L. Well, B., I am afraid you have worked too much among books for me to have any chance with you in an argument on bibliographical subjects. Let us set down Antill's Essay as the first. I would like to examine it.

B. All right; but let us chat now, and you can take the book home with you and examine it at your leisure.

I did so, and on my way I thought over the chat I had had with B.; and it occurred to me that many of the readers of the Horticulturist would have been interested in that conversation, so the question came up, Then why not report it ? And I could not find an answer to that "why not;" so here is the report. But I wonder what B. will say when his old friend the Horticulturist comes to him with that talk of ours all set down in its pages.

The Essay fills eighty-five quarto pages, and tells us how to care for vines from the cutting to the vintage. The author has sanguine hopes of success, for he says: "If the vineyard do not succeed, the fault is in the man, and not in the vine." And after this quaint fashion he holds out the most endearing encouragement to his readers. The apprehension of being at a certain expense, without the experience of a certain return, will hinder many from making the attempt; but let not these thoughts trouble you, nor make you afraid. You have a friend for your guide who will not deceive you nor mislead you; one who by experience knows that the thing is practicable here, where the country is open and clear; one who looks upon you all as his children, and with the fondness of an affectionate father will take you by the hand, and lead you with plainness and honest simplicity through all the different operations, till you become master of the whole, and then with pleasure and delight will look and see you reap the profits, to your full satisfaction, of all your expense and labor."

In these days, when we have $100 prizes offered for the best vine, and when it requires the combined wisdom of the ablest members of our Pomological societies to make out a list of vines suitable for a given section of country, it is interesting to read the names of those Mr. Antill recommends. The list is long, so we content ourselves with samples.

For New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, the Black Hamburgh, the Miller Grape, etc. For Pennsylvania and " the three lower counties," Chasselas, Blanc, Red Fronteniac, etc. Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina require White Fronteniac, White Oporto, etc.

It would seem from his Essay that there was not a single American variety cultivated by the better class of fruit-growers.

"The reason for my being silent about vines that are natives of America, is that I know but little of them, having but just entered upon a trial of them, when my ill state of health forbade me to proceed. From what little observation I have been able to make, I look upon them to be much more untractablc than those of Europe; they will undergo a hard struggle indeed before they will submit to a low and humble state - a state of abject slavery. They are very hardy, and will stand a frame, for they brave the severest storms and winter blasts; they shrink not at snow, ice, hail, or rain; the wine they will make, I imagine from the austerity of their taste, will be strong and masculine." He recommends deep culture and thorough manuring, but objects to the placing of any manure in the hole in which the vines are set, claiming that to do so is to set the vines in flowerpots.

His directions for pruning are full and excellent. He advises to save all the roots, and not to dig up over twenty vines at once, so that they may never be exposed to the air for too long a time. At that time, however, vines were not procured from vineyards hundreds of miles distant, but were grown on the owner's premises.

He objects to root pruning at the time of planting, except in so far as the surface roots, or day roots as he calls them, are concerned. On this point he agrees with the Germans, and advises their removal. He recommends mulching, and describes training both upon stakes and trellises, which he calls espaliers, but prefers the stakes on account of the facility which they give for winter protection. He allows a light crop to be taken in the fourth year, but none prior to that. In the fifth year he allows a full vintage, and dwells at great length on the danger of fruiting the . vine when too young. He objects to trellis training, on the ground that it is difficult, and fit only for rich men who can afford to employ experienced vignerons. It would seem that there were stealers of fruit in those days as well as now; but instead of taking the method advocated by friend Greeley, and securing enough grapes for all so as to remove the temptation to steal, he directs us "to guard against such attempts by a close high fence without and a smart watchful dog within, and especially by the vigneron appearing now and then with a gun in his hand, walking about his vineyard in an evening, particularly when there are idle people without; this will effectually prevent any attempts, when they see what they apprehend to be so very dangerous."

He shows no mercy to the bird thieves, and directs us to shoot the robins and catbirds, and destroy their nests. But at the same time he offers a remedy which is perhaps worth quoting.

"If poles be stuck up here and here, near that quarter where the birdsharbor and have their haunt, and small branches, with three or four twigs on them, be fastened to the top of the pole, and the twigs well daubed over with bird-lime, the birds will perch upon them, and will be so entangled by the bird-lime, that if they are suffered to continue upon them some time, if they then get away, they will hardly return again that season; and as if they communicate their grievances and their dangers, few or none of the same species will come into the vineyard that season."

He condemns, in the strongest terms, the growing of crops between the rows, and directs these who can not employ horse power to use the two-pronged fork, of which he gives a cut, calling it a sarkling iron. On the whole, this curious old work contains much that is to be found in our modern treatises, and yet it was written before Speechly had given his work to the public, or Switzer had described his "New. Method."

His hopes were high, and from statements in his essay we should say that at first he attained a moderate degree of success. We presume, however, that his vineyard was ultimately a failure, and that the only record left exists in what my friend B. assures me may be called "the first American work on grape culture."

Liber.

Grapevines should be pruned this month, or as soon as the leaves drop, and before severe cold sets in. The length of the canes, number of buds, etc., to each plant, must be regulated more by a good common-sense judgment of the strength of the vine and the variety, than by any set rule laid down in books. The Delaware, Mottled, and other short-jointed kinds, we have sometimes pruned to ten or twelve buds on a cane, and then when the spring came have rubbed out every other bud; but we can hardly advise the practice. The Clinton, Nortons, and others of their class, we have grown our best fruit upon by leaving long canes. Concord and Hartford Prolific have also given fine fruit by this manner of pruning. After pruning, leave the canes untied.

Rhododendrons, mahonias, and other partially hardy broad-leaved evergreens, should have the earth around them covered pretty deep with leaves.