I recently saw an April number, 1878, of the Fruit Recorder, in which there is a quotation from the Gardeners' Monthly concerning the good as well as the destructive action of linseed oil upon pear trees, showing the opposite experience of two separate experimenters; and to which a note of the editor is appended stating that the trees, well spoken of in the Monthly, were at that time still models of health after two summers had elapsed.

From reading the above, at this late date, I am induced to ask if the said trees still hold out in health and thriftiness as then represented? My object in asking this is that I feel confident that to stop the ravages of pear blight, it must be by means of some outward application not yet matured or discovered, but will come in time, and counteract its bacterial origin, which is now generally admitted, and so far, has produced no champion able to refute this most recent theory of the disease.

With respect to the use of oil, if one party's experience indicates certain death and the other prospective health, by its application, pear growers are interested to know the why and wherefore of these diverging lines of experience. There is one thing in this oil question that is not particularly clear to me and that is, it is matter of guess-work whether it was boiled or raw linseed oil that was used in the cases cited. And this query may make quite a difference as to the intellectual working out of the success of the one, or the discouragement of the other. I will state this much however, of my own experience with a fine thrifty tree detected quite early in the stages of blight, and to which I gave an application of linseed oil, that painters had been using on the premises, but did not pay any attention whether it was boiled or raw. The whole tree went to destruction, but could have been saved by the judicious use of the knife, but I preferred to let the experiment take its own course. Since this experience I have applied raw oil to a few plum and pear trees in healthy condition, and a year's observation indicates health and encouragement, as may be seen by lifting or peeling off the cellular tissue, the underpart looking green and healthy, while on the outer part there is no indication of any bad effects.

As I understand it, boiled linseed oil, as distinguished from raw oil, is by the former containing either litharge or oxide of manganese as dryers, and, I should judge, two very doubtful ingredients for the benefit of either healthy or diseased vegetation.

[The trees referred to were on the grounds of the Editor of this magazine. They were white with scale - so white that some appeared whitewashed. The various remedies recommended were tried and failed. The Editor, traveling in the South, came across very healthy trees which had been washed with linseed oil. On his return home his pear and apple trees were all painted with raw linseed oil. Every insect was destroyed, and they have not been a trouble since. The trees to-day, are models of health. So many people, however, have killed their trees by using something they call "linseed oil," that the Editor says no more about it, than to relate his own experience when it is asked for. If he had trees suffering from scale he would not hesitate a moment about using lin-seed oil; others must use their own judgment.

Our correspondent is entirely in error in his belief that "no champion has been able to refute the bacterial origin of pear blight." Prof. Penhallow has recently given an elaborate scientific paper, in which he contends that it is the lack of mineral elements in the soil which causes peach " yellows," a disease joined with fire-blight, as referable to bacteria. This surely is an issue. To our mind, it is not creditable to what should be called "science," that two such directly opposite views are given to the world under its name. - Ed. G. M.]