This has been a peculiar and in some respects a discouraging season for gardening operations in this section. The early potatoes are very poor, early sweet corn nearly a failure, Lima bean plants ornamented with imitation pods, tomatoes sun-scalded and half rotten owing to the excessive drouth the early part of the season. As misery loves company, I started to visit some friends near Upland, Delaware county, about two miles from Chester. It gives me pleasure to speak of this place as one of the prettiest, cleanest, neatest, and best laid out town of the size I have ever seen in this country. The population, I understand, is about two thousand, mostly importations from England. Every cottage has a flower and vegetable garden attached. The flowers in the front of some of the cottages were a mass of bloom and in great variety, including the inevitable sunflower nodding its heads in the direction of its namesake. Some of the people cultivate their plants in pots, boxes, tubs, etc., which decorate the window sills of the houses. Others have an artistic taste for gardening.

I noticed one cottage where the Madeira vine with its fine glossy leaves and deliciously fragrant, nearly white flowers, and profusion of bloom, was trained on wires and run up to a tree in three different directions in an horizontal manner. These were growing out of a tub about 2 feet over, with Petunias and Tropseolums of different colors planted and hanging over the sides of the tub, which had a striking appearance and deserved much praise. I must say that these gardens are kept in remarkably good order, and the people of the place deserve great credit for their devotion and interest in so worthy an object. There are cottage flower shows in some parts of England, and premiums are awarded to those who can excel others in the cultivation of flowers, - and these are upheld by contributions from the wealthier classes who take a great interest in them. I think Upland would be a good place to start a Cottagers' Society of this kind. There would no doubt be strong competition. The streets of this place are laid out and numbered in Philadelphia style, and are lined with avenues of fine Norway and Sugar maples, which form a pleasant shade.

This charming place is owned principally by the Crozier family, who are noted for their kind Christian and benevolent character throughout Delaware co., and by whom the people are employed in cotton mills. They evidently take a great interest in their employees by providing good comfortable homes at a moderate rent, and they have donated several acres of land as a park for the benefit of the people. A debating society, reading rooms, etc., are all free. No intoxicating drinks are sold in the town. The private residences of the Croziers are the finest in Delaware county, and are splendidly laid out. I only had an outside view of them, it being Sunday, which afforded no opportunity to inspect them, - but I hope at some future time to have the pleasure of doing so. Pencoyd, Montgomery Co.