This is the reason Mr. P. found matters as he did; and that he should attempt to present such a state of affairs to the prejudice of the Delaware, is to me matter of as "great surprise" as it possibly could have been to him that he " found but one Delaware vine in bearing." That he found no vines in bearing in my garden was simply because my Delaware vines were all layered, and I had none thus protected; though it is a fact that I procured last fall Delaware grapes from more than a dozen different vines within the corporate limits.

I have this season a vine in my garden, all of which is layered except two branches. From the two branches I picked on the 20th of August, and sent to C. P. Bissell & Salter, Rochester, N. Y., thirty-six splendid clusters of fruit, leaving about the same number on the vine; and from the layers (which have grown from five to fifteen feet) picked, on the 1th of Sept. inst., about three pecks of well matured fruit. I know of no bearing vine, whatever its exposure, that is not fruiting this season ; and the two original vines, planted nearly twenty years ago in open, exposed situations, are both still in vigorous health, and doubtless yielding their annual product of choice grapes.

Mr. P. speaks of "self-interest" in reference to those who defend the Delaware from his unjust aspersions. I am not a professional nurseryman, nor is vine-raising any part of my regular business, and my " self-interest" in the vine is not sufficient to warrant any great outlay of time in defending it; but I am impelled thereto by a love of justice and fair dealing, and from an interest I feel in its reputation, growing out of the fact that I had the honor of first introducing it to the notice of horticulturists. Mr. P., I think, must himself have a motive for his extraordinary course. I might guess what the motive is ; but not being a Yankee, I will not exercise that privilege. I might, too, search for it amid the manifold springs that control human action, and as a reward for my labor be enabled to cry "Eureka /" and write down "self-interest," but to do so would, to say the least, be ungenerous, and I forbear.

The Delaware is in the hands of the people ; an intelligent and discriminating horticultural public will doubtless do it justice, and if it will not pass the ordeal of all fair tests unscathed, let it fall. All its friends desire or ask is, that it be treated justly and fairly.

[It is meet and proper that Mr. Thomson should come forward with a statement of the conditions under which the Delaware is growing at his own home and in his own locality. It is there that it has been longest cultivated, and it is there that we look for the strongest evidence of its fruitfulness and general hardiness. Its character in both these respects has been impeached, and we have been pointed to Delaware for the evidence. Mr. Thomson's silence, under these circumstances, has been regarded by some as a confirmation of all that has been said in disfavor of the Delaware grape ; there are many, however, who have had abundant opportunities of testing its hardiness under a variety of circumstances, who regard such silence in a different light. We now have the facts on the other side as regards Delaware, and the public will be better able to form an impartial judgment. We think Mr. Prince has injured his own cause by the use of harsh language. If he would only for a moment reflect that he himself once considered the Delaware a native grape, he would have more charity for those who now entertain the same opinion that he once did ; certainly he would not gravely charge them with " gross fraud" and being governed by "self-interest" because he must* know them to be men of too much integrity to be open to any such imputation.

There are men of undoubted honesty all over the country, in no way interested in the sale of vines, who believe the Delaware to be a native grape ; and it is neither right nor proper to impeach their integrity because their convictions may not happen to agree with our own ; it is not only illogical, but unfair. The proper way to convince an opponent, is to lay before him the evidence which brought conviction to our own minds ; and before doing so we ought to be quite sure that the evidence we purpose presenting . is of such a character as to carry with it the force of truth ; certainly we can not hope to convince him by attempting to impeach his honesty, and in the attempt we are very apt to betray oar own weakness. These remarks are of a general nature, and intended to apply to this or any other subject in dispute. There are certain facts connected with the Delaware grape, and these we want: it mildews more or less than other kinds; it is more or less productive; it is more or less hardy under given conditions of location; it is more or less robust in its habit; it has certain qualities of goodness as compared with other varieties; it has a history in reference to its origin; it has certain natural characteristics which serve to determine its place among native or foreign vines; these and similar facts, well ascertained and fairly presented, will bring conviction to all candid minds; others would not be convinced "though one rose from the dead" - Ed].