According to promise, I send you the account of the doings of my little vinery, a description of which you saw fit to publish in the Horticulturist about a year since. The building, you will recollect, was constructed on the most economical principles. It is a lean-to, 40 feet long and 13 feet wide, and was planted last spring [1860] with two-year-old vines; the border allowing the roots to pass outside.

The vines made a fine growth last season, and received only moderate attention. A moist atmosphere was endeavored to be kept, an important aid to which was a shallow wooden trough, 18 inches wide, running the entire length of the here indicated; your remarks will have a special interest for beginners. We have repeatedly expressed the opinion in these pages, that the great mass of amateurs could easily acquire the knowledge necessary to manage a cold grapery successfully, but you have put the matter stronger than we have. We incline to believe that you unsuspectingly base your conclusions on the supposition that all beginners are as intelligent as yourself, and have acquired the same amount of knowledge in other departments of culture that you have; but this, however complimentary, is not generally the fact. Very many of them have to begin without any knowledge whatever. While wishing to secure them against disappointment, we have no word of discouragement for them; on the contrary, we repeat our earnest hope that all who can afford it will put up a grapery, however small it may be: there is nothing in the whole range of horticulture that will yield them more real pleasure and gratification.

The necessary knowledge, as we have elsewhere said, can be readily acquired by any person of ordinary intelligence. The reader will find our views pretty fully expressed on page 201 of the last year's volume: he will do well to read them again. They accord in the main with Dr. Norris's experience, as here recorded. The Doctor, however, has been peculiarly fortunate in his freedom from red spider, thrip, and mildew; and while we most heartily wish him a continuance of such freedom, we hazard nothing in saying that he will secure it only by something a little less than "eternal vigilance." It is better that we should know our enemies from the beginning, especially in times like these. New houses are not much subject to insects and mildew, except as the result of negligence; but we have never seen an old house, even under the most skillful management, that was not more or less affected by them, and often, too, to the detriment of the crop. However much we may wish and pray that it might be otherwise, we believe this condition of things will continue till the millennium of Horticulture shall have arrived, though the skill and vigilance of man may do much to ameliorate it.

We are confident that another year's experience will bring the doctor to our way of thinking. - Ed].