Throughout the West this has been a remarkable season for drouth, having had less rain in the same length of time than I have known for a number of years, and the present month (December) being more regularly cold than usual The mercury has fluctuated between 46 ° and 80 °, on two occasions falling to 10 °, and with all this, but little or no snow. Our wells, springs, and cisterns hare not yet recovered from the drouth of the summer and fall -scarcity of water at this season being a very unusual thing.

The Apple crop with me has been pretty abundant, but for the last four years the fruit, from some unaccountable cause, has been scabby, and the larger proportion, consequently, unsaleable. To what this is owing is beyond me to say; but I suppose it to be mainly attributable to the cold rains we have had for the last four years, during the period of inflorescence. The impregnation being imperfect, the fruit, of course, becomes knotty and one-sided. The Illinois theory of its being caused by the orchard being in grass, or "grass-fed," as they term it, is, as far as my experience goes, entirely fallacious; for I have been unable to discover the slightest difference between the trees thus treated and those in cultivated soil Neither can it be traced to the want of manure, mulching, or trimming, all of which I have thoroughly tried. If we are so fortunate next year as to be favored with pleasant weather while the trees are in bloom, with an after crop of fair fruit, I shall be pretty well confirmed in the above named supposition.

I have asked the opinion of many fruit-growers, but they appear to be as much in the dark as myself.

The "Borer" is also becoming fearfully destructive; for the last year or two I have, observed a great many young trees almost entirely destroyed. He does not, with me, confine his depredations to the collar of the tree, but enters from six inches to two feet from the ground, and sometimes into the limbs. He is very severe on the Quince, and almost always attacks it on the south aide. It is truly astonishing to see how rapidly they will work with their small forceps, the power enabling them to do this, residing, as I conceive, in their immense head, which is about three times the size of the body. The largest one I ever caught was only about three-eighths of an inch in length - many not being more than one-eighth of an inch, of which I have found upwards of thirty on one tree. I suppose this is the Sapperda. I have never been so fortunate as to see the beetle, which, it is supposed, travels at night, and know of no remedy for this pest, unless scrubbing the trees once or twice with soft-soap during the month of June will do. Downing says they may be destroyed by inserting a flexible wire into their holes when they have retired into the body of the tree to hybernate; - but their course is so tortuous that I find them not easy to reach.

A friend once told me that greasing the trees would prevent the beetle from depositing her eggs; but, having once killed a number of young Apple trees by greasing to keep off the Rabbits, I have been afraid to make the experiment I am now trying the remedy recommended by Professor Harris, viz: putting a small piece of gum camphor into their holes, and plugging them up. They have been fearfully destructive during the present drouth.

The Woolly Aphis (Aphis langinera) is increasing rapidly in this country, being worse on the roots than on the branches and causing them to become knotty and almost as brittle as glass. I generally apply a few unleached ashes to the roots when transplanting, which stops their progress for a time at least Diluted sulphuric acid is recommended, but I fear if it is made strong enough to kill the insect, it may destroy the tree. I fear, moreover, that this insect is going to be very troublesome and hard to eradicate; for they appear to be getting worse every year. We have had little or no Canker-worm for several years; nor have we been much troubled with Caterpillars. The Curculio and Apple-moth have been quite as bad as ever - about one-half of the Apple crop being usually injured by the moth - Plums (and Apricots and Peaches when we have them) never escaping the Curculio. If there is a remedy for saving Plump, why is it kept so long from the public! I am sure that of all the fruit-growers in the United States - and their name is legion - there is not one who would not cheerfully contribute five or ten dollars for Mr. Mat-thw's benefit, should his remedy prove effective.

Here have I been cultivating Plum trees for the last thirteen years, without gathering as much as a peck of fruit from nearly forty trees in all that time. I have been planting lately in my chicken-yard, hoping thereby to save some, and am somewhat encouraged by the fact of one young tree ripening its entire crop of fifty Plums; which, however, may hare been accidental I will be better able to judge next season, as several others will then come into bearing. I had intended saying something about Strawberries, grafting, Ac, but as I dislike long articles, will defer it to some other occasion.

Since writing the above, we have had an abundance of rain and a considerable quantity of snow. T. V. PETIOOLASl. - Mount Carmel, Clermont Co., Ohio., Jan., 1855.