190 Editor's Letter-Box. 



E. H., Ayer, Mass. — If we were restricted to two varieties of gra^jes for a 

 cold house, we should say Black Hamburg and White Sweetwater, for the same 

 reasons that we should recommend the Bartlett pear and Concord grape ; not 

 that they are of the finest flavor, but they are hardy, productive, easily grown, and 

 may be relied on to give a crop. Of twelve vines, we would plant nine Ham- 

 burgs and three Sweetwaters, and perhaps for market we could not do better than 

 this. But for amateur culture we should prefer to plant one each of Sweetwater, 

 Black Prince, West's St. Peters, White Frontignan, and Lady Downes, mak- 

 ing the rest of the twelve Black Hamburg. 



P. H.. New Dover, Del. — The deep planting of your asparagus might do 

 with a few plants as an experiment, though we do not think it will succeed, and 

 we feel certain you will never get early asparagus in this way. If planted just 

 deep enough to run a cultivator without injuring the roots, it would be quite suf- 

 ficient. Five or six inches of earth over them would be ample. Neither can 

 we approve the distance you have chosen. Four feet by five and a half gives 

 each plant twenty-two square feet, which is altogether ufinecessary. You 

 may get a few very large stalks, but you never can get a paying crop. We 

 should dig up the whole bed, and plant in rows three and a half feet apart, the 

 plants twelve, or at most fifteen inches apart in the row, and we would make a 

 deep furrow, and put the manure under them. 



La Constante Strawberry. — Mr. Editor : I saw your notice of the 

 La Constante strawberry in your Journal, and would say that I have raised the 

 berry the last six years with first-rate luck, and have had them so large that 

 twenty-five berries would fill a common strawberry box heaping full. I have 

 had them six and a half inches in circumference, and they yield first rate with 

 me. I set in drills two feet apart, and six inches in the drills, and manure between 

 the drills with well-rotted barn manure, and cover in the winter with leaves. I 

 am raising a seedhng ; it fruited for the first time last summer and it was very 

 good — very good size, and ripened good, and good color. I hope to give you a 

 good description of it this summer, if nothing happens. R. T. D. 



New Bedford, Mass., Feb. 13. 



[Thanks for the offer of a description of your seedling strawberry. If you have 

 a few berries to spare, we should like to see a specimen. — Ed.] 



Mrs. S. E". B., Clear Creek Station, Galveston Co., Texas, writes that " Irish 

 potatoes are very fine here as new potatoes, but after being ripe some time they 

 lose their dry mealiness, and become waxy, or tough and clammy, when cooked. 

 It does not matter whether they are dug or left in the ground, it is all the same : 

 no one thinks of having nice mealy potatoes in August or after. The potato 

 crop is all harvested in June, and eaten up by July ; what are left are worthless. 

 Is there a remedy, and what is it?" The only suggestion we can make, is to 

 try planting late, so as to have the crop mature later ; but we print this state- 

 ment in the hope that some of our southern readers will be able to tell us of an 

 effectual remedy. 



