Editors Letter- Box. 12$ 



Mr. Editor, — I see that writers on strawberry-culture recommend planting 

 in either fall or spring. Will you give me your opinion as to which of these 

 seasons is best ? F. 



We do not advise planting in autumn, although it is no doubt true that plants 

 set in August or September will produce a partial crop the next season, such of 

 them as live and become firmly rooted ; but success in transplanting is much 

 more uncertain at that season than in spring ; and, among the large growers, 

 nobody thinks of setting plants at any other season than spring. In a small 

 garden, where the plants are at hand, so as not to be dried by exposure, and a 

 cloudy or rainy day can be selected, and the plants watered afterwards, it may 

 be advisable to plant in autumn so as to secure a partial crop the next season ; 

 but we would not recommend it under other circumstances. 



F. R. thinks of planting an orchard of quince-trees, and would like our views 

 as to the probable profit. — We say by all means plant them. Quinces, which, 

 as long ago as we can remember, brought three or four dollars a bushel, after- 

 wards fell to one dollar per bushel, which discouraged planting: so that they are 

 now one of the scarcest fruits in the market, selling quickly at from five to eight 

 dollars a bushel ; and we do not think ground could be used much more profita- 

 bly than for growing quinces at that price. As for the fear, that, by the time 

 your trees come into fruit, everybody else will have them in market, and bring 

 the price down again, it is true that they may, and so they may any other 

 fruit ; and, if we took counsel of that fear, we should not plant many trees of any 

 kind. But we advise you to go on and plant the best kinds, and take the best 

 care of them, so that, when they come into market, you will get the best price. 

 Give the trees plenty of room. If you plant them ten feet apart, in good soil, 

 and manure them as they should be, when full grown you will wish you had 

 given them fifteen feet. Above all, be sure and look sharp for the borers, and 

 destroy them before they get far into the wood, for they go deeper in the quince 

 than in any other tree, and are, of course, much more difficult to kill. 



E. A. R., Bethlehem, Penn. — No. i is Lamium rugosujn, pink variety ; No. 

 2 is Cainpaiiula persiccsfolia; No. 4, the lily, is one of the varieties of L. 

 umbellatuin. L. Philadelphicuin never yet produced eight to ten flowers on 

 a plant. Cypripedliiiii spectabile will thrive under the same treatment as 

 C. pubescens and parvijlorum. If you have no friends in any place where 

 it is native, you can procure plants of L. Menand, Albany, N.Y., who has 

 them for sale. Transplant either in October or April : the spring is perhaps 

 the best season. 



W. T. — Your strawberry is no doubt the Austin, or Shaker Seedling. 



Correspondents who send specimens of fruit for names will oblige us by 

 accompanying them with all the information they possess as to their origin, his- 

 tory, source whence received, habit of growth, and any other idiCts known to 

 them ; as such hints often afford a clew to their names. 



