IN establishing a garden, six year? ago, I proposed to make it supply my table with fresh vegetables and fruit all the year round.

With vegetables, the result was obtained the first season, and the supply has been ample and continuous to date, the carrots, parsnips, salsify, beets, turnips, cabbage and potatoes of one season always overlapping the spring greens, lettuce, radishes, spinach and asparagus of the succeeding year.

By the third season, the small fruits and peaches were all established and in full bearing, and from the first of June to October the supply of strawberries, currants, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, peaches and grapes was continuous and abundant. My experiences in this department have been given in former letters, and I have nothing new to add, except the fact that the strawberry beds, which 1 have cultivated in matted rows, and mowed every season after fruiting, have given me less trouble and more fruit than any other.

Besides the usual varieties of vegetables and small fruits, my garden is stocked with all the tree fruits suitable to our climate - apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums and quinces - sixty-five trees in all, including the best varieties to be found in the catalogues.

My apple list comprises the Early Harvest, Bed Astrachan, Maiden's Blush, Smoke House, King of Tompkins County, and English Golden Pippin, and two dwarf Vandeveres, young trees in thrifty bearing. The Fenton, Hunge, Roxbury Russet, Newtown Pippin, Beauty of Kent and Northern Spy, young trees which have not fruited, with two Rambos and two Winter Sweet Paradise, old trees, which I found in the grounds, worm-eaten and neglected; by cultivation and attention they have yielded me satisfactory and increasing crops every year since I came in possession.

The Rambo is our standard dessert apple from October until January; and the Sweet Paradise, until March and April. This latter fruit, imperfectly described by Downing, is one of our favorite winter apples here, being of handsome appearance, above medium size, with a rich blushing cheek toward the south; in texture peculiarly tender, fine grained and light, very sweet, crisp and juicy in November, and attaining in time a delicate aromatic flavor, like that of a ripe Banana.

I also found on my grounds an old quince bush, forlorn and neglected, which bore two quinces the first season. By cultivating it with manure and a quart of rook salt every season it has brought me annually increasing crops, and this year yielded one hundred and tea sound quinces.

Of cherries, I have five handsome and thrifty trees, comprising three varieties, the May Duke, Early Richmond and Yellow Spanish, which have been in bearing three seasons. Up to date I have been unable to secure a single ripe specimen to test their flavor, on account of the birds, who eat them all as soon as they begin to turn red. As we have abundance of other fruit in cherry season, I legitimize the robbery and accept the return in cheerful music.

My list of peaches included the Early Hale, Crawford's Early, Stump the World, Susquehanna, Yellow Heath Cling and Crawford's Late. They were set out in the spring of 1867, cultivated with low heads, and by the shortening-in method, recommended by Downing. They commenced bearing the third season after planting, and have yielded four successive crops of the largest and finest flavored fruit of their respective varieties. Meanwhile the trees have died from time to time, so that, not more than one-third the original plantation remains, and from certain signs, these will probably not last over next summer.

In filling vacancies caused by death, and increasing my orchard, I have added Troth's Early, Early York, George 4th, Eliza, Harker's Seedling, White Heath, and Old Mixon Clings, and the Blood Peach.

The Blood Peach, which Downing says is only fit for pickling, we find very agreeable eating in Virginia. Forty years ago I knew it as the "Black Georgia," and six years ago enjoyed some very fine specimens, at Richmond, Virginia, so I conclude it requires a southern sun to temper its abundant and refreshing juices.

The Early Hale has been a decided success with me, showing no more disposition to rot than some other varieties. In the season of 1871,1 lost nearly the whole crop by the rot. The Early Crawfords suffered equally, and Crawford's Late very considerably. The same season, my plums were annihilated, while apples and grapes both suffered by rot. The last season, all my fruit was remarkably sound, and of three bearing trees of Early Hale, I did not lose a single peach by the rot.

I have fought the Borer with ashes, lime, tarred paper, hot water, knife and wire, yet on examining the stumps of the dying or dead trees, I find from a dozen to twenty worms in each, often in the roots a foot below the surface.

Although I am of opinion, generally, that we cannot rely on the improved peach for more than four or five consecutive crops, I don't doubt that worms were the immediate cause of the death of my trees.

Of plums, I have the Jefferson and Duahe's Purple, lately planted; seedlings of the common Damson and Early Harvest, in bearing; and three varieties, sent by a nurseryman, under false names - one is a Green Gage of fair quality, but rather insignificant in size, good for preserving, and hangs a month on the tree after ripening; the second is a larger and higher flavored fruit, oblong, light green, with a white bloom and faint blush; the third is a superb plum, six or seven inches in circumference, and of most delicious flavor, externally bearing a close resemblance to Coe's Golden Drop, but a clean free stone, ripening about the first of September.

I have combated the Curculio by jarring over a sheet for two seasons, catching a dozen or more insects at each operation. The first season I saved no fruit at all; last season I realized full and satisfactory crops, although nearly all had been punctured by the Curculio. The first outgrew the wounds and ripened healthy, and without worms, showing only a thin scab on the skin. This leaves me in doubt whether the jarring had anything to do with the success of my crops this year; under the Green Gage tree I tied a hen, with a brood of young chickens, about the middle of May; from this tree I caught no Curculios, and not a single plum was punctured. I have faith in this trap, and will extend the experiment next year.

My Dwarf Pears, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Belle Lucrative and Vicar of Wink-field have been fruiting for several years, three or four specimens each. This season they gave me half a bushel each of the finest fruit. I have the Bartlett, Tyson, Flemish Beauty, and Seckel, and Vicar, as standards, all of which fruited handsomely this season. The Flemish Beauty yielded between one and two bushels of the finest pears, some specimens ten and a half inches in circumference around the swell. They ripened on shelves in a dark room, beautiful as wax-work, of superior flavor, and no rotting at the core. I had Vicars of fine size and good flavor at my Christmas dinner. For winter stock, I have set out Winter Nelis and Buerre d'Ar-emburg. This fall my two Dwarf Vicars perished miserably with the sap blight, all the other trees seem remarkably healthy.

I have a variety of grapes coming on, but as yet the Concord is my main reliance; for two seasons I have lost about half my crop by the honey bees, and next year propose to treat them with bottles of switchel, which will deplete my neighbors' hives, and possibly save my fruit.

With six years of experience and observation, I have reached the general conclusion, that an amateur horticulturist, advanced in years, should eschew experiments and seedlings, and stock his garden with the best authenticated and finest improved fruits to be found in the nurseries, and then the price of good fruit (as of Liberty) is "eternal vigilance."

West Virginia, January, 1873.