I have sent to-day by mail samples of persimmons for your inspection. They are not ripe, and of course not edible, though they will house-ripen, like pears. A ripe persimmon is not suited for shipment, being so tender, and the object of sending these is simply to call your attention to the marked difference in the three samples. The seeds from which all our bearing trees were raised were gathered from a tree in an adjoining county, in the autumn of 1863 or '64. The trees - some two hundred - were permitted to fruit in nursery row, and then such types as pleased us best were saved. Though seedlings from one tree, there were strongly marked differences in size, quality, color and time of ripening.

The sample with bright blush is an early variety, the fruit being nearly gone, having ripened gradually since the last of August. The other sample, of similar shape, is just beginning to ripen, and the green, egg-shaped ones will not be fit to eat before Christmas. The first when ripe is so tender that it must be eaten from the tree, while the third is fully as firm in texture of flesh as an Early Rivers peach. The persimmon is, I think, one of the neglected native fruits. The samples indicate how readilv changes from a type may be obtained, and I think that the same care that has developed so wonderfully the oriental species, would work a like result in purs.

In our next fruiting of seedlings grown from the very best specimens, we hope an improvement in fruit quite as marked as between that of the first seedlings and the fruit of the original tree.

I will also send you shortly some seedless persimmons, in which I feel a great interest. Should this feature prove constant - a fact that we hope to determine next year - I think it will be a great step gained.

Even though we do not improve this fruit further, it still has merits to recommend it. Our trees, in the twelve or fifteen years that they have been in fruitage, have never failed to yield full crops. At this writing the earlier varieties bare of leaves, but gorgeous in their wealth of fruit - crimson and gold - are as attractive as the most brilliant trees grown for the beauty of their autumn foliage. I do not especially love this fruit myself, but I do enjoy the gusto with which my little ones visit this department of the orchard months after apples can no longer be found, and even after chipmonks have gathered the last stray nut.

[It is a good idea to try to improve the native persimmon. It is likely the original Japan persimmon was no better than our own, while the superior hardiness of the American would give it great advantage over its Asiatic ally. Those sent by Mr. Hillenmeyer exhibited a wide range of variation. - Ed. G. M.]