1OJ

ter or one-third grown, making quite an excavation. This part ceases to grow or
expand, and there will soon be a depression. The spots indicate that the worm has
approached to the skin itself as far as the black extends. The young caterpillar can
be taken out without making much of a wound, but this operation seldom saves the
fruit. Soon after this it will be found in the centre or core, making extensive exca-
vations, involving the seeds, as seen in Figures 4 and 6. This little miner often shows
much ingenuity in keeping its apartment in order. If its chips and castings were per-
mitted to lie about loose, they would be inconvenient, and in windy weather annoy-
ing. To guard against this, it ties them all up together with silken cords, and then
secures the mass to a part of the establishment most out of the way.

Figures 4, 5, and 6, do not by any means indicate all the forms of injury or
deformity caused by this enemy. Twenty illustrations could be made, all differing
in appearance, but each having some characteristic, proving it to be the work of the
larva of the Apple Moth. The seeds of both apples and pears will often be found

to have been eaten as seen in Figure 6, on this Plate.

H

PLATE X

THE APPLE MOTH. 1CK)

PLATE X.

i. Is the under side of a scale of bark taken from an Apple tree.

a. Larva of Apple Moth exposed by a cocoon being opened when separating the bark from the tree.

b. Represents a cocoon entire, and the larva within.

c. Shows a portion of an old cocoon.

d and e. Show where the cocoons have been penetrated, and the larvae taken out by the Bird — Fig. 7.
z. Shows the outside of a part of the scale, Fig. i. d and e are holes corresponding to d and e in Fig. i.

3. Represents a ring formed from the pellets or chips taken out of the cavities, and tied together with

silken cords. This ring usually fills up the space between the scale and true bark, making the
cocoon perfectly tight, and to some extent binds the scale to the tree.

4. The pupa of the Apple Moth.

5. The pupa case after the Moth has escaped.

6. Holes made in parallel rows by the Bird — Fig. 8. This kind of holes gave rise to the name, "Sap-

sucker," applied to the bird supposed to make them.

9. One pit and the half of another found in the stomach of the Bird — Fig. 8.
10. The head of the Black Cap Titmouse, or Chick-a-dee.

THIS Plate is a study in itself, and a careful consideration of it will show the
intimate connexion between Ornithology and Entomology.

Fig. i is a representation of the inside of a scale of bark from an Apple tree,
and Fig. 2 is part of the outside of the same scale.

One who is curious to ascertain the winter homes of insects will find many
species secreted under the scales of the bark of trees. In separating these scales
of Apple or Pear trees in search of the larvae of the Apple Moth, he will find
lady-bugs, spiders, flies, collections of the eggs of spiders nicely arranged together in
nets made of the finest materials, many kinds of small beetles, &c. That a large
number of the Apple worms conceal themselves under the scales of the bark of the
trees in an Apple or Pear orchard is certain ; but where they go when the trees have
none of this rough bark is not so clear. They do not form their cocoons upon the
ground or in the grass. Though caterpillars, they are totally without the coating of
hairs that prevents so many other species from becoming the food of birds, and

1IO INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

would be most tempting morsels for both birds and poultry. Ants also would be
formidable enemies of such worms. To ascertain how iheir instinct of self-preserva-
tion would manifest itself, I have often collected a number, and placed them in the
vicinity of a tree. They creep about at random for a little while ; but if not too far
off, most of them will soon be seen going in the direction of such tree.

In the spring of 1860, when the seventeen-year locusts were coming up out of the
ground, I often tried this experiment with them, and uniformly with the same result.
Put them down anywhere within ten feet of a tree, their course would soon be directed
towards it ; and no matter how often they fell back in struggling over the grass and
other obstructions, nothing diverted them from their path. Whether they could
see or not is hard to say. Until within a few minutes they had never been in daylight ;
eyes to them, in all their seventeen years' experience underground, would have been
as useless as to the fishes in the Mammoth Cave. How long the apple-worm cater-
pillar will creep about — how many trees it will ascend and descend in search of this
place of concealment, I do not know ; but this instinct would indicate a perseverance
till the end was accomplished. If we had no way of trapping this enemy it would
teach us to keep our trees clear of all rough bark, let the poultry have free access to
the orchards, and protect the birds, a, Fig. i, is the caterpillar or larva of the Apple
Moth as seen in one half of its cocoon. It has been thus exposed in taking off this
scale from the tree. Fig. 3 is a part of its cocoon. The ring is formed by the chips
or nibblings that it makes in digging out the little cavities; and this ring, or ridge,
fills up the space between the scale and true bark. Both saucer-shaped cavities are
usually lined with a delicate silken cocoon. The part of this cocoon attached to the
ring is shown in this figure. (It must be remembered that this ring and the part of the
cocoon attached, made the other part of the house that covered snugly this now
exposed worm.) These Apple Moth larvae, such as <z, Fig. i, can be found in this
stage at least nine months of the year. Those that come out of the later apples and
pears remain as caterpillars through the fall and winter, and many of them till quite
late in the spring; then, during two or three weeks, they will be found in the pupa
or chrysalis state, as shown at Fig. 4. Then in June the cases will often be seen, as
shown at Fig. 5, the moth having escaped. In taking off scales of bark at this time,
or even in approaching a tree, the moth will often flutter away almost unperceived.
It is so nearly the color of the bark as seldom to be noticed when at rest. This is

THE APPLE MOTH. Ill

characteristic of many moths; though not Chameleon-like, or having the power to
adapt themselves in color to the object on which they rest at the time, they are so
strikingly like the bark of the trees on which we find them as nearly always to escape
our notice. This insect in its pupa state, like many others, will be found torpid
and apparently helpless in its cocoon ; but when its time comes to escape from this
mummy condition it has some locomotive power, and by a kind of wriggling motion
forces itself to an outside opening. This is a necessity to the perfecting of the wings ;
they could not be expanded in so confined a space. The silk-worm moth liberates
herself from her cocoon by burning a passage-way with an acid. The dragon-fly, in
its immature condition, is a kind of bug and lives in water; when about to become a
winged insect it will creep up a rush or reed until out of water, and make itself fast to
this reed by its claws, when the back of its sub-marine case will open, and the perfect
insect emerges. That is what the seventeen-year locust comes out of the ground for.
The young mosquito floats to the surface of the water, and the sub-marine coat splits
open. First her head, then her body emerges ; finally, she will be seen standing straight
up in her former skin like a mast in a canoe. All these insects — and many more
could be mentioned — assume this perpendicular position immediately on leaving their
pupa cases. If watched, the little wings that had hitherto been compressed into the
smallest possible space will now be seen to enlarge gradually ; there will be an occa-
sional slight flutter. The fluids of the body would seem to be settling there — gravity
aids them — and soon they will be expanded to their utmost limits. Such wings as

those of the Apple Moth could never have been unfolded in the cocoon between

•

these scales of bark. She does not resort to the appliances of chemistry, as the silk-
worm does in the use of acids ; but she is equally philosophical, and appeals to the
force of gravity.

The life of this insect as a moth is short. If she came to this last and perfect
condition early in the season, the fruits would not be ready for her, and she would
die before fulfilling her mission. Nature makes no such mistakes. The fruits will
be ready for the moths when the moths are ready for the fruits. In a few weeks the
caterpillar or worm from the egg of this moth will be matured, and found in its
cocoon under a scale of bark, appearing as a moth in August; living as a caterpillar
not half as many weeks as the winter caterpillar did months; the one living in a tem-
perature far below zero, and frozen solid as ice ; the other knowing the hottest weather

112 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

of our climate. That " the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb," is an expression
often used, and by many it is believed to be scriptural. The winds pay very little
regard to insects, but insects are wonderfully adapted to the winds. I, Figure i, is a
representation of another cocoon; one that has not been injured in taking off the
sqale of bark, and the larva within not disturbed. This cocoon is of an unusual
shape, but the builder was evidently crowded by neighbors, and had to be guided
by circumstances, c shows where one has been that has escaped as a moth, d and e
in Figure i, and d and e in Figure 2, indicate holes in the inside and outside of
the same scale of bark. These holes have been made directly into the cocoons of
these caterpillars, and those cocoons robbed of their contents by the bird, Figure 7,
the Downy Woodpecker. The holes in the piece of bark, Figure 6, are different-
They are parallel, and have not been made in a dry scale, but in the green bark,
where no insects live. Figure 8 is the bird that makes these — the Yellow-bel-
lied Woodpecker. Figure 10 is the Chick-a-dee, an occasional feeder on the Apple
worm. These heads, as represented in the colored edition of this work, strikingly
resemble the originals ; but the ornithologist will notice defects. They do not look
as the same birds do in Wilson or Audubon. The positions are not similar. The
plumage also differs, but that may be owing to the age of the bird. An ornithologist
chooses his specimens from birds at full maturity, and at a season of the year when
the plumage is the most perfect. These were shot to ascertain what their stomachs
contained; and as two of them were proved to have been usefully employed, their
likenesses were painted to commemorate their good deeds, and not to exhibit them

*

as types of beauty. Our investigations in regard to the insect enemies of fruits
would be only partial, if no attempts were made to ascertain how far the birds are
useful to us in controlling them.

We can approach some of the smaller birds so closely as to be able to see
what they eat. A field glass will often aid us in such investigations ; but this source
of knowledge is not always reliable. The works on ornithology give us some
information on the food question. Wilson, Audubon, and others, often accompany
their figures of birds with illustrations of fruits, berries, and insects, intended ro
show that these are the food of such birds. But this subject is not a primary consi-
deration in any of these works. The Ninth Annual Report of the Massachusetts
Board of Agriculture contains an admirable article of about thirty pages on the use-

THE APPLE MOTH. 1 13

fulness of birds, by Wilson Flagg. Of the many contributions to the history of
birds, I have met with none so interesting as this. Some French investigators have
made elaborate reports within a few years on this subject ; but the birds of Europe
are so different from ours that such reports can give us little practical information,
unless accompanied with illustrations, and especially showing the form of the beak
of each species.

To make such a work as this complete, requires more exact and positive
knowledge than could be procured from any of these sources ; andv I have killed a
very large number of birds and examined the contents of their stomachs, especially
of those frequenting orchards. Most of these examinations have been made with a
magnifying glass, and many with the microscope. Some species I have shot at short
intervals during the season, to know how far their food varied at different times ; and
I have thus ascertained that the contents of the stomach at any one time are not an
infallible criterion by which we can determine the usual food of that bird. On the
fifth of May, 1864, I shot seven different birds; they had all been feeding freely on
small beetles, and some of them on nothing else. There was a great flight of these
small beetles that day; the atmosphere was teeming with them. A few days after the
air was filled with ephemera flies, and the same species of birds were then feeding
upon these.

The killing of so many birds has been a most repugnant task ; but I have
nerved myself to it in the cause of science. I felt there was a want of such infor-
mation, and once procured it could not be wanted again. The comparatively few
thus sacrificed would become martyrs for the good of the many. Many of these
investigations have been of surpassing interest, from the consciousness that such
knowledge, if properly disseminated, would create a public sentiment even stronger
than law, for the protection of the birds.

I have found in the Baltimore Oriole the remains of Curculios, the real plum
weevils. The Downy Woodpecker and the Chick-a-dee eat the caterpillar of the
Apple Moth. The Oriole, Wren, and Cat-bird know how to find the leaf-curling
caterpillars in their places of concealment, and thus protect our orchard and garden
trees and shrubbery from much deformity. The Cedar birds come in flocks for the
span-worms. Even the Bob-o'-link does not perch himself on our apple trees exclu-
sively to show off his fine feathers or charm us with his unpronounceable music, but

INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

makes a meal occasionally upon the canker worms. The beak of this bird is much
like that of the sparrow or canary, and formed for husking seeds; still I have found
his stomach filled to repletion with these troublesome caterpillars.

The season of 1 864 will be memorable as the year of Aphides, or plant lice.
The first crop of leaves on many of the Apple trees was so alive with a species of
these pests that most of them fell off, causing also a profuse shedding of the young
apples. Warblers of many kinds, then just coming on from the south, Creepers,
Wrens, and even Sparrows, as well as many other kinds of birds, fed upon these the
livelong day. The throats, and even the back parts of the beaks of some of them,
would be found lined with these aphides, many of them still alive, and their stomachs
containing a juice that would leave the hands colored as they are after crushing
these insects. The creases or folds of the stomachs were lined with what appeared
to be an accumulation of the hairs of caterpillars, but under the microscope were
found to be the legs of these plant lice — thousands and thousands of them.

The account of almost every insect that will pass under review in the progress
of this work, will contain a monograph of some bird that has been found its special
enemy. Some will be shown of full size, and in positions exceedingly graceful,
illustrating surprising intelligence as to the manner of finding and securing their
insect food.

EXTRACTS FROM DIARY OF 1864.

" Picus PUBESCENS — Dcwny Woodpecker ; Sapsucker. — Sp. Ch. — A miniature of P.
villosus. — Above black, with a white band down the back. Two white stripes on the
side of the head ; the lower of opposite sides always separated ; the upper sometimes
confluent on the nape. Two stripes of black on the side of the head, the lower not
running into the forehead. Beneath white ; wing much spotted with white ; the
larger coverts with two series each ; tertiaries or inner secondaries all banded with
white. Two outer tail feathers white, with two bands of black at end ; third white
at tip and externally. Length about 6J inches ; wing 33. Male with red, terminating
the white feathers on the nape.

** Hob. — Eastern United States, towards the eastern slope of the Rocky Moun-
tains."

The above is Baird's description of the Downy Woodpecker (the head of which

THE APPLE MOTH. 11^

is shown in Fig. 7 of this Plate), and has been selected for this work by a friend who
is a most accomplished ornithologist.

The bird that knows how to find this formidable enemy of the fruit-grower, and
destroys it in such numbers, is an object of special interest, and a scientific account
in a work like this becomes a necessity, that it may be positively identified.

DOWNY WOODPECKER. — April 8. — In shooting a Robin to-day, on an Apple tree,
I started one of these little birds. It flew to the next tree, and I secured it with the
other barrel. This was the first of this species of bird I had been able to approach in
the orchards near the city. The stomach contained one larva of an Apple Moth so
nearly entire as to be easily identified. The other contents of the stomach were the
remains of small beetles, some of which had those brilliant metallic hues so difficult
to describe and so impossible to imitate by paint. The head of one of these, under
the microscope, equalled in lustre the diamond beetle. No seeds or sand, and no
signs of sap or the sap bark of the Apple tree could be discovered.

April 21. — In a ramble to-day on the borders of the Passaic River, some ten or
twelve miles from Newark, where the birds are more plentiful and not so wild as
nearer the cities, I shot another of these Downy Woodpeckers. The stomach con-
tained one beetle, the heads oft/ie larva of two Apple Moths, and the heads of the grubs
of three small Borers. The bird, when first seen, was pecking or sounding an old
fence post, and then flew to an Apple tree. There was an orchard of some twenty or
thirty old Apple trees here.

May 3. — Shot another Downy Woodpecker to-day. It had been eating several
black beetles, and three grubs, but they were not the larvae of the Apple Moth.

Aug. 5. — CROOKED LAKE, Tates County, New Tork. — The bird that knows how to
find the Apple Worm under the scales of bark on the trees, has been here. I find
the unmistakable mark — the round hole in the scale leading directly into the place
where the worm had been in its cocoon. The parallel lines of holes are on the Apple
trees here also.

Nov. 6. — In a ramble in the country to-day I saw a couple of Downy Wood-
peckers. I watched them for some time, but could see nothing in their actions to
indicate how they found the Apple Worms under the scales of bark.

Nov. 10, 1 1, and 12. — -During an excursion in the upper part of Morris County,

15

Il6 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

N. J., made for the purpose of investigating the insects and birds, I had an opportu-
nity of seeing a Downy Woodpecker in an old orchard, and passed an hour watching
his actions. His creeping power is wonderful. (His foot should have been repre-
sented in this Plate, to show how perfectly it is formed for the purpose.) I was espe-
cially interested to see with what speed he could move down the body of a tree back-
wards. This seemed even more rapid than the forward motion.

Here I was gratified in being able to ascertain how he finds where to peck
through the scales of bark, so as to be sure to hit the Apple Worm that is so snugly
concealed beneath. The sense of smell will not account for it. Such an acute-
ness of one of the senses would be beyond the imagination. Instinct, that incompre-
hensible something, might be called in to explain to those who are satisfied to have
wonders accounted for by means that are in fact only confessions of ignorance. Birds
have instincts undoubtedly — so have we ; but they are mixed up confusedly with
other faculties. Most of the actions of insects are purely instinctive and utterly
unaccountable. But the Apple Moth is not a native of this country — the Downy
Woodpecker is. The bird would not have been created with a special instinct to
find the larva of a moth that did not exist in the same country. Other insects live
under these scales of rough bark ; but in very numerous examinations, I have not seen
such a hole made except when leading directly into the cocoon of this particular
caterpillar.

This little bird finds the concealed larvae under the bark, not from any noise the
insect makes ; it is not a grub of a beetle having a boring habit, and liable to make
a sound that might betray its retreat, in seasons of the year when not torpid.
A caterpillar makes scarcely an appreciable noise, even when spinning its cocoon,
and when that is finished it rests as quietly within as an Egyptian mummy in its
sarcophagus.

There is no evidence that the Downy Woodpecker ever makes a mistake ; it
has some way of judging. The Squirrel does not waste its time in cracking an
empty nut. There is no reason to believe that this bird ever makes holes through
these scales merely for pastime, or for any other purpose except for food. He
knows before he begins that if he works through, just in that spot, he will find a
dainty morsel at the bottom of it, as delicious to him as the meat of the nut is to the
squirrel. But how does he know? By sounding — tap, tap, tap, just as the physician
learns the condition of the lungs of his patient by what he calls percussion. The
bird uses his beak, generally three times in quick succession — sometimes oftener;
then tries another. Watch him. See how ever and anon he will stop in his quick
motions up and down, and give a few taps upon the suspected scale, and then test

THE APPLE MOIH. 11J

another, and another, until the right sound is communicated to that wonderful
ear.

Here is evidence enough of the usefulness of this bird to entitle it to exemption
papers for ever. Reader, look carefully at the head, as represented in Fig. 7 of this
Plate. Do not call that bird " Sapsucker." That name will create a prejudice with
some. The whole tribe of Woodpeckers labor under a prejudice in some neigh-
borhoods. Some will eat cherries, and some are supposed to be fond of grapes. But
the chief food of all of them is insects, and many of those insects are our worst ene-
mies. It will be well to let all the Woodpeckers have their own way, but by all
means protect the Downy.

Fig. 8, is the SPHYRAFRICUS VARIUS of Baird ; Picus varius of Wilson, Cassin,
and Audubon.

YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. — Sp. Ch. — Fourth quill, longest ; third, a little
shorter ; first, considerably shorter. General color above, black, much variegated
with white. Feathers of the back and rump brownish-white, spotted with black.
Crown, scarlet, bordered by black on the sides of the head and nape. A streak from
above the eye, and another from the bristle of trie bill, passing below the eye and
into the yellowish of the belly, and a stripe along the edges of the wing coverts,
white. A triangular broad patch of scarlet on the chin, bordered on each side by
black stripes from the lower mandibles, which meet behind and extend into a large
quadrate spot on the breast ; rest of under part yellowish-white, streaked on the sides
with black. Inner web of tail feather white, spotted with black. Outer feathers
black, edged and spotted with white. Length, 8.25 inches : wing about 4.75 ; tail,
330. Female with the red of the throat replaced by white. Young male without
black on the breast, or red on the top of the head.

Hob. — Atlantic Ocean to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains ; Green-
land.

Oct. 6. — Went to the orchard of a friend in the outskirts of the city, and found a
Sapsucker (or, as it should be called, a Yellow-bellied Woodpecker) at work on one
of the Apple trees. It had made almost three hundred marks (see Plate 10, Fig. 6).
Some were new and others old ones drilled out. This was in the forenoon. I watched
it about half an hour. I returned in the afternoon. The same kind of bird was
on the same Apple tree, and busily at work pecking holes. I watched for about an
hour, sometimes approaching so near that it would fly a short distance and watch me
closely till I would go thirty or forty yards from it, when it would at once return and

Il8 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT*.

resume the pecking work. If I were in sight it would keep on the opposite side of
the limb, occasionally peeping round cautiously to see if I was coming nearer.
Sometimes, during the intervals of these peeps, I would quietly approach so closely
that the moment it saw me it would fly away, but to return again as soon as I had
retired to a proper distance. After bo-peeping till I had no more time to spare, I
shot this poor bird, expecting to find positive evidence in the stomach of what it
made these holes for — and found two seeds or pits (of which one and half the other
are represented by Fig. 9, Plate 10), with the purple skins of the same fruit, seven small
ants, and one insect of the chinch bug kind about the size of those found in the beds
of some taverns. But of bark or sap there was not even a trace.

Later in the day I shot another of the same species of bird in an old orchard out
of town. The stomach of this one contained the pulp of an apple and one ant-
nothing else. This one was on the upper part of an Apple tree, and was not pecking
or sounding. The investigation of this bird so far is Unsatisfactory. I have seen no
evidence yet that these holes are made in search of food. Ants are certainly found
sometimes about these holes, and apparently in pursuit of the sap that exudes from
them ; but the idea suggested by some, that the birds make them to attract these ants
by such tempting baits, is a palpable exaggeration of the reasoning power of this
bird.

From what I have seen to-day, as well as from former observations, and from the
testimony of several careful observers among farmers of my acquaintance, I am led to
believe' that Baird is mistaken in calling the preceding bird — the Downy Wood-
pecker— a Sapsucker. Wilson evidently believes the same thing, although he does
not say so in express words. The bird that makes these parallel holes, as shown at
Fig. 6, Plate 10, has a bad reputation, and I am anxious to relieve my little friend
that finds the Apple Worm, from all charges that will bring him into trouble. I believe
that this bird, Fig. 8, Plate 10, is the only one that makes such holes. The Downy
Woodpecker, Fig. 7, Plate 10, makes many holes in Apple and Pear trees also, but
not in this regular manner. The one is in search of the larvte of the Apple Moth
under the dry scales of the bark ; the other seeks — I don't know what, in the green bark
itself.

These parallel rows are often very numerous. The trunks and larger branches
will often be seen covered with them. The rows will be almost adjoining for many
feet, and the holes in the rows as near each other as represented in Fig. 6 in this Plate,
and running all round the tree. In old orchards where trees have been grafted high
up, these holes may be sometimes seen in the stock and not in die graft, and some-
times in the graft and not in the stock. Rows of trees of one kind of fruit will be

THE APPLE MOTH. IK)

filled with these holes, while adjoining rows of other kinds will be exempt. So far as
I have noticed, these holes have been made only in October. Sometimes they will
be seen in Cherry trees, and I have observed those trees thoroughly drilled. Some
Evergreens are so pecked in this way as to bleed the next season to an injurious
extent. But I have not been able to ascertain that they impair either the growth or
the fruit-bearing power of the Apple tree.

The grub of the Apple Tree Borer works between the bark and the wood during
the first of the three years of its life, but it is always either under or so near the surface
of the ground as not to be likely to be found by the Woodpeckers. I have never
seen any bird in pursuit of this grub. The two following years it is always so far
within the wood as to be out of reach of the birds. I know no other grub that works
under the bark of living Apple trees; but an Apple tree in decay will often be found
teeming with grubs.

Figure 10, PARUS ATRICAPILLUS — Linnaeus. Black-cap 'Titmouse — Wilson.
Chick-a-dee. Sp. Ch. — Second quill long as the secondaries. Tail very slightly rounded;
lateral feathers about ten, shorter than middle. Back, brownish ashy. Top of head
and throat black, sides of head between them, white. Beneath, whitish ; brownish
white on the sides. Outer tail-feathers, some primaries, and secondaries, conspicuously
margined with white. Length, j; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.50. Hal. — Eastern North
America along the Atlantic border.

March 7, 1864. — The Chick-a-dees are flitting about upon the Apple trees in
the orchards and Maple trees in the swamps — chick-a-deeing and very happy, and
why not ? — in these bright warm days after the long cold winter. This is one of
the creepers — quick in all its motions.

March 8. — Shot a Chick-a-dee to-day, but the contents of its stomach were so
comminuted that it was impossible, without the aid of the microscope, to distinguish
anything positively. Some portions looked like parts of beetles, and others seemed
like the broken shells of the eggs of moths and butterflies. Could see no seeds.

The habits of these minute little friends are delightful. You see two, three,
four, sometimes more — in an Apple tree, climbing up pendent twigs and examin-
ing them all round, apparently in search of the eggs or minute larvae of insects.
Next you will see their little beaks working among the moss on the older branches.
Then they will be pecking at something like a beetle in a crotch. Next there will
be a gentle whistling call, and all will be off" to the next tree. Often other birds,
especially sparrows, will be seen closely following these restless little fellows, as if

12O INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUlt.

attracted by their chick-a-dee melody. These are winter birds ; and though differing
from the sparrows in being insectivorous, in other respects they are so much alike as
to be fond of each other's company — though it appeared to me that the sparrows
were more partial to the chick-a-dees than the chick-a-dees to the sparrows.

March 28. — In a ramble through the orchards to-day I saw but one of these
birds, and this one passed so rapidly from one tree to another, there was but little
opportunity of watching its habits or seeing what kind of food it was in pursuit of.
Its song has changed since last visit. Then it was chick-a-dee ; now it is chick-a-
dee-dee-dee-dee-dee, and sometimes dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee.

April i. — Shot one to-day, and, what is of great importance, found five of the
larva of the Apple Moth. One of these had been so recently taken, and was so little
mutilated, that it was easily identified. The heads of the other four appeared iden-
tical when examined with a pocket-glass ; but when subjected to the test of the micro-
scope, there was no possible room to doubt. The day has been dry and windy, fol-
lowing a warm wet day and night ; and it is in just such weather that the bark of the
Buttonwood, Shell-bark Hickory, and other shaggy trees, will be found curling out
and falling off.

I have never seen anything that would lead me to believe that this minute bird
makes the holes in the scales of bark that lead directly to the cocoons of these cater-
pillars; they are made by the Downy Woodpecker, and probably by it alone. The
Chick-a-dee most likely finds these worms only or chiefly on such days as this, when
the warping of these scales exposes them to the prying eyes of these busy little
friends. This bird is one of the guardians of the orchard ; quick, active, always on
the alert ; assuming any position ; sometimes even hanging by one foot on the under
side of the large limbs, where these caterpillars rather prefer to conceal themselves ;
and now proved to feed freely upon the second in importance of the insect enemies
of our fruits. Let no one hereafter kill a Chick-a-dee without being made to feel
that he has done a most disgraceful deed.

Nov. 6. — Have been making a short trip to the central part of the State. See
no birds now except crows, doves, quails, sparrows, and the creepers, including the
Chick-a-dees. The last are very numerous — almost in flocks. They are quite tame.
I have been much amused at a little party of them on the long, slender shoots of
some swamp-willow sprouts. One of them would alight on the extremity, and then
the twig would bend until the bird looked as if it were holding on to the end of a sus-

THE APPLE MOTH. 121

pended string ; but it was perfectly at home, hardly even fluttering to maintain its
position, and there it remained pecking away among the buds at the extreme end of
the shoot, apparently in pursuit of plant lice so often found in just such places. We
are told that the " tender mercies of the wicked are cruel ;" my tender mercies over-
came the cruel on this occasion ; and although I wanted to know exactly what the
bird could find there to eat, the gun would not point in that direction.

Nov. i 5. — I have never before noticed the Chi'ck-a-dees so numerous as this fall.
Shot one to-day ; it had eaten four small seeds, almost^, as hard as gravel stones, and
quite a number of the pupse of very small beetles, such as take shelter under moss
and old bark on trees.

Jan. i , 1 865. — For a month past the Chick-a-dees could be seen in the morn-
ings on the Elm trees of this city — always on the slender twigs, and busily searching
round the buds. The weather seems to make no difference. The gentle, plaintive
call by which they keep in company could be heard every morning, even in the most
pitiless storms. In the evenings they could be seen congregating about the evergreen
trees.

For several mornings in succession I noticed that the piazza was strewn with
the cocoons and broken pupa cases of the caterpillars that were so numerous in Sep-
tember ; sweep them off, and soon they would be there again. It was the work of
the Chick-a-dees. The piazza is a high one, and extends on three sides of the house.
Hundreds of caterpillars formed their cocoons in the chinks and crevices of the ceil-
ing, and there these little birds found them. I hung out pieces of fat pork, and bread
and butter, and they tasted moderately ; but as soon as the pupse of these caterpillars
were all consumed, my kind of food was neglected.

March i . — I have seen a small party of the Chick-a-dees on the Elm trees again
to-day, the first for several weeks. They were examining the buds.

I 'I. AT K1ff.

•

• ' , • , '

-» r « r • • '

THE APPLE MOTH. 123

PLATE XI.

1. Represents the hay-rope trap, slipped up a few inches above where it had been set.

2. Shows where this hay-rope band has been during the season. The marks are intended to represent the

slight concavities made by the Apple Worms under the rope.

THIS Plate represents a Tree of Fall Apples, as it appears where the Curculio
and Apple Moth are not interfered with, but are permitted to have things their own
way.

This tree is intended to represent the one so often spoken of in the following
diary, on which were caught nearly two hundred of these Apple Worms during the
season of 1864.

These bands should be put on the trees as soon as the fruit shows signs of the
worms being at work, as seen in the illustrations in Plate Q ; — from the middle to the
last of June. They should be examined every two weeks, as long as warm weather
lasts, the earlier broods of worms becoming moths, and producing a second crop.
If the orchard is pastured the bands must of course be put out of reach of the
animals. Sometimes it may be necessary to place them round the limbs ; in that case
the scales of bark on the bodies of trees below them should be scraped off.

Those who watch the falling of the blossoms from fruit trees will notice that the
greater number leave no embryo fruits. A few days later a large portion of the young
fruits that had formed, cease to grow, and they soon fall off. These are blights, and
this is nature's mode of relieving the parent of the burden of too large a family.
Occasionally there will be a frost just as the petals of the blossoms have fallen off, and
the germ being exposed at its most tender age, sometimes the whole crop will perish.

In the spring of 1864, when the Pear, Peach, Plum, and Cherry trees were just
shedding their blossoms, there came several days of very warm wet weather, with
scarcely any wind ; and during this time a dense fog prevailed for many hours. The
calyx surrounding the embryo fruit was now like a sponge, absorbing the rain, and

there being no chance to dry during all this time, the fruit germ rotted. By sepa-

16

124 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

rating the wet calyx from the young fruit it was easy to see the commencement
of this decay ; it was generally in streaks. On the Cherry trees the effect was singu-
lar. Wherever the young cherries came in contact with the leaves the decay was
communicated to them, and they were left with holes, presenting a ragged appear-
ance. Half of the above kinds of fruits perished in that way ; and the trees of some
kinds of cherries, where the bloom had been profuse, had absolutely no fruit
left.

The season of 1 864 will be as memorable for the plague of plant lice on our
fruit trees as that of two or three years before had been for a visitation of a similar
insect on the wheat and oats ; and excepting as they were fed upon by small birds
and some insect enemies, there seemed to be no hope of saving the Apple crop from
these minute enemies.

The Peach crop is often destroyed by the buds being killed by severe cold in
winter, and sometimes by the young leaves being so diseased by a " curl " that the
fruit will nearly all fall off when quite small. For all these accidents the fruit-grower
should not be held to too rigid an account, though some of them might be guarded
against by a judicious choice of a situation for the orchard. But the fruit-grower
who lets his Peach and Apple trees be girdled by Borers ; who permits his orchards
to be overrun by the Tent Caterpillar, and his Plum and Cherry trees, to become
masses of knots, or his young trees generally to be sapped by millions of bark lice,
deserves little commiseration.

The tree in the preceding Plate had escaped all these contingencies, and showed,
until some time in June, a promise of a most bountiful crop ; but then the young
apples began to fall, and persevered in falling till not a do/en were left to come to
full maturity.

Now let us imagine the owner of an orchard, who has taken the best possible
care of his trees for ten or fifteen years, finding every season the entire crop lying on
the ground when not half grown, and of no value — and the imagination need not go
far to find such an owner — Does he feel comfortable 1 Perhaps his annual expenses
overrun his income, but a fair crop of fruit would have reversed his financial condition.
It was not the fault of the orchard ; the trees were full enough at one time. Why
did they all fall off?

I have read somewhere that there was once a man who owned a cow —

THE APPLE MOTH. 125

" But had nothing in the world to give her ;
And he said, consider, cow, consider."

I

It may have been the sight of the hay-band in this Plate that brought this old-cow
poetry to my recollection ; or it may have been the wormy apples under this tree that
I am so anxious the cows should have a chance to eat. The word '' consider" is very
appropriate here. And now let us go to work and " consider" this matter very
seriously.

A young man is just starting in life. He has bought a farm that is to be the
permanent home of himself and wife. He has probably gone in debt. The parents
on both sides have contributed furniture, and horses and cows, and farming utensils.
A comfortable house has been built. But there is no orchard— not a fruit tree on the
place. 'The catalogues of the nurserymen are pondered over by the young couple
every evening, and sometimes on Sundays. At length the trees are selected. The
best part of the farm is set apart for the orchard. The ground is ploughed deep,
thoroughly harrowed, and then staked out. The rows are made scrupulously straight
both ways. The holes are dug wide and deep, and partly filled with rich soil, or
well prepared compost or garden mould. Then the trees are to be bought and paid
for — fifty or one hundred dollars cash. Next they are planted, and oh, what care is
taken that this shall be done exactly right. The young wife often goes out to help
in this labor of love. She holds the tree while her husband is down on his knees filling
in the earth about the roots with his hands. She reads the name on the label —
" Sweet Bough." Perhaps there is a baby in the house ; and she says, " How the
baby will enjoy these apples when they are ripe !" The next is a Spitzenberg. And
she says, "How good these will be in the winter — the long evenings — and the pies !"
This young woman's mother was probably from Esopus, and had taught her daughter
to believe in Spitzenbergs for pies and apple dumplings. If the Spitzenberg was as
good in all parts of our country as it is in the neighborhood of its native place, it
would stand at the head of the list for such purposes. But in New England the
Greening is the favorite, while in Eastern Pennsylvania the old-fashioned Pennock is
very good — or, at least, it was very good.

This is the time of Promise. That orchard is most carefully cultivated year after
year with potatoes and other crops that will not injure the trees. No grain is ever

126 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

grown there. The ploughing is done with oxen, that there may be no whiffle-trees to
injure the bark of the young trees. At length the trees begin to blossom. Blossoms
are always pretty, but none have ever been so pretty as these. There is some young
fruit, but it falls off. No matter ; there will be the more next year. The trees now
grow beautifully ; how large, and what a dark green the leaves are ! How often the
orchard is talked about ! Every visitor must go to see the orchard. It is the Central
Park of that couple's little world.

Six, eight, and ten years have passed. Several babies — but still no "Sweet
Boughs " for summer, no " Spitzenbergs " for winter. The Apple Tree Borers are
sometimes found ; they came from the nursery in the young trees, but have been dug
out and destroyed. Some of the Pear trees have been killed with Blight. Bark lice
have been troublesome, but have been subdued by proper washes. Tent caterpillars
have come from the neighboring orchards, or the neglected hedge-rows of wild
cherry trees ; but the clusters of eggs left by the moths on the twigs have been cut
off in the winter, or the caterpillars in their nests have been killed when too young
to have done much mischief. Other enemies have been kept in subjection by this
careful, pains-taking, industrious young farmer. But the fruit all falls prematurely, and
what shall be done ?

Reader, if the ground under your fruit trees presents the appearance in midsum-
mer of the one on this Plate, either the Curculio or Apple Moth, or both, have been
there. Find out for yourself what it is, by cutting into these young fruits, and con-
trasting the living things you find there with the grub of the Curculio on Plates
3, 4, and 5, or the larva of the Apple Moth on Plate 9, Figure i. If the grub of the
Curculio has been the cause of all this falling, you know what to do. Every fruit
that is destroyed by that enemy falls to the ground with that young grub inside of it,
and continues there long enough to give the fruit-grower who chooses to destroy it,
ample time to do so. If, on the contrary, it is the larva of the Apple Moth, as it
very often is, in the Apples and Pears, then the case is different. Many of these
caterpillars, or " worms," as they are usually called, will escape from the fruit before
that fruit comes to the ground. In that event you want some way of trapping them.
It has been long known that these Apple Worms, as well as some other caterpillars,
will take advantage of the protection of cloths, old fragments of leather, pieces of boards
lying near together, &c. I have seen several notices from foreign papers recommend-

THE APPLE MOTH. 12J

ing plans of this kind for the destruction of some species of caterpillars that occasion-
ally appear in great numbers in Italy and France. Some of the agricultural papers
of our own country also state that the Apple Worm can be caught in a similar way-
Dr. Harris, in his work on Injurious Insects, mentions it ; but I do not know that
any one has ever put a plan of the kind in practice to an extent that would really
test its value.

Two years ago I took from the crotch of a young Bartlett Pear tree in the
orchard of my friend Dr. Ward, near this city, an old boot-leg that had been doubled
up and forced into that crotch. It had become so hard and dry, and the growing tree
had pressed it so closely, that it had to be cut to pieces to get it out. This was in
April. That old boot-leg contained in its different folds sixteen of the worms of the
Apple Moth, in their larva or caterpillar condition, all snugly tied up in their silken
cocoons. When these cocoons were opened the worms would creep off just as they
would have done when taken from apples or pears in the fall or summer before.
Since then I have tried everything I could think of that would be likely to suit the
fancy of these little caterpillars, having this instinctive impulse to seek out places for
concealment. The details of these various experiments will be found in the subse-
quent diary.

The result has been, that the hay-rope band, as shown in this Plate, is not only
the cheapest and most easy of application, but the best of all the contrivances that I
have tried thus far. But some people will say : It will take a great deal of hay to go
over a large orchard in this way, and hay is very dear now. I have had a long fight
with the insect enemies. There has been a good deal of wear and tear of patience.
Job was a patient man — he bore all those boils with commendable resignation.
Abraham Lincoln has been a patient man. To have borne all he has from. the rebels
on one side, and all their friends on the other, without once saying " by the Eternal,"
is a manifestation of gentleness almost superhuman. I am patient. A man who has
fought the Curculio for so many years, must be patient. But when I meet a man
who counts the cost of a yard of hay-rope, when he sees the ground covered with
worthless fruit under each of those trees he has worked at so long and so faithfully,
and with no apples, no pears, and no fruit of any kind — why then I lose my patience,
and say — no, I won't say what I would say. Reader, go with me through the fol-
lowing diary about the Apple Moth — and then conquer it.

128 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

May 26. — In an examination of a box of larvae of the Apple Moth, collected
from the bark of Apple and Pear trees during the last month (April), one had
become a moth, the others were about half in the pupa cases and half in larvae.
This is proof that there is a period of many days, indeed several weeks, between the
appearance of the first and last of these moths, the larva of which have lived
through the winter. The moths and butterflies of some species seem to come all
together. They will swarm for a brief interval, and then as suddenly disappear. Such
could be taken in the blaze of lamps or torches, as recommended by some writers ;
but these contrivances could hardly be made available for this one. This irregularity
in their appearance proves also that most of them are not ready for the fruits till they
are larger than they are now ; see Apples and Pears of this date in PL 2, under
head of Curculio.

July 14. — To-day I have wrapped hay-ropes round several Apple and Pear trees
in Mr. P.'s orchard, three coils on each — one foot and two feet from the ground — and
some round the large limbs five and six feet up ; I have also used leather (chamois
skins), old carpet, and cloths.

July 14. — Bartlett Pears show signs of Apple Moth. A very few have fallen.
The little brown dust is issuing from the blossom end, and the black decaying spot
near is to be seen in some ; in others, the slightly discolored depression. Should all
the fruit containing the larvae of this Moth fall to the ground before it escapes, it
would be as easily managed as the Curculio, by the grazing process ; but as some of
the caterpillars leave the fruit while it is still on the tree, the indications differ.

July 17. — Spent two hours to-day under Mr. P.'s Apple trees, cutting into hun-
dreds of the blighted apples lying on the ground. Any one who wishes to know
about the youthful state of the Curculio and Apple Moth can find out about it in
this way. " In some of these apples of the very early kinds, both these enemies had
escaped. In testing this matter under one such tree, where none of the fallen fruit
had been disturbed, the Apple Moth larvae had escaped in the proportion of sixty to
forty that were still to be found. Most of these forty were full grown, and ready to
leave. Under those branches of the same trees where the fruit had been picked up
a few days before, the apples that had fallen since, nearly all still contained the larva.
In the later kinds, and especially winter sorts, as Reinettes, Baldwins, Spitzenbergs,
&C., scarcely any had escaped. My experience to-day was more comforting as to
our ability to control this formidable enemy of the Apple and Pear than I had

THE APPLE MOTH. 1 29

expected. The stock that eats the fallen fruit promptly as it falls, will destroy a vast
number of this enemy as well as the Curculio. Many apples that are brought down
by the Curculio will contain the other enemy also. Some will have in them two or
even more larv£e of the Apple Moth, of different sizes, so that if the apple should
still hang on the tree till the oldest one escapes, it will be likely to fall before the
others do. In this case some will become food for the animals.

This Apple Moth enemy I found more numerous to-day in these early apples
than the Curculio. I have heard Mr. Carpenter, of Westchester County, N. Y., say,
that this was their enemy of the Apple crop, and not the Curculio; but probably
they have them both in about equal numbers, as in most other parts of the country.

It is true, undoubtedly, that many apples that have been bored through by this
insect hang on the tree till they ripen. We find such at the cider mill, and in the
market in the winter. Sometimes they will keep till spring. But suppose that all
that are brought to the ground by the falling of the fruit are at once destroyed by
the grazing stock, the aggregate will be so much diminished that the remainder will
be more at the mercy of our adjuncts — the birds and the hay-ropes.

In some few instances I have seen where this insect, in its larva condition, has
been victimized by a parasite ; but when fairly housed under the scale of bark it is
so completely out of the reach of these enemies, that we cannot rely much on them
to assist us.

July \ 8. — About one in ten of our Bartlett Pears show signs of the presence of
the Apple Moth. Nine-tenths of Mr. P.'s apples have already fallen from this and the
Curculio. Two years ago my own Bartletts were very full, and so large a portion, at
this time in the season, showed the presence of this enemy, that I determined to take
every such pear off the tree before any had escaped. As many as half a bushel of
these half-grown pears were taken from each tree at a time, and a few at intervals
afterwards, and having no pigs they were fed to the horses. Last year these Pear
trees took a rest— scarcely any fruit. Even the Bartlett has to rest sometimes — but
nearly every pear came to perfection and was immensely large. Without the
destruction of the crop of enemies in the season of full fruit, I could hardly have
expected any in the season of so few. This is the great advantage of having control
of the insect enemies of the fruits — you save the thin crops ; and these are often the
only crops of value for market. Fruit is scarce ; and then, too, the few of the thin
crop, if perfect, are so fine. We sometimes have a season of such an abundance of
nearly every kind of fruit that the insect enemies take all they want, and we hardly
miss them ; indeed, I can imagine that we may have been benefited by the thinning

13O INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

out ; but such a thinning out the next year may be fatal. This, too, is one reason of
our fruit trees taking on the bad habit of irregular bearing. A thin crop taken off
entirely by the Curculio or Apple Moth before old enough to have exhausted the
tree, will often cause it to bear profusely the next ; when, if the thin crop had been
brought to perfection it would to some extent have been exhausted, and thus guarded
against this injurious superabundance of the next year.

Much has been said about thinning out. I confess I have never seen it done.
While the fruit is small it does not look so thick ; and then, too, we cannot tell what
may happen — it is all left. My experience is, that more trees are propped up, or
broken for want of props, than are judiciously thinned out at the proper time.
Perhaps the Curculio, Apple Moth, and other enemies were made on purpose for
thinning out, and sent as a punishment for such shocking bad management as is
shown in the breaking down of fruit trees from being overloaded. Even if you
prefer to prop, let me beg of you to thin out your crop to the extent of taking off,
before the middle of July, every pear that shows the signs of this little miner. That
pear will be only a wind-fall at best ; an insipid bite on one side, and the worm that
caused it will have escaped to produce a whole brood of tormentors the next year.

July 26. — Have examined some Bartlett Pears that had fallen within the last
three days from the effect of the Apple Moth. Found none of the larva? — all had
left. This was not the case ten days ago. Then many contained them ; now, the
safest plan would be to hand-pick from the tree.

July 28. — A few Bartletts fall every day ; but the worm has now always escaped.
Stock to eat this fruit would be useless.

Aug. 2. — To-day I have uncoiled one of the hay-ropes and found snugly con-
cealed in their cocoons twenty-four of these little Apple Moth caterpillars. Some
few of the caterpillars now so plenty had also chosen the dark recesses under these
hay-bands as places of refuge. Spiders were there also. This is to be investigated
further. If none of these Apple enemies have taken refuge in the scales of bark either
above or below this trap, it augurs well for the success of this simple management

Aug. 3. — I am now on a trip of observation to Western New York, and passing
a night at Elmira. In a walk to the encampment of Rebel prisoners this evening, I
saw many Apple trees in the gardens and grounds about some of the houses. The
Apple Moth had laid the young fruit on the ground by thousands. Some trees near

THE APPLE MOTH. 13!

the doors of handsome mansions had shed so many that the ground was nearly covered
with them. Nothing was done — the fruit never picked up — both Curculio and
Apple Worm having their own way. The pigs were penned up, and were squealing
for food. They would have enjoyed this young wormy fruit, but they squealed in
vain.

'

Aug. 5. — CROOKED LAKE, YATES Co. — Plenty of marks of the Curculio on the
apples about here, and still more of the Apple Moth.

Aug. 7. — NIAGARA FALLS — GOAT ISLAND. — A few Apple trees in a garden near
the bridge. A full crop, but it will soon fall. Terribly infested with both Curculio
and Apple Moth.

Aug. 10. — Home again. Have been examining the fruit in the barrels. I had
placed, some weeks ago, a bushel of blighted apples in two old flour barrels half filled
with earth and covered with milliner., but during my absence this covering has been
disarranged, and the young enemies have mostly escaped. The Apple Moth larva
were found in great numbers wherever they could conceal themselves about the old
barrels. I observed the cocoons of six touching each other in a place where the hoop
was about an eighth of an inch from the stave. Some fifty were found about the
barrels in their larva condition, and three pupa cases. From this time I shall try to
test what proportion undergo their transformation the present season. Some cer-
tainly do, and these Moths are probably the parents of the worms we find in the
Apples and Pears so late in the summer and fall. Strange that there should be two
broods in a season of some and only one of others. This is not the only instance, but
such irregularities are rare. Bartlett Pears are still falling from the effects of the
Apple Moth, but these wind-falls will soon be all off. The crop is somewhat thinned,
but plenty left, and very fine.

Aug. 1 1. — I have at last found time to examine more carefully my Apple Moth
traps set on the 14th of last month. On a young Bartlett Pear tree in my own gar-
den, five inches through, I had wrapped a piece of Chamois leather, eighteen inches
from the ground. The leather was folded into three thicknesses, and went twice
round. It was secured by tying it firmly with twine near the upper part. The
worms in ascending could easily enter under this leather, but could not get in from
above on account of the twine acting as a ligature. Here I found twenty-one of
these worms, all snugly wrapped up in their coco,o.ns4 and ready for their long sleep.

132 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

Some were between folds of the leather, some far in the crevices, and others in the
fissures of the bark ; the leather in this case answering the same purpose as the scales
or layers of bark on Apple and Pear trees, and of course affording more protection
from birds. Two feet higher up I had wrapped three coils of hay-rope, and there I
found five more.

Aug. 12. — At Mine Hill, Morris Co., N. J. The country improved by the
rains— all green ; pasture good; none of the brown, parched appearance of Western
New York a week ago. The heat, though severe, is not at all so oppressive as in
the cities. Here I can rest ; sleep comes again ; can sleep in the woods or under the
Apple trees. The heated brain is cooling off; the tension relaxing ; mind is return-
ing, and I am beginning to think. Apples fall around me, not at regular intervals, but
often, day and night. A breeze rattles them down — all — all wind-falls. Attraction
of gravitation brings them to the ground, but the Apple Moth gives gravitation the
chance. Sleep again, and dream about Newton, the Principia, and Fruit enemies.
Wake up ; cut apples till knife and hands are black and sticky ; find no grubs of the
Curculio, but hundreds and thousands of their marks. From some cause or other,
they have come to an early end — generally before they had destroyed the vitality of
the apple. The Codling Moth enemy is the present cause of the most of this drop-
ping. In cutting into these apples I often fijid one of the caterpillars, plump, full
grown, and pink-colored, but most of them have already escaped ; their excavations
like black and mouldy caverns, the little pellets of their castings tied up together
with silken cor 's, and often stowed away in some deserted part.

As this caterpillar approaches full growth it makes an opening, generally
through one side of the Apple or Pear, sometimes near the stem, occasionally at the
blossom end, and there will be collections of the drillings pushed out, often looking
like the chips in the side of a gimlet after boring unseasoned hemlock wood. This
hole will sometimes remain plugged up for a time with these borings, and if you
make an examination then, the worm will be found; but soon it will push out this
plug and escape, whether the fruit is on the tree or on the ground. It has now come
to the end of the eating period of life. In those Apples and Pears that ripen early,
they mostly fall before the worm is grown, and it would then become the victim of
the domestic animals, if these animals could have the chance ; but at this time of the
season most of the fruit hangs on till after the worm has escaped.

When it leaves the fruit, whether by day or night ; and how it comes down
the tree, whether by a cord or by creeping; it is hard to know, The next business is
to find a suitable place of concealment from its enemies, and there to form its little

THE APPLE MOTH. 133

cocoon. An old flour barrel will be used freely. The openings between the hoops
and staves; the cracks between the staves that do not fit close; little pieces of split
sticks tied together as faggots ; two pieces of boards placed together and laid on the
ground, or stood up endwise under or near the trees, will all attract them, especially
if those trees are so young as not yet to have rough, scaly bark.

Some caterpillars are very particular as to where they attach their cocoons, but
this one seems to have little choice. Wormy fruit carried into the house will prove
this; the escaping caterpillars will find places to suit them in your furniture, your
books, old papers, your clothing. I try so many experiments during the summer
in my insect investigations, that I forget some of them. I have filled my pockets to
repletion with the wind-falls of the little early pears, such as Doyenne d'ete, Made-
leine, etc. This coat has sometimes been hung up in a wardrobe, and the pears for-
, gotten until they were too soft, and the worms have escaped. There will be slight
obstructions in putting that coat on the next time. The sleeves will be found tied
in places with little cocoons ; pockets contracted. Where it hung in folds, will be
little spots of flossy silk ; and when these various cocoons are broken up, as they will
be when it is put on, that coat will be found in a very wormy condition ; and then
if the hands are thrust into the pockets before remembering the summer pears —
what a muss !

But in large orchards of older Pear and Apple trees, the rough bark seems the
chief resort of this little insect. The layers or scales become the homes of nearly all.
By placing these worms on such trees, as I have often done, and watching their habits,
the instinct or reason, or whatever it may be called, becomes a matter of interest.
How often they will peep into small crevices, and then out again! Sometimes they
will creep in and come out at the opposite side, soon satisfied that they will not suit ;
sometimes remaining many minutes, and then looking further. When the proper"
place is at length found, little cavities will be dug out in the adjoining layers (Plate
10, Figure i), and a firm border of silk will be made, inclosing these two cavities, and
tying the scale to the true bark, and this often preventing those scales from falling off",
as they would be likely to do by the warping liable to be occasioned by sudden
changes of weather.

Aug. 20. — Many of the first crop of the larva? of the Apple Moth are now
matured — become Moths. That question is settled ; there are two generations of this
destructive pest in the same year. The Moths of the early summer are not those of
this generation ; these live but a few days. The twenty-one larvse I took from under
a leather round a Bartlett Pear tree some days ago, and which I placed in a large
paper box, have all formed strongly-made cocoons. Three small pieces of the staves

134 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

of an old flour barrel were put into the box, lying one on the other; they are now all
tied together firmly.

Avg, 23. — I have to-day been examining my various hay-rope traps that were
applied on the 14th of last month. I find that they should have been attended to
sooner. About one in five of the worms have gone through their transformation and
become Moths, leaving only the empty pupa case. Ninety-seven had taken refuge
under one of these hay-ropes on an Apple tree (PI. 1 1) ; forty-two under another;
twenty-seven under another, and six under one that had been applied to a single
branch of a tree. When three coils were made of this rope the worms were mostly
found between the first and second coil, counting from the ground. They do not
secrete themselves in the hay, but under it. If there are scales of bark on the tree,
some use them also as an additional covering ; but most of these had dug out little
excavations, saucer-shaped cavities, in the bark, round the edges of which they had
made their silken cocoons, and this cocoon lies in the dark protected space between
the little concavity and the hay-rope, bound to the bark on one side, but not usually
having any connexion with the hay on the other. This contrivance seems peculiarly
attractive to these worms. The tree was large, and old enough to have the body well
covered with scales of bark, under which they usually conceal themselves; but upon
a careful examination only one could be found either above or below that was not
immediately under the rope. These experiments so far are satisfactory. Leather,
old clothes, and pieces of carpet, are all found to be attractive also, but in every
instance where I have used either of these I have found more cocoons outside of them
than where the hay has been applied. If the hay-rope will catch ninety-seven out of
ninety-eight that take to the trees, it will prove an effectual way of getting rid of this
most formidable enemy; and it is hardly possible to find any other material so cheap
or so easy of application. In examining the trap, all that is necessary is to slip it up
the body of the tree a few inches, and all the little cocoons, with the worms inside of
them, are so perfectly exposed that nothing remains to be done but to crush them
with the palm of the hand, either with or without gloves; then push the rope back
again to the same place, or lower if necessary to make it as tight as it will well bear
without breaking. One rope will last the season if carefully managed.

Pupa cases of the White Moth were found here. In opening one a swarm of
two or three hundred little Ichneumon Flies came out. Others full of the maggots
of these little parasites were found. These correspond in size and appearance to
the Mitrogaster of Entomologists. They have all the characteristics of the Ich-
neumon class ; the four wings, long, restless antennae, and the constant motion. How

THE APPLE MOTH.

'35

wonderful these transmutations in the insect world ! First the egg, then the caterpillar,
then the pupa — then should be that beautiful white moth, but instead out comes this
swarm of little flies. No wonder there have been people who believed in the trans-
migration of souls.

My friend Mr. P., who owns this fruit establishment where I pass so much of
my time, was with me to-day when I was examining these hay-ropes, and watching
the experiments with much interest; and when they were all counted where ninety-
seven were found on the one tree, he remarked, " That will do — I can now save my
apples. Instead of eight or ten to a tree I can have as many bushels." He has now
promised to change his mind upon the subject of his insect enemies ; and next year
he will follow my directions and save his fruit.

Aug. 30. — Examined some of the hay-ropes again to-day. Under the one where
I had found ninety-seven a few days ago, there were now ten more. These I brought
home and placed on the ground near the foot of a Pear tree bound with a leather trap
one and a half feet up. Most of them started at once to this tree, and were in a few
minutes secreted under the leather. Three seemed to have lost the power of loco-
motion, remaining on the ground, where they were soon found and devoured by a
community of small ants living in that neighborhood. So it goes — the destroyers of
the apples were destroyed by ants.

I

Sept. 7. — I have taken to-day eight more Apple Worms from that tree in Mr.
P.'s orchard, and have searched the tree faithfully both above and below the hay-rope,
but find none except under the rope. These eight I placed near the root of the
Bartlett Pear tree. They ran a little wild at first, but were soon all directed towards
the tree, and in fifteen minutes were snugly secreted under the sheep-skin eighteen
inches up. This kind of trap can be made effectual in subduing this formidable
enemy. More experience seems to be only accumulative of what is fully proved.
Whether it is better than anything else will require more time to ascertain ; but if
other contrivances should be found superior to this, the worms will certainly have but
a poor chance to escape when they come to be generally used.

Sept. 8. — Visited orchards in the neighborhood of Clinton, Hunterdon Co., N. J.
Find the Apples badly marked by both Curculio and Apple Moth. The bird enemy
of the latter has been here too. Plenty of holes where it has pecked through.
Fruit cultivation but little attended to in this neighborhood except the Peach, and the

136 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

management of that is indifferent. The soil is suitable, and the crops would be good
if better managed.

Sept. 13. — At the American Pomological Convention, Rochester, N. Y. ; repre-
sentatives from all the Loyal States, and some from Canada.

The fruits on the tables were fine, and in great variety — Pears, Apples, Plums,
and Grapes.

By one who has not cultivated a propensity to seek out the blemishes in the
fruits caused by the insect enemies, most of those on exhibition here would have
been pronounced fine ; but upon a close examination by eyes like mine, where the
focus is fixed on defects, of the hundreds of plates, not one in twenty contained
fruits that were all sound. Three-fourths had Curculio marks, and one-half had been
more or less tampered with by the Apple Moth.

I was speaking on this subject to a company of delegates from different sections
of country, when one from Wayne Co., N. Y., pointed to some of his on a table
near us, as all sound. This challenged an examination, when more than half were
found specked by one or the other, or both of these enemies.

If these specimen fruits were so defective, showed such evidence of the ene-
mies, we may infer that those left at home, from which these were selected, were
much worse ; showing unmistakably that the time is rapidly coming when something
must be done, or all will perish when there is a thin crop to begin with, and most
that are left of the plentiful crops will be seriously blemished.

But the mischief has now become so manifest that I found it easy to produce a
decided impression upon the delegates by some remarks I was called upon to make,
and many expressed themselves under great obligations for the information I had
given them.

Sept. 20. — Examined my worm traps again to-day. My previous accounts have
been chiefly of one tree, and on that one I found twenty-four more. This is an
Apple tree thirty inches in diameter, about twenty-three years old, and this year
having at first quite a full crop. It had been several days since my last visit, and
many of these worms had changed considerably in appearance, but the most of them
were of the bright red or pink color, and active when exposed.

I examined several neighboring trees where no hay-traps had been applied, and
could find plenty of these worms, but none on the others except under the hay.
My good opinion of this mode of controlling this enemy is becoming more
and more confirmed ; and although new, I shall not hesitate to advise its general
use.

THE APPLE MOTH.

Sept. 22. — Was at Trenton to-day. The fruit in market here is more disfigured
by the enemies than I have seen it anywhere else this season.

Sept. 22. — Visited the old orchard, and found plenty of apple worms under the
scales of bark. Did all the apples containing the larvae of the Apple Moth fall to
the ground while they are yet in them, as is so generally the case with the young
Curculio, they would have been destroyed by this herd of cows, and I should have
been unable to find them under the bark on the bodies of the trees.

Sept. 26. — Was at the rooms of the Farmers' Club in New York to-day, but the
Horticultural Exhibition interfered with the meeting. The display. of fruits was
good, in some respects superior to that at Rochester. The Pears were very fine, and
some collections little injured by the insect enemies, but the Apples were much
specked. I examined carefully twenty-six plates of the latter, with five and six
specimens on each, and only eight were perfectly sound. Not one plate with all
perfect. The Apple Moth had done the greatest injury, but the Curculio had been
meddling with a great many of them. Some of the collections of Pears had also
been seriously injured. Even Quinces showed marks of both enemies.

Sept. 28. — Made another examination of the same worm trap, but found only
two. The run is evidently nearly over.

Sept. 29. — Visited Easton, Pennsylvania, to attend the exhibition of the State
Agricultural Society. The weather was very wet and disagreeable. Saw nothing .
except the fruit. The Curculio and Apple Moth had made their marks on this
Pennsylvania fruit even more abundantly than on the New York fruits, at the Ame-
rican Institute in the city, or at the Pomological Convention at Rochester. Nearly
all the Apples on the tables looked like wind-falls, and ripened prematurely. I
sometimes visit the markets in Philadelphia, in the winter, and for some years past
have seen more New York (or western) apples there than of their own native kinds.
This was not formerly so.

Oct. i. — Mr. Freeman, of South Orange, in this County, five miles from New-
ark, told me to-day that common apples were selling for 30 and 40 cents per
bushel. Many have been sold as high as 60 cents for Harrison and Canfield ; and
the cider made from these two kinds finds a ready sale at $9 oo a barrel. He told
me also that most of the cider-makers would not buy them, because " they were so
generally bored by worms as to be dry, making but little cider." This is another

INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT.

phase of the Apple Moth question. -Newark cider has been celebrated for many
years, and commands a very high price. The best is made of a mixture of the
Canfield and Harrison apples, and many farmers in Eastern New Jersey have large
orchards, almost exclusively of these two kinds, but the Borers, Tent Caterpillars,
Curculio, and Apple Moth have become such formidable enemies that the business is
nearly given up, and must soon be abandoned altogether, unless these insect pests are
resolutely met and conquered.

Oct. 6. — Have again examined my hay-trap on the tree at Mr. P.'s, but found
only one worm. I have looked carefully again to-day, both above and below this
trap, and find one more outsider. I have caught nearly 200 under the hay-band on
this tree, and only two outside of it. A further examination on neighboring trees
shows a great number of these worms in their usual winter quarters under the bark.
From these experiments it looks as if one of these hay-traps to a tree would take all,
or so nearly all, that but few would be left for the birds.

Oct. 16. — Passed two hours to-day in an orchard, a few miles from the city,
examining the Apple and Pear trees. I found great numbers of the larvae of the
Apple Moth snug and close in their winter quarters. It is easy to see also where
many more have been equally snug in other years, but had been found by their bird
enemy. I observe no signs yet that these birds have commenced their searches this
fall. Fewer holes are made by these birds near the ground than higher up. I find a
few fresh-made holes on some of the Apple trees here, made by the Sapsucker.

Oct. 30. — The Apples in the New York market are now fine — many of them
what they should be, perfectly sound. They are chiefly from Western New York,
and bear strong marks of having come from the counties bordering on Lake Ontario;
and any one accustomed to watching closely the fruit from that section will soon be
able to distinguish it. But with all their perfections there are still enough blemished
to tell that both Curculio and Apple Moth are there. Should all the apple-growers
in that section of Western New York resolutely determine to conquer these enemies,
41 they would have the means of accumulating wealth beyond the dreams of avarice,"
as Johnson says.

Nov. 1 8. — Spent an hour to-day in examining the bodies of two old dwarf Pear
trees in Mr. P.'s garden, near his asparagus bed, and found sixty of the asparagus
beetles under the same -kind of scales of bark where the larvje of the Apple Moth
are found — where lady-bugs, bouncing beetles, flies, and spiders are found. The day

THE APPLE MOTH. 139

was mild, and all these were only semi-torpid. These asparagus beetles in several
instances were snugly occupying the deserted cocoons made by the caterpillars of the
Apple Moth. Possibly the hay-rope trap would suit the fancy of these pests. Will
certainly try next year. I found about twenty of the Apple Worms on these two
trees. »

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