In the April number of the present volume, Mr. Saul, in commenting upon my article in the January number headed "English Strawberries versus Natives," starts out by asking the question "Would not good culture versus bad be more appropriate." I may be somewhat dull of comprehension, but I certainly cannot see the slightest similarity between the two, unless Mr. Saul is under the impression that the proper cultivation of each is to trench and manure the ground at a cost of one or two hundred dollars an acre for the foreign varieties, while to take a crop of grass off the ground in the fall and burn it over in the spring is all that is necessary for the natives; this is the inference to be drawn from both Mr. Saul's articles upon strawberries. Now, I would call it cultivating the one upon the "high pressure" principle, while for the other it is no cultivation at all.

I stated in my article " 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, - and the nearest we can have all these qualities combined in one fruit the more profitable it is." I will take up the different points in the order Mr. Saul has taken them.

I am surprised to see Mr. Saul places the Alice Maud among those varieties of superior flavor. No good judge would call it a high-flavored fruit; this is admitted even by the cultivators of it; as for the other varieties named by Mr. Saul, I can assure him I can produce five persons who will decide in favor of Hovey's Seedling, Prince's Magnate, or Bayne's Favorite, where he can get one person to decide in favor of the varieties he has named. As to the penologists Mr. Saul refers to, I would firsts wish to know whether they reside on this or the other side of the Atlantic. A fruit may be of "exquisite flavor" in the cloudy atmosphere of London, but it might be worthless in the neighborhood of Washington.

Next comes size. Mr. Saul says in the neighborhood of London " British Queens are frequently shown six inches in circumference;" did Mr. Saul ever see a crop of British Queens grown to that size in the neighborhood of Washington? He must surely know that every attempt to cultivate them here has met with failure; like their namesakes, they cannot flourish so near the Capital of this great republican nation. The Magnum Bonums referred to by Mr. Saul, raised by Mr. Lambert in 1857, were very large; indeed, might have been called of mammoth proportions; at the time they created quite an excitement in the horticultural circles around Washington, and Mr. Lambert could have sold the plants readily at ten dollars per nundred; but where was the Magnum Bonum in 1858? and where was it this year? Like many of its predecessors, it shone brilliantly in the horticultural horizon for a season, then sank into oblivion, never to rise again. I have taken the trouble to learn how Mr. Lambert raised those berries. He had a bed which was as rich as it could be made; besides this they were mulched several inches deep with tan, and watered almost every evening, from the time the fruit set until it was ripe.

To use the language of Mr. Slater, they were "nursed to death." Under such treatment they have been a failure two seasons out of three; besides, would any sane man attempt to raise strawberries by the acre profitably in this country with such cultivation? Yet Mr. Saul brings up the Magnum Bonum as evidence in favor of foreign strawberries.

The Victoria with extraordinary cultivation is of large size; and so is an overgrown turnip, there being about as much solidity in the one as there is in the other. As for color, Mr. Saul and I differ as to what is a bright red; surely the dull greenish red of the Alice Maud, or pale color of the Victoria, giving it the appearance of being green when fully ripe, cannot be compared to the rich bright scarlet of Hovey's and other native strawberries.

Mr. Saul's own admissions prove that foreign strawberries are not as hardy as our natives. He says, in speaking of what he calls 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 the winter. In the spring they are cleared out expeditiously by burning the patch over, and the plants are ready to bear again." Truly does Mr. Saul say, "under such treatment the foreign varieties pertinaciously refuse to grow;" he might safely have said there would not be a vestige of a plant left; yet the natives bear a crop of fruit. Again Mr. Saul says, "not only should the ground be trenched and highly manured, but the soil should be an adhesive loam approaching to clay," - or in other words, they must have a soil of a peculiar texture or they wont succeed. The natives do well upon any soil which will produce a crop of wheat or corn.

If Mr. Saul recommends a cherry, or a pear, or a rose, is not hardiness one of the principal requisites? aye, would he not sacrifice some other qualities to a certain extent, to hardiness? The farmer plants corn that fires the least; he sows the wheat that is least subject to smut, and plants such potatoes as are least affected by the rot and why will not the same rule hold good for strawberries?

Next in order comes the "least labor" - the clause Mr. Saul seems not to understand. I will state what I call "least labor." If it costs Mr. Saul $150 to prepare a piece of land, which I will prepare for $50, and it costs Mr. Saul $50 more for mulching, etc, in the fall, and I raise the same amount of fruit for which I get the same prices, - or in other words, if the income is the same, I have the advantage of $150 dollars in the outlay. Mr. Saul would trench with the spade, and manure heavily; (this last is not by any means a cheap article in Washington). I will break up the the land with the plow, and subsoil, and if the land is of pretty good quality, put on 300 lbs. of guano to the acre, and keep the plants clear of grass by cultivating them during the summer. I can assure Mr. Saul the next spring I can show. as fine fruit and as much of it, which will bring as good prices in the market as Mr Saul can produce upon his highly-prepared land and foreign varieties: - now these are not merely assertions, but facts, which are yearly proved around Washington city.