The following letter was not intended for publication, but to keep the Editor posted on the work of grape improvement in Texas. But it contains so much of interest to everyone interested in the success of American grape culture everywhere, that we are sure the writer will excuse the publicity we give it. We may premise that few of the ordinary varieties of grape are of any great account in Texas, and therefore all efforts for great improvements have to be re commenced from the beginning. It is on this account that the experiments being made by Mr. Munson, have a peculiar yalue.

"Denison, Tex., August 24th, 1S86.

"I present you herewith samples of a few of my seedling and hybrid grapes, which ripen from one to two weeks later than Catawba, Norton's Virginia, and Herbemont, and of course of no value in the most northern States, but they fill a vacancy in the South, which so far is without grapes, save the tough-skinned Muscadines. These are mostly mere sprigs of clusters, from young vines just beginning to bear, hence you can form but little correct opinion of the clusters. We have had a very long severe drouth, which has dwarfed the berries, and my vines are on land in use for nine years in various crops without any manure, with very ordinary culture; so you can form some idea of what the grape would be with high culture and age. You can judge of color and quality quite accurately. I have had a succession of my seedling grapes, since June 25th, and have this year fruited several hundred of my seedlings. I have no vines for sale. I desire to be perfectly sure I have made a true advance in any direction before I offer plants for sale, and hence I have taken the liberty to send you these clusters to taste, and to your pleasure to say what you choose concerning them, which I know will be a fair index of the merits of my productions.

Out of some 30,000 seedlings, with which I started, I have continued to cull till I have a few I am not ashamed to ask an esteemed critic to taste. I am not seeking to rush before a much-abused public with an untried novelty, or the result of an acci-dental find in some weed-patch, but to make a real advance in horticulture, under all scientific and practical light bearing in this direction. Years more of patient trial may be required to find out whether I have anything worthy of general attention. T. V. Munson".

[The grapes are of white and black varieties; the whites as a rule being rather better in flavor than the dark-colored ones. The whites are named Nellie, Onderdonk, Samuel Miller and Matthews. The dark-colored are Texas, Meehan, Carman, Husmann, Wine-maker, Maria and Jaeger. Rogers No. 1 (Goethe), and 14 (Essex), and a bunch of Herbemont, came with the others for comparison. Herbemont is delicious; but the other two of Rogers' seedlings are not equal in flavor to the same variety as grown North, which we believe is the usual behavior of all the northern varieties. The seedlings are far superior in flavor to these. The seedlings do not seem to us to be equal in flavor to the Herbemont, though Jaeger and Matthews are very close to it in this respect. Of the black varieties, the Carman is nearest Herbemont in flavor, though the Meehan is nearer that variety in size of the bunch. The mere flavor or size is, however, only a small part of all that goes into the merits of a first-class grape. - Ed. G. M].