Microscopic Insects The Cause Of Pear Blight

No, sir. We fear growers cannot admit that doctrine yet. The work of insects always gives token of mischief before the work of death is done. The pear blight does no such thing. Tou may walk out among your trees at evening, the branches fresh with the greenest leaves, and the young twigs in their most succulent growth, and the next day noon will show you one of the same branches withering, brown, and dead. That is fire blight. We know not what strange anomalies exist in Illinois, above and beyond our other states, but if report be true, the " old French pear trees" of Kaskaskia, and other early settlements of that state, are now as fresh and luxuriant as those of Detroit and the river Raisin. Let us wait a little and see what our other nomologists have to say upon this new theory of Prof. Turner.

Microscopic Photographs

Some microscopic photographs exhibited at Manchester, Eng., the other day, excited much admiration. One, of the size of a pin's head, when magnified several hundred times, was seen to contain a group of seven portraits of members of the artist's family, the likenesses being admirably distinct. Another microscopic photograph, of still less size, represented a mural tablet, erected to the memory of Wil-Ham Sturgeon, the electrician, by his Manchester friends, in Kirkby Lonsdale church. This little tablet covered only l-900th part of a superficial inch, and contained 680 letters, every one of which could be distinctly seen by the aid of the microscope.

Microscopic Vivarium

A narrow glass shade, similar to those used to cover ormolu clocks, is cemented upside down on a wooden stand. Against this the microscope is placed, the thinness of the glass allowing the use of a half-inch object lens.

With this apparatus, a good instrument introduces us to a world of wonders. But those who possess no microscope, need not despair of amusement There is a field for life-long research and interesting study in that which can be seen by the unassisted, but observing eye. And should the owner possess the glass of faith, he has a still better prospect in view, for "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him".

Mignonette In France

One Nurseryman in the Rue Montgalet, Paris, sells every year about 40,000 pots of Mignonette. This gives some idea of its popularity among the French.

The Milam Apple

This apple has obtained some celebrity at the west, and has been widely, though not abundantly cultivated. Its quality as given in the following extract from a letter of Dr. Kexnicott, of Northern Illinois, agrees with specimens we have received from Cincinnati. "Perhaps I did not name a celebrated Indiana and Illinois apple, called " Milam" - my brother and several neighbors have many trees of this common western variety - we have ouly one, and do not propagate it. This apple is barely "good" and is no great bearer here, whatever it may be elsewhere. I know a dozen trees 20 years old, which do not produce as much as one tree of the size ought to bear. And then we have certainly two, and perhaps more varieties under this name. All that can be said in favor of the Milam is that it is not a bad apple - is pretty, though small, - pleasant, but rather insipid - and where it produces well, as it is said to do at the south, and no better can be had, it should be cultivated".