Dear Sir - I notice you invite horticulturists and others to contribute to your valuable Journal, even rough notes of experience; accepting your invitation, I will speak of the curculio, that most uncompromising enemy of the plum.

Last year my plum trees blossomed well, as they have done for some years past, though I have not been able to raise scarcely a single perfect plum during the time; and I determined, if possible, to prevent the ravages of the curculio, at least in part. When the fruit got to be about the size of a pea, I made it a practice to shake two of the trees every morning, having a cloth under the tree, in which to catch the little "Turk;" this I continued to do until the fruit began to turn color, though I caught but few towards the last. The result was gratifying; I had a good crop of fine fruit. With another tree I proceeded as follows, though I did not commence until some of the fruit was punctured. I dusted the entire tree with air slaked lime, applying it when the dew was on, that it might adhere to the fruit; this I renewed every time it was washed off by rains, until the plums were nearly ripe; those previously punctured dropped off, but I think there were few if any injured alter the first application of the lime. There was another circumstance, however, connected with this experiment, which may in part account for the preservation of the plums; hens and chickens run at large under the tree.

It stood on high, dry land, the variety was "Prince's Imperial Gage."

A few words respecting warts on plum and cherry trees, and I am done.

In your last number, your correspondent, 0. of Owego, says he has made some efforts to discover the insect which causes these unseemly excrescences, but thus far has failed. He further says he has tried to batch the larvae which is found in them, but they have soon died. Last summer, being in the garden of a neighbor, I noticed that his cherry trees were badly warted; with his permission I cut off some of these warts, and taking them home, picked out the larvae carefully, and placed them under an inverted tumbler partly filled with earth, where in the course of ten or twelve days, more or less, (I did not note the exact time,) they became - curculios; soon after having passed through this transformation, they died. Whether the curculio was the cause of the excrescence in which I found it, is more than I can say; I will leave it for others to decide. I would add, in conclusion, that though my plums have nearly all been destroyed in years past, by the curculio, still I have never seen two dozen warts on any or all of my trees.

Yours truly,

J. F. C. H

Newton Centre, Mass., May 5,1851