Having read with much interest the remarks of Mr Simpson on the cropping of fruit-tree borders, and wishing all sensational matter to be put on one side, I venture to ask this question, Can we, as practical men, recommend the wholesale, or rather universal, cropping of fruit-tree borders? For myself, I say, No ! though having, like Mr Simpson, to cultivate in an uncongenial climate, where, as he truly observes, early borders are valuable. In my own experience, as well as in that of other gardeners, good crops of vegetables have been taken from borders on which good trees and fruit were likewise produced. Now it is a well-known maxim, held by nearly all cultivators of fruit-trees such as the Apple, Pear, Plum, Cherry, and Peach, that the trees are made more fruitful by root-pruning, judiciously performed; and with such, moderate cropping of the borders is not condemned, bat rather to be commended on the ground of economy. Still, I think he must be a bold man who would propose to root-prune Vines. Yet I consider the digging of the generality of well-made Vine-borders a good spit deep to be only root-pruning under another name.

Living as I do in the north of England, in a county well described by the Squire's Gardener as sloping to the east, and the subsoil cold clay, where there is any depth of it, and where in the shallow parts we find the magnesian limestone, and have coalmines and manufactories increasing on every hand, and not by any means improving the climate - I assure you I am very glad, like many others, I have no doubt, to give my Vine-borders the full benefit of the sun's rays during the summer. Here the Vine-borders are always covered with non-conducting material, and a tarpaulin early in October, and I don't feel justified in uncovering them till April or May, so that the period for vegetable culture on the borders would (if I attempted it, but I don't) be but a very short one. There is no doubt but that it has been done, and can be done again, in favoured localities. I have seen good black Hamburg Grapes ripen out of doors in the south of England, where the roots of the Vine had penetrated into a gravel walk, but of course such a result depends mainly on a good season.

And so in the case of Grapes grown in a well-cropped border, there must be a good season to aid their development; and in the case of a wet summer, like that of 1860, if the Vine-border were cropped with Potatoes and Peas, as recommended by W. S., they would keep every ray of sunshine from the borders, to the great detriment of the Vines. Before I conclude, I should like to ask Mr Simpson a simple question - this: Suppose he had to make Vine-borders and plant young Vines in a place in which he had just entered on the duties of gardener, and had a reputation to make, would he commend cropping these borders, though we all know new soil is fine for Potatoes? I ask this question as a practical gardener, because nowadays employers want to know the reason why; and if such an authority as the 'Gardener' can be instanced by them as recommending the cropping of Vine-borders, they would naturally enough be led to ask, Why cannot my gardener do the same? I consider that in the case of many places, were this system of border-cropping carried out, it would be like putting a load on the shoulders of many a weak brother, and increase his difficulties.

It is one thing to crop one border of late Hamburgs where there are plenty of Vineries to fall back on if this fails in consequence: it is quite a different affair where one, two, or even three Vineries represent the whole of a gardener's resources, and these generally of mixed varieties, and where even a partial failure of the crop would be a serious affair. In conclusion, I consider it false economy to recommend the universal cropping of fruit-tree borders. E. M. S.