I think, if we examine soil in a pot that has been 

 well pounded in, and after growing the plant awhile, 

 we will find the roots more numerous and diffused 

 through the soil, than if it were loose, or had loose 

 seams through it. 



But, though the above is correct or true, and in 

 some cases making a great difference in growth, it 

 is not all we want to know. Though a loose and 

 firm soil be each alike homogenous, I think the lat- 

 ter is still the best, but makes less difference than in 

 the former case. But a loose, cultivated surface on 

 a firm subsoil, when the roots reach the solid they 

 hesitate : some go ahead, some turn aside : there 

 is confusion in the ranks. The entertainment of 

 the roots (as Doctor Gi-rant would say it,) is not uni- 

 form.. In short, the production of numerous fibres, 

 filling every portion of the soil, is caused by that en- 

 tire sameness and disintegration of the soil caused 

 by severe pressure. 



I don't mean to get a Patent for the improved 

 method of growing things in firm ground, but I 

 would like to read something that throws light 

 on it. 



[Our observing correspondent has, we think, come 

 near the cause. We have had this and kindred mat- 

 ter under our study for 20 years, without coming to 

 a satisfactory conclusion until the past year. A 

 paper read recently by Mr. Meehan before the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences, and ordered to be pub- 

 lished in their Transactions, will, we think, tend to 

 explain, and we shall re-publish it soon. — Ed.] 



THE CURCULIO. 



BY DR. J. S. HOUGHTON, PHILADELPHIA. 



Does the Curculio breed in the Cherry f My in- 

 quiries on this point have elicited a response from 

 Benj. D. Walsh, Esq., the editor of the Philadel- 

 phia Entomologist, which, I think, you will find of 

 sufficient value to induce you to re-publish it in the 

 Gardener s Monthly. Mr. Walsh is one of the most 

 accomplished, acute and practical writers on insects 

 in the country. He says : 



"I have no personal knowledge that the Curculio 

 breeds in the Cherry, but I see no reason to doubt 

 the fact. Dr. Trimble, who is better authority on 

 this subject than any other man in this country,— 

 because he has made Fruit Insects his special study 

 for years,— evidently believes that it does : for he 

 recommends out-lying Cherry trees, which cannot 

 be properly attended to, to be cut down, to prevent 

 the propagation of the Curculio. (See his Fruit 

 Insects, pp. 26 and 39.) And Dr. Fitch has re- 

 marked upon the singular anomaly, that the Cherry 

 and the Thorn Apple, which are small fruits, hang 



upon the tree and ripen when stung by the Curculio, 

 'though so wounded, knotty and deformed, that the 

 fruit is worthless :' while, on the other hand, the 

 Plum, the Apple, the Pear and the Peach, which 

 are large fruits, wither under the same circumstan- 

 ces, and fall to the ground. [Address on Curculio, 

 &c., 1860, p. 18.) 



It is undoubtedly true, that in very many Apples 

 and Pears, the young larva of the Curculio perishes 

 prematurely; but that is evidently because its nat- 

 ural food is stone fruit, and it is only when she can- 

 not do any better that the mother insect has recourse 

 to pip-fruit. Indeed, it is only of late years, since 

 the Curculio has become so greatly multiplied, that 

 it has been observed to attack pip-fruit. Conse- 

 quently, as the Cherry is so closely allied to the 

 Plum, that many botanists class them under the 

 same genus, and as the Plum is the favorite food of 

 this insect, we might reasonably infer a priori, even 

 if we had no reliable evidence on the subject, that 

 the great bulk of the eggs deposited in the Cherry, 

 will come to maturity, unless artificially destroyed." 



PEAR BLIGHT. 



BY S. S. COOKE, CHILLICOTHE, OHIO. 



The subject of blight in Pears and Apples, in the 

 last twenty years, has received less attention than 

 is demanded by a malady so extensive and fatal. — 

 So little, in truth, seems known of the real cause of 

 the disease, that all remedies thus far proposed, 

 have, so far as my observation goes, proved com- 

 paratively valueless. Being a novice in horticulture 

 — with no practical knowledge of medicine or bota- 

 ny — and having suffered, to some extent, from Pear 

 blight, during the last eight years, I now seek the 

 medium of a horticultural journal, hoping (possibly 

 in vain) to attract the attention of horticulturists 

 and others to the ravages of this disease. May I 

 not ask. Has not the age arrived when the cause of 

 blight should be certainly known ? Have not hor- 

 ticulture, botany, medicine, and science generally, 

 advanced sufficiently far at this day to dictate some- 

 thing like a reliable remedy for this disease ? It is 

 said that the Easterly States are comparatively ex- 

 empt from the scourge ; while we of the West, lo- 

 cated on flat, rich, peaty, alluvial soils, suffer almost 

 annually from its invasions. This 'occidental' char- 

 acter may account for its neglect by the wiser ones 

 of the 'orient.' 



Would that I could properly picture the ravages 

 of the disease only here in Ohio, — a semi-western 

 state! Surely such a picture might, at least, tend 

 to arouse some of our skilful and practical cultiva- 

 tors to vigilant inquiries and observations on the 



