I have been a reader of the Gardeners' Monthly for many years and have often noted your advice to whitewash the stems of fruit trees. From other writers I have gathered the idea that whitewash " closed the pores " and was highly injurious. Whether to whitewash or not was thus a debatable policy. Three years since, to determine definitely whether such an application would prove beneficial or injurious, one hundred three-years-planted apple trees were selected for the experiment, the wash being applied about June 1st. It has been applied twice since with the most gratifying result. The stems of the trees bear the gloss of exceeding vigor. There is not sign of moss or lichen, no scale, scab or borer.

I have used other washes to achieve the same result, but neither soft soap, potash or soda washes impart such a splendid hue of health.

Mr. Editor, continue your teaching. It is correct, and those who follow it will be pleased with the result. The only point upon which I differ is in the addition of soot, etc., to soften the color of the wash. We use only the lime and a little gypsum to increase the adhesiveness. The clear white reflects the heat and decreases the temperature in the stem, the most vulnerable part of a tree. It is true that the color is "glary," but then the "new" soon wears off. In fact, the wash entirely disappears in three months. The wash with tempered color may be quite as good, but the result here with pure white has been so gratifying that save in conspicuous places I should hardly care to do " better." Lexington, Ky.

[It often happens that people who despise those who study "Botany" as an aid to horticulture, and know absolutely nothing about vegetable physiology, will talk the most learnedly when it is to bolster up some fancy. It would be hard for these sturdy brethren to explain what they mean by "closing the pores" in the stem of a tree.

Some years ago a gentleman near Cincinnati obtained or applied for a patent for an improved method of culture in fruit trees. The writer of this saw the trees treated to Bolmar's process. It consisted simply of hauling a cart load of earth and banking it up under the trees, surrounding the trunk with the earth up to the first limbs. The trees looked a lady dressed in the not very old-time style when monstrous hoops made up the fashion of the day. It was amazing how great was the vigor and healthfulness of these trees, although the earth of course "closed every pore" in the trunks.

And then how terribly must a cutting of a grape vine or other plant suffer with "every pore" beneath the surface of the ground ! - Ed. G. M].