editor's table. 



Commissioner of Patents, and produced quite a sensation, as tliey liad published in their 

 report for 1854 only an account of the Piedmontese truffles, not dreaming that they existed 

 so close at hand. We may now hope to have Strasburg pies as soon as some American 

 makes the fois gras. My Virginia Truffle weighs one pound eleven ounces, dried, giving 

 double that weight green. It would have sold, in Covent Garden Market, for nine dollars ! 

 [A similar report was circulated some years ago, to the effect that one of the foreign 

 ambassadors at Washington had discovered the Truffle in Virginia, but it was never till 

 now followed by a verification. It has been generally believed that this delicious esculent 

 was not cultivable ; more recent information leads us to believe that, like the mushroom, it 

 may be artificially propagated ; Dr. Lindley says so ; and a Frenchman has lately asserted, 

 without sufficient data, that the Truffle is the result of the stinging of roots of oak-trees 

 by the Truffle fly, which Dr. Lindley denies. We shall probably know more of this ere 

 long. — Ed.] 



Answers to Correspondents. — We never object to answering the queries of correspond- 

 ents, provided they do not require too long a reply, and that they are on topics of general 

 interest, or such as are not readily found in books : — 



"The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell — 

 Strange mansion ! — in the bottom of a Trell : 

 Questions are then the windlass and the rope 

 That pull the grave old gentlewoman up." 



As we have got to rhyming, we answer " Betsy W." by saying that she is doing a service 

 by culling from the entire works of Shakspeare his allusions to botanical matters. His 

 felicity in this is as extraordinary as his other apparently intuitive knowledge. The process, 

 now so common, of changing the character of seedling-trees, is thus expressed in his Winter^s 



Tale, Act 4 :— 



" You see, we marry 



A gentler scion to the wildest stock ; 



And make conceive a bark of baser kind 



By bud of nobler race. This is an art 



Which does mend nature — change it rather : but 



The art itself is nature." 



(D. W. Ray). Your excellent notice of the Rebecca Grape is superseded by former 

 notices and the official one, in the present number, from the Committee of the Pomological 

 Society. We shall be glad to hear from you again. 



(Wm. H. Alexander). We shall be pleased to hear from you. 



(H. A. MiSH, Harrisburg, Pa.) Tan is an excellent covering for strawberries, both as a 

 manure and a mulch. It should be well spent — say a year from the vat. New tan has 

 proved destructive in many instances. It has not been found of service to any other crop. 



Don't plant " cuttings, small evergreens, and seedlings," in weedy ground. If you will, 

 depend rather on the hoe and the rake as " weed smotherers." 



Sawdust is a siiperior article to throw amongst raspberries ; but useless, in that form, for 

 any other purpose. If you could char it easily, and throw it into the soakings of your dung- 

 yard, it would probably be the best thing you could do with it. Leather chippings from 

 shoemakers' shops, saddlers', &c., make an admirable mulch for the raspberry, and may 

 often be had for the asking. 



Best Grapes for a Vinery. — The following list of grapes for a vinery may be relied on, 

 and in this mode we answer many inquirers. The present season will no doubt add the 

 Bowood Muscat and Golden Hamburg, which are to be dispersed in England this spring, and 

 spoken of as most valuable, of the highest grade of beauty, and "best." At present, 

 t is as follows : — 



