I regret that my worthy friend, A. Thomson, Esq., of Delaware, Ohio, should feel aggrieved, as is indicated by his article in the Horticulturist of the present month, for assuredly it is without cause so far as himself is concerned. I am not aware of ever having made a remark personally disrespectful toward him; for, indeed, I do not consider him as sustaining as a fact the point I have assailed. It is true that the naming a foreign vine, or even a native vine, that had been brought there from New Jersey, the "Del-aware" grape, was at least inappropriate, and calculated to impress the public with the belief that it originated there. But it seems quite probable that Mr. Thomson supposed it at first to be a native of that vicinity. I certainly derived such an impression from the early correspondence with him on the subject. He, however, afterwards stated that it had been traced to New Jersey; and when I visited him, in September, 1869, on my stating' to him that it was absolutely foreign, as I had done in repeated letters, (which he has not thought proper to quote,) he no longer claimed it to be a native, and I felt satisfied that he had become convinced to the contrary.

When visiting Delaware, I called first on Mr. T., and although he had a number of the vines of bearing size, and his small city garden seemed well sheltered, there was not one berry. He named but one person who had the Delaware in fruit, and we went to Mr. Campbell's, where I saw but one vine, although it may have had three shoots, (now called vines.) I visited Mr. Charles Sweetaser's garden, and found other grapes, but no Delawares, nor could I, on inquiry, hear of any other vine bearing fruit in the town. I was told that it was notorious that Joseph Heath, living just out of town, brought the first vine there from Bordentown.

In regard to my having expressed an opinion in 1855 that the "Delaware" was a native variety, the cause of the opinion then expressed has been so often explained, (and, as I had supposed, to Mr. T. himself,) that I do not consider an error arising from the acts of others, and long since corrected, can be fairly quoted against me. Mr. Thomson's correspondence, and the statements made at a fair I attended in Ohio, where "Delaware" grapes were exhibited, all led me to suppose it was a native variety. I received a package of layers from Mr. T., and on the same day a package of layers of the Ramsdell grape from another person. Neither parcel had any label by which they could be distinguished; and, in deciding their identity, the Ramsdell vines were marked Delaware, and planted with great care in my garden, with the name of "Thomson" attached to them, and the Delaware vines were marked Ramsdell, and sent to the nursery half a mile oft Watching the development of the supposed Delaware, (but in reality the Ramsdell,) and finding the large foliage of the Labrusca, I boldly stated to Mr. T. and some others that the Delaware was positively a native, and it was not until I made another purchase of Delaware vines that I discovered the error.

Like others, I may be misled by a false issue, but I never change an opinion once formed, as I seek, when advancing it, to place it on an incontrovertible basis.

It will be recollected, when the " Rebecca" grape was announced with furor as a genuine native, with foxy odor, etc, that I instantly pronounced it a Chasselas seedling; and now, all those who then so determinedly opposed me have acquiesced. I only ask five minutes' inspection by any person who will call upon me, to prove the "Delawares" to be Vitis vinifera. In a future communication I will present the peculiar characteristics whicb distinguish the Vitis vinifera, and will point out those which prevent the successful vineyard culture of any of its varieties. I will also extract the opinions from numerous letters, proving the utter failure of the "Deknoare'" in open field culture. As to any special "self-interest" in the matter, I set such allegations at nought, as more profit can bo made by conforming to a popular delusion, than by opposing it, even in the culture of grapes.

Having always viewed our country as preeminently stamped by God as "The Land of the Vine" I labored, in connection with my revered father, for fifteen years antecedent to 1835, to establish American vineyards with foreign vines. Nicholas Longworth, Dr. J. B. Garber, and a host of others, were engaged at that time most ardently in the same pursuit. And what was the result? All our hopes were blighted, and there is not even one who made those great and expensive experiments, but will now say that the greatest ► curse that can befall the present renewal of the grape culture, would be the planting American vineyards with varieties of the Vitis vinifera. And is it not degrading to American intelligence, after all the experience of the past, to be still seeking ont the puny and debilitated vines which France has been on the eve of rejecting for disease, when we can see every where implanted within our own boundaries, as the spontaneous gift of nature, ten distinct robust species of the grape, and varieties almost innumerable? Even the growth of seedlings from the foreign species ought to be repudiated, as the progeny has always proved feeble.

Yes I "Self interest" I have in this matter, and that self-interest is a most ardent desire that we shall make no more ill-judged experiments, but that our future operations may be such as shall result in the glorious triumph of covering our hillsides and our valleys with prosperous vineyards, thereby not only furnishing to the whole nation that pure, gently exhilarating, and restorative beverage which constitutes one of the greatest boons God has bestowed on man, but which will also serve to eradicate the greatest vice of the nation. Intemperance is undeniably the most debasing parasite which afflicts humanity, and the grape culture is the sovereign and only means by which it can be eradicated. Man, in the performance of the ordinary duties of life, exhausts both the body and the mind, and then seeks some congenial restorative. Deprived of pure wine, he looks to alcohol, not from choice, but from necessity.

Is it not then the noblest pursuit in which we can engage, to develop the vineyard culture until every family in the nation can be cheaply supplied, and also until we can export the pure juice of the grape to every other country that requires it?

[However much cause Mr. Thomson may heretofore have had to except to Mr. Prince's allusions to himself, we think he will not complain of the tone of the present article. We are glad to see Mr. P. disclaim any personal ill-feeling; and we may add, that his reasons will have more force, because more temperate, but they are none the less decisive, as the reader will see. Many wanted to know the reason why Mr. Prince changed his opinion, and this will be the first time that most of them will have heard of it. We certainly have never heard of it before, to the best of our recollection, and never could account for the silence, but wished it might be broken. The impression has generally prevailed that Mr. Prince's opinion was originally based on an inspection of Mr. Thomson's vines, but his explanation puts another face on the matter. The subject is now in a way of being cleared up. Let us by all means have the other article, with your reasons for considering the Delaware a foreign grape: state the particulars in which the Delaware differs from the native vine, so that the points of comparison may be obvious.

We agree with Mr. Prince, that no greater misfortune could befall the country than the planting of foreign vines for vineyard culture, and this is an additional reason for deciding speedily the origin and hardiness of the Delaware. We want all the testimony we can get on both sides of the question. Rev. Wm. P. Page was another of those who entered into the culture of the foreign vine at the time alluded to by Mr. Prince, and we have heard him state his losses at upwards of $20,000. We are all agreed that the foreign vine is not adapted to our climate: experience has settled that beyond dispute. ed].