_Insects._ By many experiments which I made, it is evident, I think, that in the process of managing and cultivating the Pine Apple, all injurious insects may be destroyed, and prevented from breeding on them, by a judicious application of the elements necessary, though in a less degree in regard to heat, for the production of any vegetables or fruits whatever. That this is true, may be proved by a reference to the state of fruits and vegetables growing, either spontaneously or assisted by cultivation, in every part of the kingdom, without the aid of artificial heat or impregnated air. For instance, the strawberry, the raspberry, and some other fruits, which grow naturally in some parts of this country, and peas, beans, cabbage, and cauliflowers in gardens, and the different sorts of corn and grass in the fields. These, in unkind seasons, we see affected by blights and by insects of various kinds, which prevent them from coming to good maturity, and make them less productive than we wish them to be. But in propitious seasons, the earth being refreshed occasionally by showers of rain, they are preserved from the inroads of insects and from blights, and are enabled to produce abundant crops, for the use of man and beast.” Mr. M’Phail has thus the merit of being one of the first practical gardeners who freed themselves from the trammels of receipts and secrets for destroying insects. He says, “after having studiously observed the nature and causes of the vigorous growth and healthfulness of plants, and of fruit-trees of different kinds, I have been induced to believe that a fruit-tree or plant of any sort requires nothing but proper cultivation in good earth, and in a kindly climate adapted to its nature, to prevent it from being injured by insects, or by blights of any kind, and to enable it to produce, of its kind, abundant crops. However, I wish it not to be understood that I disapprove of using means of any kind to destroy insects which are injurious to plants; but I conceive that all methods used for that purpose, ought to be such as are conducive to accelerate the growth of vegetables, by having at least a tendency to purify the air, and to make the circumambient atmosphere about them congenial to their nature, unless when the destruction of the insects by the hand is effected.”