At this point not quite 1½ inches of rain fell from July 8th to October 20th, 1884. All vegetation suffered, but most of all small fruits, especially strawberries. From a plat of five-sixths of an acre, planted November 5th, 1882, which yielded over twelve hundred quarts in 1884, only five hundred were gathered this season.

Possibly want of proper culture had something to do with the result, but mainly the deficiency is due to the dry summer and autumn. Thus, leading pomologists, such as Mosby & Bro. and others account for the short crop. The question of interest to fruit-growers is, whether varieties are more or less adapted to circumstances of weather and climate ? With us, in 1884, Sharpless' strawberry took the lead, but in 1885 we found that Triumph of Cumberland had withstood drouth better, ripened "as early, if not earlier, and yielded more than doubly as much in quantity, equalling, indeed excelling, in size. The Wilson and Crescent City did fairly well. This leads us to recommend the T. of Cumberland and Sharpless for our limestone section. Then the raspberries. Well, the only one that did anything was the Cuthbert (Market Queen of some catalogues). It held its own, yielding well and maintaining its size, while the Hornet, Philadelphia and the H. R. Antwerp succumbed. The Black Caps did as well in the garden as in the field.

In this section, little or nothing is gained by cultivating them.

The prospect for pears and grapes is very fine, and apples are abundant - peaches a failure.

Staunton, Va., July 21, i885. [The subject started by our correspondent is one of great interest to fruit growers. Are there varieties that are better adapted to some soils, or to withstand drouths, than others ? The answer by all fruit growers with a limited experience would be prompt and emphatic, "Of course there are," - but those of a more extended experience know that results are not always to be charged to the causes attributed to them. A variety becomes enervated by some circumstance, and it may be in competition with a variety that has retained its full consti-tional vigor. Not knowing this, the observer would be very apt to consider that one " did not like his soil".

For instance, for a number of years the Albany seedling strawberry did better than any other in the district in which we now write. Though as sour as a cranberry, no one would have anything else, it was so large and bore so abundantly, with very little care. One might then say, " It liked the soil." Of late years it has declined. To-day we do not know where to go to get a plant. No one keeps it. It will not do now to say, " It does not like the soil." It has declined simply because of constitutional debility, and this debility is more fairly to be attributed to climatal causes that induce the spread of fungus troubles, of which the "spot" on the leaf is one sure indicator.

We should, therefore, be very loth to accept the proposition that one kind had preference for one soil more than another, unless we were sure that the competing varieties represented plants with an equally sound constitution. - Ed. G. M].