Mr. Baldwin's was kept free from insects, and its fruit would average from eight to ten pounds, instead of two and three, the weight of the former culture. Now here was a principle made clear, that plants in a bad condition were infested with insects produced by a certain culture, and the same plants in a good condition were kept free, and this change brought about not by favorite nostrums, but by cultivation alone. Before I proceed any further with my observations upon this interesting and important subject, permit me to explain to the Society my own views. I speak advisedly, I speak from the experience of new countries, from the experience of practiced agriculturists in them, that in no possible way can insects be destroyed, but by cultivation, though the contents of Apothecaries' Hall should be emptied upon the land. But on the contrary, I am certain, from constant watchings, that any material that will destroy insects, will destroy vegetation first. I have mentioned the case of the Pine Apple, as being continually infested with insects, when under artificial cultivation, as was followed before Mr. Baldwin's time, in order to show that good husbandry alone is required to stay the progress of insects, if not ultimately to exterminate them.

The plah I have laid down for the exposition and elucidation of my observations is the following.

1st: I aim to prove by practical illustrations, that any practice which is not based upon good husbandry is ineffectual in diminishing, or in destroying insects.

2d:-I aim to prove by similar reasonings, that good husbandry alone is sufficient both to destroy, and effectually exterminate them.

In Great Britain, that the table of the wealthy may be as well supplied in the winter as in the summer months, fruit trees and vegetables undergo what is termed, artificial cultivation. Now it might be supposed, that plants, within the limits of a small Hot-House could be easily kept free from insects by manual application; but the case was the reverse, it seemed to increase them, and subsequent experience proved, that such really was the case. Before the introduction of hot water into forcing houses, they were heated by coal fires through the medium of brick flues. Now the advantages appertaining to the hotwater pipes, over the old brick flues are these :-The former gives out a moist temperature, which is of the first importance to healthy

vegetation; it is regular, and under control, while the latter gives out dry, harsh heat, ever varying, subjecting the plants to sudden overflowings of sap, and at other times, to an insufficiency; consequently, the health of the plant was impaired, and became immediately infested with those insects which are fostered in a dry atmosphere, such as the scale and the red spider, so prevalent on these islands. Plants growing in a temperature produced by the hot water, arrive to a better condition, and give out no food to insects. Thus the practice as introduced by Mr. Baldwin, in the case of the Pine apple, was found fifty years afterwards to be applicable to all the departments of gardening, with the same success as regards the destruction of pernicious insects.

About forty years ago, the Apple orchards of the cider counties of England, felt severely the ravages of what is termed American blight, having obtained that name from the supposition of its having originated in that country, identified as the Aphis lanigera of naturalists. This insect in a few years reached every apple tree in the country. The means made use of by the proprietors and others, was to have the trees well washed and anointed with a mixture of train oil, soot, soaplees and sulphur. As long as the trees were laboured on, they were kept clean above ground, but they simultaneously appeared on the disuse of the brush, the trees sickened, the fruit becoming smaller, flavorless, and speckled, certain indications of diseased roots. came necessary to investigate more closely, to find out the habits of the animal, and to learn its habitats. It was ascertained to make its appearance first at the roots, causing large nodes at every joint, stopping the free circulation of the sap; hence the smallness and diminishing flavor of the fruit. Now here was a disease threatening the existence of every apple tree in England, every garden and orchard being more or less infected, every known means was exhausted, and of no avail in counteracting this scourge. It was advised, that the most affected trees should be removed and many proprietors, acting upon that advice, destroyed some of their most valuable trees; still the insect was on the increase. In Great Britain, that a full dessert should be afforded throughout the year, the apple is grown against walls and espaliers; consequently to fall in with the higher state of cultivation, four things were essential, flavor, size, form and color,

to obtain which all depends upon cultivation. Gardeners when compelled to the enquiry by the failure of what may be termed local application, discovered, like Mr. Baldwin, with the Pine Apple, that means that will assist the growth of a plant, are the only means that will destroy or prevent the attack of insects.

Apple trees against walls and espaliers were found unaffected or in some cases only slightly, while the orchards within a few yards were becoming annihilated. Here was the remedy found, apply the same cultivation to the one as you have done to the other and the result will be the same.

Now it appears to me, the inference to be drawn from the fact of the trees being more or less infected in the one case than in the other are these, that vegetation carried on under impoverished circumstances, which is tantamount to bad cultivation, induces ultimately, disease, and it is proved by innumerable examples that insects are only found upon sickly and bark growing plants as they are only found upon sickly animals. It will be easy to trace out the causes of the appearances of insects, by tracing out the causes which induce disease. Then if these conclusions are correct, the same remedy will apply to every department of the vegetable economy.

If we examine the cultivation of the orchards of England in former times, the above reasonings will be further illustrated. We find the practice to be the following. The land was constantly under green crops, for six or seven years, or until the trees began to shade, when it was laid down, or allowed to go into grass. They received no pruning, unless thinning, or lopping off some strolling branches may be called pruning. Now as soon as the trees received any check from a dry season, or exhausted soil, (brought on by coarse and heavy cropping,) they would bear beyond their power, disease would ensue, then the insects would appear.

The insects were already there, the long grass and weeds were their nurseries, and what better habitat could the insect require to shelter and sustain its progeny than decaying and decayed vegetation could afford? Such was orchard culture in former times, when insects were doing well. Returning to the means gardeners made use of to destroy the apple blight the orchards were placed under cultivation, they laid bare the roots of the trees, as much as was safe; cut them

back to increase their fibres, in order that the sap should be better distilled, added more food by annual coats of manure, and above all, placed the land in fallow. In a few years, the trees recovered from their consumptive condition, and the insects disappeared. My observations hitherto have been confined to the management of the Aphides as being one of the most destructive family of insects Pomerian vegetation had to contend with, and which had baffled for so many years the most skillful and experienced, but at the present time, offers no resistence to a judicious and well managed husbandry. Two other families of insects known to cultivators, by the name of the Thrips, and Red Spider. These insects are endowed with a constitution suitable to all climates. They attack the leaves of the plant, destroying its essential qualities and bring on a state of vegetation favorable to the appearance of others.

Leguminous Plants are subject to these destructive insects more than other family of Plants. Peas and beans in their commencing stages of decay are never in any country free from them; wherever the bean and pea will grow there will also be found the Red Spider ; the peach and vine are also their favorite food.

The practice of cropping the peach borders, went on as long as the sorts cultivated were confined to the Royal George, and others of equally as coarse a kind, but as soon as the French Peaches were introduced, being more delicate in flavor, more tender and fine in growth, the insects attacked them with such force, that it was impossible to mature a crop. The Garden Engine was set to work, lime water, and tobacco water were worked over them but were ineffectual in clearing them away. As soon as the fruit was advanced, the engine could not be used. They again would appear destroying the bloom of the fruit, and rendering it colorless, small, and of no flavor.

The practice of cropping fruit borders has been abandoned for some time. They are kept free from weeds, periodically trenched, manured, and thrown into fallow, the whole of the winter months; and that husbandry has worked out every insect of those families from the Lands End to Johny Groats.

Before the time the knowledge of the influence the atmosphere had upon soils had reached gardeners, they allowed their lands to rest and

the weeds to grow, believing their being dug in was highly enriching to the soil, never dreaming of the fertile nurseries of slugs and bots it was fostering. In those days, nothing was heard of but the destruction of spring crops, and often lucky was that individual, who could obtain a sprinkling of a crop, if the season was unfavorable. After repeated sowings and plantings, if the season was wet, the bots and slugs would prevail; if a dry one, the plants would be devoured by the caterpillars and fly. Then the favorite remedies might have been seen lime half an inch thick spread over the land, and soot if obtainable used equally as liberal. The animals would retire till the rain came on, and soon made the crops reward them for their fasting.Such was gardening years ago; now we will look into the practice of horticulture at the present, time, under which practice, insects of every destructive kind-have disappeared from all well managed gardens. Cross cropping has been entirely abandoned. Young crops

are kept clean from weeds, flat hoed two or three times during their growth, for the purpose of destroying all insective larvæ that may be buried, the exposing of it to the atmosphere seems to destroy its vitality; therefore, the constant moving the surface of the soil to about four inches, is of the greatest importance, independent of its other benefits. As soon as the crops are removed, the land is immediately cleaned, and all decaying vegetation burnt or removed, not dug in, and if not immediately required, the land is thrown into fallow.

I will now enter into the practice of the flower garden which affords a field of detail, under a variety of circumstances, and where opposite culture will show both the bane and antidote. It often happens, for certain ends, it is necessary to throw a plant into a diseased state, for the purpose of originating a different coloured, or variegated foliage. As soon as the plant is brought from good cultivation into bad, on comes the insects, and the injury the plant sustains from their attacks confirms often the tendencies of the plant. If we look into the three divisions of plants usually appropriate to the flower garden, we find flowering shrubs more subject to insects than herbaceous plants, and herbaceous plants more than annuals; and again, we find single flowering plants more disposed to insects than double; and without entering into the physiological cause, it is sufficient to seek the solution in