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106 PRUITS IN THEIR SEASON.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* Xii. The Pi/Um. Fkom The Wave-Hollowed...
diameter by 2 J , with the furrow very slightly marked except just near the stalkand in colorwhen fullripeis deep yellowrelieved
; , y , , with pale - crimson , either suffused in a blush on the sunny side , or scattered in dots upon the cheek . The stalkwhich is a little
, downy , is scarcely a quarter of an inch long ; and on the whole the fruit is not unlike in appearance to its pomal compatriots , the
little American lady apples . It ripens in August , and the flesh is yellowfirmand very sweet and luscious .
The , same , influences , however , which foster vegetative luxuriance act with equal power upon its great antagonisminsect life ; and
, the ardent American sun , which mellows the fruit to unusual size and savoralso warais into existence more determined foes than
have ever , attacked it in our cooler clime . The two great obstacles to plum culture in the United States , and which prevail in some
districts to so great a degree as almost to destroy the value of the treeare the " knots / ' a disease which appears in the form of
, tumors on the bark , and the cause of which is not yet satisfactorily ascertained ; and the far more deadly " eurculis" scientifically
, termed the Hhynchoemus Nenuphar , or plum weevil , an insect which is the special bane of all smooth stone fruit in America . A
week or two after the blossom has fallen , the small newly-formed fruit begins to show the little half-moon-shaped mark which denotes
that the destroyer has marked it for his own , and , if the tree be then struck , down falls a shower of the insects drawn up as if dead ,
the frightened dissimulators looking , while in this state of collapse , merely like a number of hemp-seedsbut on recovering their
, natural appearance , they are seen to be little dark-brown spotted beetles , scarcely one-third of an inch long , with two camel-like humps
on their backs ; a long curved snout which when at rest is bent between their fore legsand a pair of wings . These devastators
, have been employed in depositing their eggs , one in each plum , from which a progeny of grubs are hatchedwhich begin to eat
, their way to the stone ; and as soon as this is reached—that is to say , early in July—the cultivator , who has watched the trees blossom
well and the fruit set in abundance and become half-grown , has the mortification of seeing it nearly all fall to the ground spoiled and
useless ; while the grub enters the soil and hides there in safety till ready to emerge again , transformed , and recommence its attacks .
Finding an easy passage through light sandy soils , it is in such localities that it chiefly abounds , and being found rarely troublesome '
in heavy ground , and scarcely seen in the case of trees planted in well-trodden placesthe plan was tried of paving or spreading hard
cement under the trees , , an expedient which proved highly successful . It is then only necessary to turn a few swine into the orchard to
dispose at once of the fallen fruit before its uninvited tenant quits nex possession t year , and so that the vi ctory insects is comp may let survive e , and t he renew cultivat or once campai more gn
u worth a plum . "
106 Pruits In Their Season.
106 PRUITS IN THEIR SEASON .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1861, page 106, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101861/page/34/
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