After the dozen are placed in position, the box is filled up with the grass and screwed down, and will travel a thousand miles without the slightest injury, provided the fruit has been gently handled in the process of packing. This is the way I have packed all the fruit for my employer's table during the London season for years past, and I have reason to know that every fruit sent from here has arrived and been placed upon his table in perfect condition, although the distance they travelled was over 400 miles, the number of boxes sent each year averaging thirty.

The principal diseases to which the Peach and Nectarine are subject in this country are canker, gum, and mildew. Canker is generally the result of the trees being planted in a too deep, damp, and uncongenial soil. To remedy this, upon the first appearance of the disease let the trees be lifted and replanted in well-made new borders after the manner already described, and the result will be new vigour and health to the tree, unless the disease has got too firm a hold upon its constitution. Gum is generally the result of bad pruning, or carelessness with the hammer or any other instrument in bruising and wounding the bark or branches of the tree. To prevent this, careful management is the antidote. If, however, the disease appears to any great extent, the best plan is to remove the tree altogether, and have it replaced by a young healthy one. Mildew is a disease to which some of the varieties of the Peach are more liable than others; and from this fact I conclude that, although the disease is to a certain extent the result of external agencies, yet from constitutional weakness some sorts are more liable to the attack than others.

I have always noticed that mildew follows on the trail of a continuation of cold, parching weather, with the wind blowing from the east or north-east. In genial and showery weather we seldom see any traces of it, so that certain conditions of the atmosphere, with the wind in certain quarters, has much to do with its attacks. Where the trees are regularly syringed with water, even should such weather prevail for a time, the attack will not be so severe as those which have not been syringed. The best remedy, however, and also the best preventive, is flower of sulphur applied with a sulphurator upon the first appearance of the disease, or, what is perhaps better, let it be applied as soon as there is the least appearance of a continuation of such weather as would be likely to court its presence. The only other disease to which it is necessary to call the attention of the Peach cultivator is blistering, wrinkling, and curling of the leaves. The cause of this may be looked for in badly-prepared, too deep, cold, and wet borders; in fact, it is the usual precursor of canker, and traceable to the same causes.

Seeing this to be the case, I can only add that the cure must also be the same.

The insect enemies of the Peach and Nectarine are not very numerous, but are sometimes very troublesome. Green-fly is perhaps the chief of these. As the cultivation of the Peach and Nectarine as hardy trees places them in a position in which they cannot be easily fumigated, the best means to adopt to destroy this little pest is to keep the trees thoroughly syringed, adding a little tobacco-juice for a few times should the enemy appear powerful. Thrip, should it make its appearance, may be destroyed by the same means.

Red-spider (Acarus telarius) is an enemy not so easily disposed of; yet the trees are not liable to its attack if the roots are moist enough and the branches frequently syringed. To destroy it, heavy and frequent syringings are the best cure.

The caterpillar of the figure - 8 moth (Episema coeruleocephala), which is very troublesome at times upon Peach-trees, by eating and destroying the foliage, should be picked with the hand, and at once destroyed.

The Tortrix Woeberiana, or Plum-tree tortrix, is sometimes injurious to the Peach; but as I have spoken of it when treating of the Plum, it is not necessary to do more than name it here.

The Tenthredo populi, or Poplar saw-fly, makes its appearance about the end of April. It is a large insect, larger than an ordinary house-fly. The female arranges her eggs, which number about forty, in lines along the surface of the leaves. In a few days these produce a whitish grub, which shelter themselves within a web which they at once' begin to spin. As their period of grub-existence extends over six weeks, it will be easily perceived that a very few females in spring may be the cause of much damage to the Peach, as the young all have to be fed upon the fresh and tender leaves for that period. At the end of that time they drop to the ground, form cases in which they bury themselves beneath the surface of the soil until spring, when they emerge perfect insects, to become the parents of another generation of Peach-tree depredators. The fly ought to be killed as soon as found in spring, the eggs searched for upon the leaves and destroyed, while the surface-soil of the border ought to be removed in winter to the depth of 3 or 4 inches and burned, in order to insure, as far as possible, the entire destruction of the whole family.

Earwigs (Forficula auricularis) are generally very destructive to the ripening fruit. To destroy them, cut bean-stems in lengths of a few inches, placing them on the ground and among the branches. Into these the enemy will retreat, and from thence are easily blown into a bucket of water prepared for their reception.

The scale (Aspidiotus concliiformis) sometimes is very hurtful to the Peach and Nectarine. Should it make its appearance and increase to any great extent, the tree ought to be gone over, and the little intruder rubbed off with a hard brush in summer. In winter this operation may again be performed, and the tree afterwards painted over with a gentle mixture of tobacco juice, black soap, and sulphur, with soot or clay added, to give the whole consistency. This, in most cases, will meet the end in view upon the first, and almost certainly upon the second, application. James M'Millan.

( To be continued).