EDITORS TABLE. 



CuMATK A>'i> Products of California. — Dr. "Wm. B. Osbork, one of onr subscribers, 

 and the a^ent of the Ilorticullurist in Los Angolos, California, thus writes to Col. IJ. V. 

 Joiixj!on. Secretary of the New York State Agricultural Society. Mr. Osuoitx lias sent us 

 a goodly number of subscribers, and we should be much gratified if he would occasionally 

 give us notes of the progress of horticulture in his new homo. 



"I have almost forgotten what winter was. I have been from New York seven years; and 

 here perpetual spring and summer has lost to rac many of the cliarms of a New York winter. 

 I foel c)iiUy when I think of it — eight monllis fire in the house. Our horses and cattle mow 

 and secure their own fodder without the assistance of man. Snow we can see, when we cast 

 our eyes to the Sierra Nevada, but it is never a near neighbor. We raise here, in our little 

 valley, the fruits of both torrid and temperate zones. In the same garden, side by side, grow 

 the Apple and Orange, the Pear and Lime, the Peach, Fig, Olive, Grape, Luna, Pelair, Apricot, 

 and Pomegranate. We have here a few Americans, who are doing much to improve the culture 

 and varieties of all kinds of fruits. The native Calif irnians still claim that their old mode of 

 culture is superior to any novldad of the cstraTigcros. I have been a resident of this citj' since 

 1817, and one can not but be pleased with the changes for the better which have taken place. 

 Some of these, it is true, have been violent ; but now all is rpiiet, and person and property are 

 secure. I should be pleased to exhibit some California implements at one of your State Fairs." 



A New York Gextlemax who devotes mucli attention to gardening matters, writes as 

 follows : 



" I see in your last number some inquiries about mulching Strawberiics with tan. Your cor- 

 respondent^ I think, lost his plants. He laid it on too thick. Three iuclici of tan will generally 

 produce fermentation and burn the plants up. Kot more than one inch should be used under any 

 circumstances. The best mulchtr, according to my experience, is a highly tempered steel rake, 

 with prongs at least eight inches, o-ppUcd at least once a week during the season. While on this 

 subject, let me say to you that I am now engaged in testing all the leading varieties of Straw, 

 berries. I propose to do the thing up thoroughly; submitting them to the best treatment, and 

 making notes daily of every thing I see. When I have fi.:ished this branch of the subject, I 

 shall take the best kinds and submit them to various trials of manures, <tc. I shall probably be 

 occupied several years with the subject, and then I hope to be able to write the natural history 

 of the Strawberry, as it has never been written before. I began this spring, and now have 

 upwards of thirty varieties, having procured most of th«m from original sources, to insure 

 correctness." 



Explanation. — I observe in the " Chapter on Pears," which appeared in your July number, an 

 error caused by your correspondent's supposing that the date affixed to Doyenne d'Alenron was 

 its " season" of ripening, when, in fact, in preparing that description, I intended it simply to 

 mark the time wJien it was tested. The description was taken from a specimen which had been 

 exhibited at the various fairs of 1852, and which had afterwards matured prematurely in the 

 office of the Syracuse Nurseries. Being absent when the chapter referred to was made up, an 

 opportunity was not given me to correct the error, as I was able to do conclusively, having then 

 (March,) several unripened specimens in my possession. This correction would, of course, have 

 spared you the necessity of pronouncing the Doyenne d'Alenron cultivated at the Syracuse nur- 

 series to be " untrue," saved them from the injury of an unjust sentence, and your correspondent 

 fi-om the consciousness of having called it forth. Tlie same precisely may be said in relation to 

 the description of Passe Tardive, a fruit well known to be very late, and deemed at the Syracuse 

 Nurseries so indifferent that they have not room enough to cultivate it. J. C. Hanchett. — i 

 cuse, K. Y. 



