In the January number of the Horticulturist is an article headed, English Strawberries versus Natives, by D. M. Richard. Would not good culture versus bad, have been more appropriate? for on the outset Mr. R. remarks, "To make any fruit profitable for market there are several things requisite, - fine flavor, good size, and appearance, hardiness, regular and good crops, with the least labor." I will take these requisites in the order in which they begin: first on our list is fine flavor. Is it really necessary for me to tell any cultivator of Strawberries that Alice Maud, Victoria, Kitley's Goliath, British Queen, etc, are superior to a Scarlet? I always understood from my own experience, as well as the writings of the best Pomologists, that the first and principal characteristics of the Pine Strawberry (to which class all these belong) was its exquisite flavor. At the June Exhibition of the Washington Horticultural Society, the two past seasons, the Strawberries which 'received prizes for high flavor were these veritable foreign sorts.

Why did not Mr. R. appear in competition with his little Scarlets? The public like facts, and the fruit which bears away the premium in a spirited competition, will be by discerning horticulturists accepted as best If Mr. R. is- really serious when he says "Alice Maud" is deficient in flavor, I would reply, " there is no accounting for taste," and this point is not worth arguing farther. The next requisite, size, appears to me about as tenable as the first. Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, near London, grew a Pine Strawberry 8 inches in circumference. British Queens are frequently shown there 6 inches in circumference. Mr. Lambert, of Alexandria, Va., showed, at the Washington Horticultural Society, in 1857, a dish of Magnum Bonum (a genuine Pine), many of which could not have been much less than 6 inches in circumference; they might with much credit have been shown in London or the Crystal Palace; I regret much I had not an opportunity of measuring some of these magnificent fruit. Mr. John Slater, of Alexandria, grew a fruit of Victoria the past season which weighed over an ounce. A querist in the Horticulturist not long since wished to know, if the figures given in the plate of this fruit were exaggerated.

You well know, Mr. Editor, they were under size on the day I gathered the fruit of Victoria, with Mr. Cam-»mack; he had at the time gathered and fit to gather, some hundreds of quarts of Victoria, the greater portion equally fine with the fruit sent; - what a sight this would be for Mr. R. to behold, and what a figure his little Scarlets would cut near them! Next on the list we find appearance; if large size and a bright color do not constitute good appearance, my knowledge of this quality is at fault, and we will leave it for the next, - hardiness.

The most delicate Strawberry I have ever seen, when grown in a properly drained soil and mulched in the fall, will pass through the winter safely; the burning sun of summer I find far more injurious to all Strawberries, than cold, - that there are many varieties of foreign Strawberries which cannot withstand our burning sun I am fully sensible of; there are again others, which will stand our fiercest sun, as well or better than any native sort; to this latter class belong Victoria, Comte Flanders, Triomphe de Gand, Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury, Ac, whilst their power of resisting cold is equally great I cultivate all the leading Native and Foreign sorts, give no protection during winter, - and if Mr. R. will favor me with a visit at the opening of spring, he can judge for himself whether the varieties I have named, and many others, will present as good an appearance as the natives; by repeating bis visits in the dog days, he can judge of the effects of the sun's rays upon them. That Messrs. Cammack and Slater will be equally courteous I make no doubt; the place of the latter is not a great distance from Mr. Richard's. Next comes regular and good crops," these I can assure the reader will follow good culture; it has done so with the gentlemen named by me, and the extent to which they cultivate them is the best proof of this; commercial gardeners will assuredly grow the most profitable.

We have now arrived at the last requisite, "least labor." And here I must admit Mr. Richard's Scarlets have the advantage; they are admirably suited for the "least-labor" system, which means grass and strawberries together, the strawberry patch to be mown soon after the fruit is gathered, and in place of a nice mulching of rotten manure in the fall, the grass has grown and become matted through the plants, "to prevent their freezing out during winter." In spring they are cleaned expeditiously by burning the patch over, and the plants are ready to bear again. Such is the least-labor system, and under which Foreign Strawberries pertinaciously refuse to grow, or if they do, drag out a miserable existence, and realize in the market twenty cents per quart, at which price Mr. R. informs us he has seen "Alice Maud" sell. Did he ever know Mr. Slater or Cammack to sell at that price? and is he cognizant of the fact, that the former of these gentlemen frequently obtains a dollar per quart on their first appearance in market.

How these crops are produced, I will make an extract from my article alluded to by Mr. R., or the question will be naturally asked: How came these varieties to succeed to such perfection with the gardeners here named, whilst they have so signally failed in the hands of others in the vicinity? I answer, good culture. These men know the value of deep trenching, high manuring, and good after-care, such as keeping them perfectly clean from grass and weeds through the summer, and the ground loose and broken. Persons not disposed to give such culture, but to depend upon the plough, and in case of a failure of a strawberry crop, to take off a crop If hay or clover, had better by all means stick to their scarlets; they are far more satisfactory. By scarlets I mean nearly all our native varieties, as few - very few, possess the least trace of a pine, not excepting the best of American straw berries, Hovey's Seedling. This must be apparent to any person conversant with the original types of our now cultivated strawberries.