One of the most valuable exercises that the devotees of gardening can indulge in, is to look closely into the causes of every occurrence within their experience. On our table some one placed a specimen of the common Cydonia, or Pyrus Japonica. A couple of weeks in a warm room caused it to shrink and become wrinkled. A week afterwards there were two cracks in it, just as in a fruit "cracked" as we often see them, when in, as we all suppose, a diseased state. Two bright youths came in and had a discussion why that pear cracked.

" Because it has shrunk," said the other.

This was disputed by the party of the first part "because the whole fruit has shrunk, and in the shrinking the fruit has split".

The answer to this was, " If the whole fruit has shrunk, how could it crack? If the fruit swelled instead of shrinking, cracking could be under stood".

The reply seemed to stagger the other for a few moments, but he came again to the attack: "Because the skin has shrunk more rapidly than the pulp," and he evidently had the debate in his favor. And we may apply this to the ordinary cracking of fruits. ■ They probably crack because the skin contracts when the pulp does not. It is not a full explanation, because we do not know why the skin contracts, but the point gained brings us nearer to the answer.