A little more than a year since I ventured to write down a little of talk had with my neighbors; and as the Horticulturist very kindly published it, I am induced again to try my hand at tale-telling; not that I have anything very new or strange to tell, but that possibly my neighbors' opinions and views, as they are practical and good cultivators, may be of use to some readers of your valuable journal who are as yet but little acquainted with horticulture.

My neighbor S., in talking of fruit-growing, says that at one time he believed in confining himself pretty much to one kind of fruit, but that experience has taught him that it is most profitable to grow a variety, and therefore he last year made plantings, and is continuing, of all the small fruits, together with grapes, pears, etc., etc. He feels pretty certain that the use of salt as manure is going to keep his pears from blight. On this point B. says the salt may give nourishment and a stimulant to the tiee, and perhaps a healthy one, but he has no faith in its virtues as a remedial agent. He - Mr. B. - counts pear blight as sporadic or atmospheric, created by sudden and severe changes of temperature acting upon crude and undigested sap, the affection talking place in the leaf vessels, and thus the poison passing down the albumen and developing itself sometimes at one point, sometimes at another. As for myself, I say nothing. I only try to keep my trees growing steadily, not too rapidly; and when I see blight, out with my knife and cut it off way down below any tinge of complaint.

The question of cherry-growing for profit being up, neighbor P., who has some hundreds of trees, said he would plant largely of Early Purple Guigne, Rockport, Pon-tiac, Red Jacket, and Louis Philippe.

Most money can be obtained from Early Purple Guigne; but the best cherry for all purposes is the Louis Philippe. P. says he wonders where the thought or knowledge of fruit men has been that this cherry has not become more generally known. Neighbor A. says that last year he tried to obtain this cherry at various nurseries, but could not find it. He wishes if any dealers have it they would advertise. He says, also, that he gives nurserymen credit for one thing, viz., they are gradually cutting down their lists of sorts; and little by little the people who very largely depend on what the nurserymen say as to the value of varieties, are planting only the best sorts, and in a hundred trees but a few varieties. With A. I agree, and commend the nurserymen; but I also desire to see the list very much reduced from present numbers. The list of fruits now embraces so many of really superior quality that there is no occasion for growing a second-rate sort. A tree of the Jonathan apple will occupy no more ground than one of Cayuga Red Streak or Smith's Cider; and while the fruit of the first is superior almost everywhere, the others are only good to look at and sell to people who can not obtain better sorts.

While upon this point, I will remark that I have just been looking over some old catalogues, and am almost astonished at the confusion or duplication of one variety under many names which once existed. Truly a great change has been made, but more is yet wanted; as for instance, the Townsend apple is issued by some under that name, and also by its new Western cognomen of Hocking - both being the same. But the apple with perhaps the longest string of names is the Nickajack, which has twenty-eight synonyms, such as Berry, Red Hazel, Wall, etc., etc., and unfortunately is yet issued by some persons as distinct varieties under the synonyms.

But enough of this: it was not what I set out to tell you. Neighbor E., who in talking of planting peas says he gives all credit as an early pea to Carter's Early, states that last year he planted it side by side same time with Tom Thumb, Early Gem, and some others, and gathered first from it. For late peas, he also says there is nothing as yet superior to Champion of England.

Neighbor A. says in planting and growing blackberries and raspberries he shall always practice the hedge system, i. 6., grow ing them in rows, of two feet wide or so; and every year after cutting out the old canes, and such small weak ones as are not wanted, he spreads in among them a coat of two or three inches thick of manure. This, he says, enables him to get large crops of fine fruit even when we have a drought or great heat.

Neighbor E. says the growing of the gooseberry is one of the most profitable of small fruits, but that we want some one to give the subject attention and raise us a seedling that shall be as good a bearer and free from mildew as the Houghton, and as large and fine quality as any of the best European sorts. This he says can be done, and he hopes some one will go about it. He says the largest and best for market now is the Mountain Seedling, but that while it produces abundantly and is of a large size, it has too thick a skin, and is too coarse for anything but to sell.

Speaking of currants, he said that nothing yet equaled the Red Dutch under high cultivation. The Cherry, Versaillaise, and Fertile d'Angers he thinks so near identical as it to make it useless for a man to buy the one if he has the other. In some markets, he says the large size of the Cherry currant will perhaps make it command a better price; but for canning or jellies it is not so rich or sweet; and once a person has bought it, they will drop it for the good old Red Dutch.

The Opinions Of My Neighbors #1

I have been lately among my neighbors, getting their views of cherries and strawberries ; and as they are most of them good practical money-gaining growers, perhaps what they have said to me may be as interesting to some of the readers of the Horticulturist as it has been to me.

My neighbor A. says that in the cherry trade his Rockports gave him a good return. He picked and marketed them before they were really ripe, but yet they were quite good and sold at a good price. His Gov. Woods all rotted, and so did the Cleveland. Elton was almost as good a success as Rockport, while the Red Jacket matured well without rotting, and was with him a success. Neighbor S. had a tree or two of Purple Guigne that matured without rotting, and so did his Archduke. He is strong, therefore, in favor of these two sorts. Again, neighbor P. talks favorably of his old list, before named, viz., Early Purple Guigne, Rock-port, Red Jacket, and Louis Philippe; but neighbor J. comes in strong in favor of Old Black Heart, which he says this year netted him more money than any of the other sorts. He is down on all the light-colored varieties. After all, cherry growing, owing to rain-storms at period of blooming, the stinging by curculio, and decay just before full maturity, is in my section coming to be a doubtful item as regards profit - and yet neighbor E. has some seedling cherries that ripen a week or more later even than Red Jacket, and from which he gathers ripe and sound fruit.

He says that it is possible as the trees grow older they may exhibit the same tendency to decay of named varieties, and therefore he will not at present note them to the public.

Neighbor E. has a great aversion to anything like humbuggery in the horticultural line.

As for me, I have been looking at all this cherry question, and while I am unwilling to give up the good-named sorts, I really believe some guardian spirit must come in shape of a remedy for rot, or we can no longer count on growing either sweet or sour cherries as a profitable crop. This year my Kirtland, Morello, Louis Philippe, and a quantity of seedling Morellos were all so much stung and rotted, that I have gathered but a tenth of what ought to have been my crop. So much for cherries; and now to my neighbors' views on strawberries.

Neighbor A. is a strong advocate for Wilson, and next to that, Hovey. He says on his sandy loam soil the Wilson is the only berry that will pay him pecuniarily to grow. He likes Hovey for its firmness and size, and having tried Triomphe de Gand, Russell, Jucunda, Victoria, and a number more of the same class, says none of them compare with Hovey. The old Early Scarlet, he says, is like Metcalf, not worth ground room. He grows his vines in rows, plants about one foot apart in the row, and the rows about two and a half feet distant from each other. After the winter has fairly sat in and the ground is frozen solid, he spreads over the entire ground about two inches in depth of well-rotted manure, and I can only say that whether it be a good or bad course, his crop is always good.

Neighbor S. last year was strong on Jucunda; this year his crop, in hills, well mulched with tan bark, has been a failure. Wilson and Green Prolific have been his best sorts, and Agriculturist next. Not willing to give up Jucunda, he has planted in a piece of new ground, a rich, well-drained, strong clay loam, and from it I hope next year to report favorably. I shall certainly be able to do so, if good culture and soil will give good returns to that varietv in this climate.

Neighbor M. last year went in strong on Metcalf, buying by the thousand, and acknowledges it has not come up to expectation. He is a nurseryman, but don't take any but a local agricultural paper, and rarely reads even that. A good, qniet life is a good thing, but I for one don't believe in living about half a dozen years behind the rest of the world.

I have had a good chance to see what my neighbors have done, and now for myself. My best early crop was from Downer's Prolific; my best-sized berries were from Triomphe de Gand and French Seedling; my best flavored were Lennig and Lady Finger; my longest bearer was Ida; my most pecuniarily productive was Wilson. My soil is light gravelly sandy loam, and not well manured. I grow in rows of about one foot wide, leaving about three feet space between. I don't mulch, nor can I lay any special claim to good cultivation, but yet I get pretty good crops of fruit. I sometimes think, when I have fruit and my neighbors none, that I have either good luck on my side, or else

I see one of your subscribers wants to know who I am. Well, Tll tell him. I am an old fellow that has many years tried to learn something of horticulture, but as the years roll on, I often think I am repeating matters much as a clock does the hours of the day, for I read an item, then memory brings up something in connection, and I look back over some old notes and volumes and find the world had some brains developed years since; nevertheless as new brains are grown, it is not always best to tell them they are like the old ones, but perhaps wise to keep with them, and while touching them with a little of the old leaven, possibly a new spark hidden for ages may spring forth and give light and life for the benefit of all men. Let us work and hope, trusting and believing while we enjoy. If your subscriber wants to know more of me, you can forward me his letter, and I will cheerfully respond.