EDITOR S TABLE. 



YOU will roiilly arrive at two; if it be on a Saturday you must necessarily stay over till 

 Monday at tlio "American," or the "Exchange;" the former will suit you from its 

 excellent attendance. 



On landing in A'^irginia, yon will bo struck with the abundance and beauty of the Big- 

 nonia radicans, or trumpet flower, which throws up its showy red blossoms from every 

 stem it can find, and even soon entwines the multitudinous wood piles '."hich attest your 

 theory that the railroad is a desperate destroyer of tlic native trees. As you pr()gress, 

 the growth is Pine, Birch, Tupelo, Oak, Magnolia glauca, and Sassafras; the Holly is 

 rarely seen. Altogether the cultivation wears the appearance of requiring some assis- 

 tance from such editors as those of Farm Journals. 



In Richmond you will sec much to admire. The grounds of the Capitol and around 

 the Governor's house are well planted, (though variety has not been sufficiently studied), 

 and have a noble appearance. The Washington monument is only waiting for the 

 weeping figures to be placed around it ; and this reminds me of a touching incident on 

 the Potomac, as our boat passed Mount Vernon ; we were a silent little company sitting 

 on deck; and as we came opposite the depository of the sacred remains of our greatest 

 benefactor, the bell was tolled, as is its regular custom ! Even you might have dropped 

 a silent tear as the thought of the cause accompanied this solemn memento ! 



The popular street tree in Richmond seems to be the Tulip poplar, and I am inclined 

 to advise you to recommend it, both for its great beauty and freedom from pestiferous 

 insects. 



The route from Richmond to the Red Sulphur is now much more easy of accomplish- 

 ment than formerly: You take the railroad that is to connect Knoxville, Tennessee 

 with tide water two hundred and ten miles to Newborn, Virginia, whence over a desper- 

 ately bad road this place is reached by a day's ride of only thirty-eight miles. 



The Red Sulphur is famed for curing incipient consumption, and I see so many getting 

 better here that I believe it to be true. But my letter is getting too long, and I must 

 defer till next month what I have to say to you on " spring" topics ; perhaps you will not 

 object if I bring my letter in my pocket. 



Answers to Correspondents. — Ohio Subscriber. — It has been recommended for the 

 rot in grapes to uniformly bury the leaves and the young stems cut off in pruning in 

 shallow trenches four or five inches deep at the rojts of the vines, sprinkling with 

 gypsum. Treated in this manner, instances are known where the tendency to rot was 

 stopped. It would appear to stand to reason, rot or no rot, that the trimmings of the vines 

 should be returned to the root for its future support. To change your inferior sorts of 

 grapes for better a good and easy method is to graft them. Cut the old root off, some 

 two inches below the ground by a horizontal cut; choose a gimlet the size of the scion 

 to be inserted and bore several holes two or three inches in depth ; insert the scions first 

 removing the loose lark ; failure in this mode is rare, and old kinds may be changed in 

 two years, sometimes in one. Be careful to remove all suckers that come up from the 

 old vine. 



Dcane's Purple. — "Who is in the right as to the origin of Duane's Purple plum, the 

 Horticulturist of June 1855 or volume 1, page 115?" It is believed to be a foreign 

 variety. 



R. Peet, Pittsburg. — AVe shall endeavor to look up the subject you name, but fear it has 

 escaped us. 



any communications received shall be attended to in our next. 



