If I am not mistaken, it was near Antwerp--at least I am certain it was in Belgium--where the first experience of this kind is recorded. In France, preparations of coal tar have been recommended and have been lately used in the form of a paint. May be that in this form the substance is not so apt to enter into combinations with the soil. At any rate, the method is of too recent a date to permit any conclusions about the final result of these applications, as the invidious nature of the substance produces, by gradual accumulation, its effects, which are not perceived until they are irreparable. 2. Lye or soap. The application of these insecticides requires more care, and is therefore more troublesome. But instead of attracting fertility from the soil, they add to it. In Southern Europe soap and water has been for many years the remedy against the Lecanium Hesperidum. The method applied by the farmers in Portugal, as described to me by Dr. Bleasdale, is perhaps the most perfect one. The Portuguese have very well observed that the colonization of scalebugs always begins at the lowest end of the trunk and pretend, therefore, that the scalebug comes out of the ground. This, of course, is not the case, but may their interpretation be an error, they have been practical enough in utilizing their observation about the invasion beginning near the roots. They knead a ring of clay round the tree, in which ring the soap water runs when they wash the tree, and besides, they fill frequently the little ditch formed by this ring. This arrangement of course is only possible in climates of a rainy summer. As it is our object to make our knowledge as available as possible for practical purposes, I repeat for the benefit of cultivators the advice, without repeating the reasoning: 1. Use the petroleum for disinfecting imported trees and cuttings: 2. Use soap for cleaning trees planted in your orchard. 3. If you must use the petroleum in your garden, use it in August, when a single application is sufficient. * * * * * AGRICULTURAL ITEMS. The exportation of dried apples from this country to France has greatly increased of late years, and now it is said that a large part of this useful product comes back in the shape of Normandy cider and light claret. A.B. Goodsell says in the _New York Tribune_: "Put your hen feed around the currants. I did this twice a week during May and June, and not a currant worm was seen, while every leaf was eaten off other bushes 150 feet distant, and not so treated." Buckwheat may be made profitable upon a piece of rough or newly cleared ground: No other crop is so effective in mellowing rough, cloddy land. The seed in northern localities should be sown before July 12; otherwise early frosts may catch the crops. Grass and clover may sometimes be sown successfully with buckwheat.