A few evenings ago I stepped into the study of a friend whom I shall name Bib-los, and who is known among his friends as having the finest library of agricultural works in this part of the country. I felt anxious to learn a little about the early American books on Gardening, and felt pretty certain of obtaining from B. the information of which I was in search. On asking him which was the earliest American work on the Vine, he replied: "Really I can not tell without looking. It is a pity that we have no good work on the bibliography of American science and art. Theology and metaphysics have been pretty well worked up by Truber, but for the rest we must depend upon the booksellers' circulars and Roorbach's work. Pass me that volume by Fuller, lying on the table. I believe he gives a list. [He then examined the book.] He gives Adlum's, published 1823, as the first work. My copy was published in 1828, but is a second edition. Let us see what he says about the History of grape culture. [Looks.] Of this he says nothing. Pass Husman's work, 'Grapes and Wine.' Here we have a very good History. From this it appears that grape culture has been carried on in this country for more than two hundred years.

It will be strange, then, if we do not find some work on grape culture prior to 1823. Let me look at * MacMahon's Gardening.1 It was published in 1806, and is the oldest American work on Gardening that I possess. My copy has seen some strange adventures, having been brought from the South during the late war. This work is not mentioned by Downing in his list of works prefixed to his 'Fruits and Fruit-Trees.' The oldest work there mentioned is Coxe's, 1817, and the next is Prince's, whose treatise on Horticulture - an admirable little work, by the way - was issued about the time Adlum published his book."

L. Well, really this is annoying. Is there no nearly perfect list of American books on Horticulture ?

B. I believe not. Phin, in his book, says that he was asked to make out such a list for vine culture, but he declined, as being incompetent. He gives a list, however. Let us look at it. [Picks up Phin's book and examines it] Well, this is really a strange list. More remarkable, perhaps, for its omissions than for its contents. He seems to have included only those works which he had consulted. This list, like every other, may be useful; but it seems to me that if he had left out the Chemistries of Gmelin and Graham, and had given us a list of all the works of which he could have found any account, his labors would have been of more value. If he had wished to distinguish those he had consulted, he might have prefixed an asterisk to each. I have heard that he was at one time librarian to a large institution, and this list evidently shows a knowledge of bibliography, which might have done us good service if he had chosen to use it. His forte seems to lie in hunting up knowledge in out-of-the-way places.

Who would have thought of looking for a translation of Chaptal in the Philosophical Magazine? I wonder some of our publishers do not extract and republish it.

L. Allow me to look at the book when you get through. [Takes it.] Well, this is quite a long list, though it seems to me that many of the books mentioned relate to anything but vine culture. Still, we may find in it some clue to our object. Let me look down the list. Here is a work - Johnson, 8. W. - "The Culture of the Vine." New Brunswick, N. J., 1806. Have you it ?

B. No, I have not. Never heard of it. [Searches his catalogues.] I can not find it in any catalogue in my possession. I am inclined to believe that must be the first work exclusively devoted to the Vine. It is seventeen years prior to Adlum - the earliest work mentioned by Fuller.

L. By the way, B., have you a book of Busby's with the same title as Husman's recent work, "Grapes and Wine?"

B. I have not. I am inclined to believe that is a mistake of Fuller's. I have a copy of uBusby'su Visit to the Vineyards of France and Spain," but I can not find a record of any other work of his; still, it would not be safe to say there is none.

L. In looking over Husman's work, I see that he alludes to an article by Mr. An-tel on the "Culture of the Vine," published in the "American Philosophical Transactions," Vol. I. Have you got that work ?

B. Yes, I have - nearly a complete set of it. I see Phin has that in his list. Here it is. Mine is the second edition, published, like that referred to by Phin, in 1789. A note on the fly-leaf of my copy says that the first edition was published in 1771. The Essay itself is dated 1769. I am inclined to think that here we have the first practical directions for cultivating the vine ever published in America.

L. Yes; but you can not call this a work on the Vine ! This is the "American Philosophical Transactions!"

B. That shows, friend Liber, that you know more about vine culture than you do of bibliography. I suspect you are one of those who would place the "Diversions of Purley" on the same shelf with your book of Games, and Edgeworth's "Essay on Irish Bulls" among your books on stock-breeding. If you do not look beyond mere titles, you will be found some day ordering a copy of "Ruskin on the Construction of Sheepfolds" with a view to getting up for some of our agricultural papers an article on that essential department of sheep hus-. bandry; or Ryle's " Wheat and Chaff," for the purpose of comparing it with Klip-part's work under a similar title. Still, as you say, it is not a work devoted exclusively to the Vine, or even to fruit culture. Nevertheless it forms the first complete American treatise on the Vine.

L. Perhaps you are right; but Fuller includes in his list only those works relating wholly to the Vine.

B. That was his intention; and yet if he had strictly carried that out, he would have excluded Haraszthy's work, which treats of silk and sorghum as well as grape culture. As a list of works whose titles speak only of the Vine, his catalogue is very well; but you see that the rule which he has adopted leads him to exclude that work, which is the acknowledged standard in regard to the descriptions of the different varieties of the Grape - a work which is so characterized by the highest of all authority, the American Pomological Society. I refer, of course, to Downing's "Fruits and Fruit-Trees."