Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1886-07-09
Fowls and curculios.
I E. Sublette,

The distinctions occasioned by |
the insigniticant-looking curculio
is so great in many places that
people have been compelled to let
their plum-trees die natural
death, without ever having paid, |
by single year of fruitage, for
the care and expense bestowed
upon them:
The simple method proposed of
late years for the preservation of
this desirable fruit, which comes
In TO eating between the cherries |
and other small fruits and the au-
tumnal fruits-pears, grapes,
peaches, etc.-has been to give a
sudden jar with billet of wood to |
plum-trees, when the plum is in its
earliest forming stage, thereby
dislodging the curculio and caus-
ing it TO drop into sheets which
You have spread beneath the tree.
Even then the sly creatures may
elude your vigilance, for they curl
themselves up and look so like an
innocent dry bud that, unless you
know their aspect and their tricks
thoroughly, they will cheat you
into casting them out with the
other bits of sticks; and they
''laugh in their sleeve" as they re-
ascend your favorite fruit tree and
proceed to puncture the little
green balls with their crescent
shaped bite, and insert therein
the embryo maggot which shall, at
the same time blight your plums
and your hopes.
Those who keep fowls have sur
er and more convenient remedy
for this difficulty always at hand. |
The curculio burrows in the earth
and as the time for the setting of
its favorite fruit approaches it
crawls into the light and looks
about for awhile before attempt
ing to climb or to fly. Then is
the time to nip it in the bud"
Your fowls relish the little Great
ure with the big name, and by al
lowing them to patrol the grounds
beneath the trees, they will capture
every one, and few months later
your fruit dish and preserving can
may be filled with this delicious
fruit.
"The Woods are Full of New Breeds
of Fowls"
the names of some of which we
recently published. Until very
recent date, it was comparatively
easy to introduce a new breed, and
to secure quite a list of purchasers
for it, no matter whether the new
acquisition possessed economy,
valuable or distinctive character
istics. Some of these new breeds
were claimed to possess all the
good and desirable qualities of
other breeds in an intensified or
superlative from, SO far superior
to anything before produced that
it would seem that man could not
possibly make any further i'm
provements, the limit. having al
ready been reached Ii all this
had been true, and had experience
with the new breed fully substan-
tiated the manifold claims made
for it, other breeds would have, by
this time, become thing of the
past. Fortunately, however, for
the salvation of the many desir-
able breeds we now have, but I'M
fortunately for the oversanguinie
and easily duped purchasers, such
CLAIMS could not be shown to be
true.
A breed which is superior in
every point to all other breeds
cannot, in the very nature of
things, ever be produced, for it
would be about ON a par with the
patent medicines which cure all
diseases and other ills, from a
broken neck to collapsed pocket
book. 1t should be borne in mind
that when one quality is intensif-
ed it is at the expense, of other
qualities; and this is just as true
with one kind of live stock as an
other, poultry being no exception
to the rule. If the laying quail
ties are brought to the highest de-
gree of desirability, other qualities
such as size, ETC., are sure to suffer.
When the effort has been to pro-
duce unusually heavy birds, it has
been done at the expense of form,
beauty, and laying qualities. So
it is with cattle, sheep, hogs, ETC.,
for who ever saw superior mixers
or renowned butter animals which
could be classed as unusually
choice and heavy beef animals?
We are always pleased to note
the advent of new breeds, when
they have distinctive qualities to
recommend them, and there are
always plenty of willing purchas-
ers ready to give them first trial;
but when the claims are SO broad
as to cover everything, the cover
ing becomes SO thin and fimsy as
to be readily seen through by all