The Country Gentleman, writing • of a visit to F. C. Brehin's vineyard, states that "bunches of Delawares were quite green on the sand, but many of them had attained nearly their full color on the clay, while the difference in altitude of soils was not four feet." On the shore of Lake Erie, we are told, the light, sandy soils do not ripen th6 grape as well as the clays, and that while the Catawbas, Nortons, and other late sorts, ripen rich and fine on the clay, on sand they rarely more than color. The soil exhibited by Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, at the American Pomological Society's meeting in St. Louis, as the best grape soil of the Rhine, was a hard, tough, yellow clay, the like of which may be found in many places along the south shore of Lake Erie, and over the hills of Hermann, Bluffton, and other points in Missouri.

The Diana grape is said to prove one of the very best for cultivation in our Southern States.

What do you know of the Van Buren Dwarf Peach ? Can we grow it, and raise fruit in Wisconsin by protection in winter ?

T. D. P

[Our knowledge of this peach is limited; we have had the trees now two seasons, and still no fruit, though an abundance of blossoms. One of our specimens measures five feet high, and is three years from the bud. At this rate of growth it will hardly be dwarf enough for winter protection. Why not plant some of the well-tested varieties? Train the trees eighteen inches from the ground, and protect by a covering of straw or similar material, as has already been done with success in some of our more northern States. There is a variety called Italian Dwarf, which in our grounds has reached a height of but sixteen inches, with a diameter of eight inches across the branches. The tree three years from the bud has this season produced six peaches of good flavor, the largest measuring two and a quarter inches in diameter. This could be protected very easily.] -Strawberry - Iron Duke. - The Canada Farmer mentions a strawberry under name of Iron Duke, which claims to be a seedling originating with Thos. Graydon, Esq., of St. Catharines. It is described as being "very prolific in bearing and remarkable for size and flavor, many of the berries measuring seven and a quarter inches in circumference, and weighing one and a quarter ounces."

Strawberry beds planted this autumn should during this month be lightly mulched with coarse straw, cornstalks, or other litter that will serve to shield them from sun and prevent the ground from freezing and thawing rapidly; but at the same time the mulch should not pack down on the plants to smother them.