Mr. Samuel Lockwood, a distinguished scientific man, writes as follows to the Torrey Bulletin: "When the Delaware grape vine first came into market, I bought a young vine. It had a large root, but it was a cutting from the tip-end of the branch. The cupidity of the trade spared no part of the branch in making cuttings. The result was that after nursing my vine for several years, it was still a worthless, feeble plant. At the time of the introduction of the Lawton blackberry, a farmer not far away raised a plantation of the canes, and offered them for sale at a round price, from which he would not deviate. A farmer bargained with him at a fixed price per thousand for a part of the plantation. This was in spring. It was agreed that the plants, without any extra cost to the buyer, should be allowed to stand until fall, till which time the purchaser should be allowed to do anything he pleased to or with the plants. In a word, he bought that part of the plantation. To the dismay of the dealer, his patron came at the proper time with an immense number of little forked sticks; and, taking one of them in one hand and bending down the tip-end of a cane with the other, he pinned it firmly to the ground. This was done with his entire purchase.

He then advertised a stock of Lawtons for sale in the fall, mixing the feeble plants begotten from the tips in with the stronger ones. I heard that this bit of sharp practice proved a good 'spec' The original planter in his chagrin declared it a 'tip-top fraud.'"

It will be news to many that the Lawton blackberry was ever raised from tips, - still more news that there would be a "tip-top fraud" in such plants. There are some raspberries and blackberries which will root in that way, and we question very much whether 90 per cent, of good cultivators would not prefer plants so raised to plants raised by any other mode. And it is more than probable that the phylloxera had more to do with the feebleness of his Delaware plants than the tip-end of the cane had.