Though an unobservant follower, I pin my faith a good deal upon Mr. Chorlton as a Grape-grower; not because his rules are more in keeping with that impatience of results so characteristic of Americans, but because I believe with the instincts of true genius he endeavors to overcome difficulties. It may be true that vines require a certain maturity of wood and root before they should be permitted to bear. What that maturity is, observation must determine. It requires several years for a vine to produce from seed; that is one thing; and nature indicates its law, by refusing to produce earlier. But when a vine is artificially grown from cuttings, the analogy may not be complete. It require little maturity of wood; for the fruit is always produced on a branch of the same year. Does it require four years induration; or is capacity of root and stem, whether of one or many years' growth, the question ? Experience alone must decide this. Some vines, from appearance, are less fit at three years, than others are at one. The objects in Grape-culture may also have something to do with it. If a cultivator wants to take premiums at a State fair, under sharp competition, he may take six years to mature four bunches of Black Hamburgs that shall weigh three pounds a piece.

If, on the contrary, he wants Grapes for family use, less showy but equally good, he can in the mean time raise one hundred bunches that shall weigh a pound or less a piece. I have raised this many this year from a single vine eight years planted.

It is true that nearly all the authors condemn early production; yet Grape-culture, in cold vineries, is in this country in its infancy; and when a novice looks in the books, he will find sufficient diversity of opinion to afford him full scope for enterprise and experiment. Take, for instance, the following suggestions by authors of repute:

"The Muscat of Alexandria requires a high, moist temperature, when in bloom, and then the complaints against it as a bad setter will be remedied." - McIntosh, page.

439. "For the Muscat of Alexandria, a dry atmosphere, when at rest and when in bloom, is indispensably necessary." - Chorlton, page 43. "Open the grapery soon, and close early, ought to be a maxim well riveted on the mind." - Idem, page 58.

"Open late." - H. G., Boston, Horticulturist 1852, page 323. "Give little air until fruit is ripening." - Idem, page 323. "Give plenty of air." - Downing.

To close an article, already longer than I intended it to be, and written chiefly for novices like myself in Grape-culture, I would say, that my borders settled some six inches after planting the vines, which I filled up with a light compost and manure. The vines, rejecting the theory laid down for them in "terra-culture," have occupied and filled the added soil with new roots, and 1 do not yet perceive the evil of it stated in the books. I mention it that others may make their borders in time to settle before planting.

Remarks On Cold Graperies #1

Ed. Horticulturist: - In the December Dumber of the Horticulturist for '54 I gave some notes on a vinery without fire heat, erected for family use, only 20 by 22 feet in size, in which the vines were brought into bearing the second year; promising the then editor to give also a report for the next season. The crop of the present year was 410 bunches, all of which ripened well, except the Muscat of Alexandria; a part of which matured, but would, I think, have had a higher flavor if the season had been warmer. The vines were taken up with the beginning of April - blossomed on the 24th of May, and we commenced cutting the fruit on the 15th of August, and are still enjoying it, (October 16).

About 150 bunches were out out in June, at the period of thinning, and fully one half of the berries removed from the steins. If I were to lay down three comprehensive rules for a new beginner, I would say, give your grapes plenty of scissoring. While the bleak winds of spring prevail, a cold grapery requires to be kept rather dry, but with the advance of summer, heat and moisture are the two great agents of development, and 85° and 90° degrees of heat are none too much. The removal of half, and where they have set very thickly, even more of the berries, makes much handsomer fruit, and ensures earlier maturity. It may be a matter of taste in which I should differ from others, but I much prefer three pounds of grapes to be grown on three different bunches, than to have that weight on one stem. As a general rule, I think the fruit will be larger, the bloom better, and the colour deeper on the small than on the larger bunches, and for practical convenience one pound bunches are large enough.

With regard to mildew, I think if sulphur be liberally sprinkled on the floor of the grapery as soon as the fruit has set, and repeated two or three times in the season, we would not be troubled with it one year in twenty. The error in using this remedy, I take it, has been to wait until the mildew exhibits itself. Sprinkled on the floor, the fumes of the sulphur reach every part of the grapery and the application is much nicer than if made to the vines and fruit. I mention an accident that occurred to me in the use of sulphur as a warning to others. The first half of June was exceedingly unpropitious. Almost perpetual rains, with intervening light frosts until the 13th. Fearing mildew might show itself before the solar heat would act upon the sulphur, an iron plate was warmed on which to sprinkle it, a portion of the plate had unintentionally got heated too much, and the sulphur took fire, and in a few moments the foliage, wherever reached by the gas, was totally destroyed; so that some of the vines were reduced to naked canes.

In a few weeks the leaves were reproduced, but the growth of the fruit was meantime interrupted; had it not been for this, the Pitmaston and Sweetwater grapes would probably have been fit to cat by the 1st, instead of the 15th of August.

My vines look well, and, if agreeable, I hope to report again next year as to the effects of early cropping. The only suggestions in addition to the above, which occur to me to make to a beginner, are, that a vine for its proper development should have at least six feet of room to itself; that a vine introduced into a border some years later than the others will grow much slower than one planted cotemporaneously, the first vines preoccupying the ground with their roots. And lastly, in planting a small grapery, it is better to select varieties which mature their fruit at nearly the same season, as a different condition of the grapery is required for growing fruit, and for that which is ripe.