gradually closes.  It seems impossible that this change should be produced by the ant:  for if it even attacked or destroyed the blossom, this would not affect the leaves when the tree is not in bloom; and therefore it is rational to conclude that their changed appearance proceeds from some other cause, perhaps from some other insect, perhaps from the assaults of the weather, or some peculiarity in its soil or situation, or from a combination of these and other causes; in exemplification whereof it is worthy to be remarked, that a gardener in the Brickfields planted a number of seed sixteen years ago, all from the same tree; of which forty-four came up, and were all treated with equal care.  None shewed fruit until about seven years since; when one produced about two-hundred oranges, and four or five others had from thirty down to ten or a dozen each.  The following year the same trees were full; and afterwards others began to bear.  This very great disparity in their time of bearing, keeping in mind at the same time that the seeds were from the same tree, all sown at once, and all equally well attended to, would be sufficient to excite astonishment, were we not to make allowance for the various causes that might have tended to accelerate or retard their growth.

The gardener himself says, that the chief of the defaulters were a good deal shaded from the sun by a range of peach trees, which depriving them of a great proportion of the warmth necessary to a fruit which thrives best in the hottest climates, he considers sufficient to occasion all the difference spoken of.

The Apple

Has a great enemy in a minute insect called the Cochineal, owing more, perhaps, to its being nearly of the same colour, than from any resemblance to the Spanish insect of that name.  A gentleman who had eight trees that had for several years borne a delicious apple, had the mortification to find the whole of his trees at once infested by those insects in excessive number; after which they left off bearing, and after failing in many experiments to relieve them, he came unwillingly to the resolution of cutting down the trees.  These insects are of a dark red, approaching to a purple, and combine in such numbers on the roots as well as branches, as to shew in protuberated clusters, exhibiting a downy whiteness on the surface.  A gardener of the colony, who has attended a good deal to this matter, affirms that a weed called the Churnwort presents a perfect remedy to the disaster; with this weed, the roots, cleared of the earth, and the branches also, he advises to be thoroughly well rubbed.

[TABLE:  VICTUALLING ONE MESS OF FIVE MEN.] [Table not included in this text version—­see html version.  Ed.]

The End