ED. Western Horticulturist: - I was much amused over " Storm Cliff's " first attempt at sub-tropical gardening on a mound, as related in the Floral Cabinet for October, and presume such to be the experience of every one who tries to do the same thing. I have often wondered why any one can be so foolish as to follow such a foolish practice, which is sure to result in disappointment and failure; yet every year we see people doing it. Mounds may be necessary in a situation where good drainage is required, or in a country not so hot as ours in midsummer, but here in America we don't need them. Now, a mound would undoubtedly be a pretty object, if the sodded sides could always be kept green, and the center did not need to be constantly 'deluged with water when the hot suns and scorching winds of July and August come; but with us it is impossible to keep a mound in fine condition. The practice probably came from " over the sea," where they find it necessary to heap up raised beds to obtain drainage and more warmth to the soil, and is still kept up in many gardens here by those who know no better. Besides their ragged ugliness, these mounds are troublesome and laborious to make.

Every spring, about the time when all get the gardening fever, do we see men, women, children and the hired man with wheelbarrow, spade, rake and shovel, gathering up brickbats, old boots, condemned tin pans and broken crockery from the back yard, to make the foundation for a mound; then earth must be brought, sods cut, trimmed and put in place; then, when the " thing " is finished, all admire it and anticipate much pleasure when the plants will bloom; but, when dry weather comes, and the sods die, and the dwarfed plants shrivel, then the mound becomes an eye-sore, and all wish it resolved into its original elements in the rear alley; so it is abandoned to its fate, and becomes a wallowing place for the hens. If, instead of all this trouble of making a mound, the same energy had been expended in cutting a neat bed on the lawn, or in the little front yard, the ground deeply spaded and enriched with well-rotted manure, anybody can have a flower bed that will require but little labor in planting the seeds, keeping out weeds and grass roots, and an occasional watering, when the drought of midsummer comes.