The almost universal failure of the Peach crop this season is not by any means easily accounted for; it may be said to be unprecedented. I am aware that there have been seasons, in particular districts, in which the crop has been equally deficient, but then the loss has been occasioned through some well-known agency. Severe winters have in some instances destroyed the trees themselves; the bloom and fruit in embryo have been injured by spring frosts where protection had been used as well as where it had not been employed; neglect of the trees the preceding season, together with other causes more or less explainable, have often occasioned the complete loss of a crop.

This season's failure, however, cannot reasonably be attributed to any of the above-mentioned causes. Some other hypothesis may be safely advanced before we correctly ascertain the real cause or causes of such a general failure of one of our best fruits.

It is the opinion of wise amateurs, and even experienced gardeners recommend in their directions to those that they believe require a certain amount of teaching, that protection to the bloom from spring frosts of the more tender and early-flowering kinds of fruit-trees - such as Apricots, Peaches, and Nectarines - is necessary to secure a crop. This is certainly good advice so far as it goes; but might I ask, Is the evil not often done before protection is thought of? I would also ask, Whether protection from spring frosts is all that is required 1 I rather doubt it. Those who are in the habit of protecting their trees ever so carefully, now and then sustain the loss of a crop, as well as those do who allow their trees to take their chance. This season, particularly, protection has not availed in any case that I am acquainted with in this neighbourhood (Mid Kent). From careful observations which I have made for several years past as to the time of blooming of the Peach (which time of blooming varies but slightly, unless there is a long duration of one sort of weather), I invariably find that the later the trees are of blooming, the more certainty there is of a crop. During the month of February last, sunshine prevailed more than usual for that month of the year all over the country.

The consequence was, that trees on a southern aspect were excited into bloom before the danger of an adverse change in the weather was over. March continued throughout damp and cloudy, with an unusually low temperature, which was anything but favourable for trees in bloom. The long-dormant state of the sap, after it had been once excited, no doubt was the principal cause of the fruit dropping off. By shading Apricots, Peaches, and Nectarines growing against a south wall from the direct rays of the sun during the latter part of February and the beginning of March, thereby retarding the blooming period until all danger of a check to the sap after it had commenced its flow upwards was past, a crop might at all times be relied upon.

In the case of Orchard-houses, where a steady but increasing temperature could not be maintained, the failure is equally as bad as it is with trees in the open air. With Peach-houses, on the other hand, where a command of fire-heat was available, the crop is abundant. We have a Grosse Mignonne Peach-tree here, measuring over 30 feet lengthways, on a 16-feet wall (east aspect). After thinning and leaving a fair crop, there are over fourteen dozen handsome and well-coloured fruit upon the tree at the present time, many of the fruit measuring 10 inches in circumference. This tree was partly shaded in the early season by the dense branches of several tall Elm-trees growing outside of the garden. The same variety of Peach on a south aspect, together with both early and late sorts, have this season proved a total failure.

An Elruge Nectarine-tree, growing between a Royal George and a Noblesse Peach on a south aspect here, is a perfect picture. This tree was experimented upon during the month of February last. It was shaded with double mats nailed to a wooden frame, which was placed erect about 2 feet from the wall or tree. The result is a splendid crop. I only regret that all the other trees on the south aspect have not been protected in the same way - not from frost, but from the alluring brightness of the sun. Wm. Chisholm.

Boughton Place, near Maidstone.