H.—s.

frosts in autumn. Do not attempt, therefore, to cultivate the grape in low, damp valleys, along creeks ; high table-lands and hillsides, with their dry atmosphere and cool breezes, are preferable to rich bottom lands; low situations, where water can collect and stagnate about the roots, will not answer: wherever we find the ague an habitual guest with the inhabitants, we need not look for healthy grape-vines; but on the hillsides, gentle slopes, along large rivers and lakes, on the bluffs overhanging the banks of our large streams, where the fogs arising from the water give sufficient humidity to the atmosphere even in the hottest summer days to refresh the leaf during the night and morning hours, there is the location for the culture of the grape. Shelter has also an important bearing on the healthy growth of the vines. Some well-located vineyards have not proven lucrative for the want of proper shelter. Where it is not afforded by woods growing near by, it should be provided for by planting trees; large trees, however, should not be planted so near the vines as to interfere with their roots. One of our vineyards has been thus protected by an arborvitae fence from the north and west winds. This fence is now fifteen years old, over Bft. high, and is considered one of the finest ornaments to our grounds. There are some locations so favoured that no artificial protection is needed. Eemember, however, that no one locality is suited to all kinds of grapes. 2. A good soil for the vineyard should be a dry, calcareous loam, sufficiently deep —say, 3ft.— loose and friable, draining itself readily. A sandy yet moderately rich soil is better adapted to most varieties than heavy clay. New soils, both granitic and limestone, made up by nature of decomposed stone and leaf-mould, are to be preferred to those that have long been in cultivation, unless these have been put in clover and rested a few years. If you have such a location and soil, seek no further, ask no chemist to analyse its ingredients, but go at once to Prepaeing the Soil. "The preparation of the soil is undoubtedly one of the most important operations in the establishment of a vineyard, and one of its objects should be to get the soil of a uniform texture and richness throughout, but not over rich. This deep stirring of the soil puts it very much in the condition of a sponge, which enables it to draw moisture from the soil beneath and from the atmosphere above, and hold it for the wants of the plant; hence, soils that are drained and deeply stirred, keeping the good soil on the surface, are less subject to the evils that accompany and follow a drought than those that are not so treated. It is of the first importance, therefore, that vineyards and orchards at least should be put in the best condition for the reception of the vines and trees, if the best results are aimed at."— Pet. Henderson. The old system of trenching is no more practised, except upon very hard, stony soil, and upon steep hillsides, being too costly and of very little, if of any, advantage. The plough has taken the place of the spade, and has greatly lessened the expense. While we would urge a thorough work in the preparation of the soil before planting the vine, and warn against planting in ditches, or, still worse, in square holes, we believe that, by careful grubbing (in timber lands), leaving no stumps, which would only be continual eyesores and hindrances to proper cultivation, and then using a large breaking plough, followed by the subsoil plough, the soil will be stirred as deeply —say, 20in.—as is really necessary to insure a good and healthy growth of vines. This will require two to three yoke of oxen to each plough, according to the condition of the soil. For old ground a common twohorse plough, with a span of strong horses or cattle, followed in the same furrow by a subsoil stirrer, will be sufficient to stir the soil deeply and thoroughly, and will leave it as mellow and as nearly in its natural position as desirable. This may be done during any time of the year when the ground is open and not too wet. Most soils would be benefited by under-draining. The manner of doing this is the same as for other farm crops, except that for vines the drains should be placed deeper. It is less important on our hillsides, and too costly to be here practised to a great extent. Wet spots, however, must be drained at least by gutters, and, to prevent the ground from washing, small ditches should be made, leading into a main ditch. Steep hillsides, if used at all, should be terraced. Planting. The soil being thus thoroughly prepared and in good friable condition, you are ready for planting. The proper season for doing this here is in the fall, after the Ist November, or in the spring, before the Ist May. Seasons differ and sometimes make later planting advisable, but never during frost nor while the ground is too wet. If you have been delayed with your work of preparing the soil in spring, the young plants from the nursery should be hilled in some cool, dry place and covered, so that their vegetation be retarded; if they have already made shoots, be specially careful to guard against their roots getting dry. Most vineyards are planted in spring; in northern and very cold localities this may be preferable. We prefer fall planting; the ground will generally be in better condition, as we have better weather in the fall, and more time to spare. The ground can settle among the roots in winter; the roots will have healed and calloused over, new rootlets will issue early in spring before the condition of the ground would have permitted planting, and the young plants, commencing to grow as soon as the frost is out of the ground, will start with full vigour in spring. To prevent the roots from being thrown to the surface by alternate freezing and thawing, a mound of earth hoed up around the plants, or a ridge thrown up with a plough so as to elevate the ground somewhat in the rows, will be found to afford all the protection necessary. By no means delay planting till late in spring, and, if your ground is not ready in time, you had much better cultivate it with corn or hoed crops of some kind, and postpone planting until next fall. Planting in rows, 6ft. apart, is now the usual method ; it gives sufficient space for a horse and man to pass through with plough or cultivator ; the distance in the rows varies somewhat with the growth of the different varieties and the richness of the soil. Most of our strong vigorous growers, the Concord, Ives, Hartford, Clinton, Taylor, Norton, Herbemont, will need Bft. to 10ft. in the rows; Scuppernongs are planted 20ft. to 30ft. apart; while the Delaware, Catawba, Creveling, lona, may have sufficient room when planted 6ft. apart. The dwarfing treatment practised

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