To my item "Tobacco Stems and Ashes," page 323, November Gardeners' Monthly, 1885, which I chanced across in reviewing some of the back numbers of the Horticulturist - as is my practice to occasionally do - the Editor appends a note which suggests the form in which I should perhaps have made my statement, as I am not certain that ashes do positively destroy the borer, though I had some grounds for thinking so, and in my article only expressed my conviction.

I had experimented in casting clammy skinned worms in tobacco and wood ashes. Fresh tobacco ashes are the stronger, containing more and purer potash. The common "earth-worm" placed in it would writhe frantically; the skin would grow dark and give out a watery excretion. The ashes adhering in this would soon coat the worm from "head to toe" with the burning plaster. The skin now exhausted of its fluid secretion became dry and darker, and in a few minutes all struggles were over. In weaker ashes the results were similar, but prolonged in proportion to the strength of the ashes. Hence the value and use of dry ashes for dusting cabbages troubled with worms.

Now, when ashes are placed around the root of a peach tree, to the borer it is in all probability a repetition of the history of Pompeii, but in addition to this the rains dissolve the alkaline principle and flood the floors of his little domicile, so that instead of wallowing in the dust he bathes in the burning fluid. Weaker ashes would not have the same active effect I first mentioned in the experiment, but the skin of the borer is tender and very susceptible to tanning; his mouth and stomach are more tender, and could scarcely endure the draught he would be compelled to take in " a bath;" at the same time the bark, his food, is rendered unwholesome for the time by even the weaker alkali.

It would not be advisable to place the fresh ashes about the roots of the tree, but ashes partially leached by exposure for some time to rains, placed about the collum of trees and shrubs subject to borers, cannot injure them, and proves decidedly beneficial. At the meeting of the Indiana Horticultural Society, in 1883, I believe, this subject came up between some others and myself privately, I suggested this remedy, when a gentleman immediately ejaculated, "There! you've hit it; that's the best thing I know of, and works every time," and subsequently related his experience thus: "Several years ago I planted out several thousand peach trees. They did little good for several years. I discovered the borer to be at the bottom of the trouble, and forthwith catching a hint as to the virtue of ashes I distributed the heap lying in my stable yard among them, placing a little mound about the stem of each tree. The trees revived and have not been troubled with the borer since, and to-day are healthy and yielding profitably".

Another peach orchardist residing near New Albany, Ind., related a similar experience, but used hot water instead. He applied this remedy in the latter part of winter, before the ground was warm, otherwise it might have been apt to scald the roots. Having heated a large kettle full of water, he passed through his orchard of some thousand trees, pouring a quart around the collum of each, and claimed his trees have since been perfectly healthy and free from the borer.

New Albany, Ind.