The most approved method of preparing the ground for a vineyard is by trenching with the spade two to three feet in depth during the fall and winter previous to planting.

Cuttings are mostly used and are by many preferred to roots even at the same price. The argument in their favor being that the roots which are produced from the foot of the cutting when once disturbed will not readily grow again and these lowest roots are for the grape admitted to be the most important. The cuttings are planted two in a hill in the place where they are intended to remain and if both grow one is cut off or removed to fill vacancies. The usual distance being about three by six feet apart.

The cost of trenching a vineyard varies with the nature of the soil, the amount of stone encountered in the subsoil and the amount of under draining, from sixty to two hundred dollars per acre - and the planting including the cost of cuttings from fifteen to twenty dollars more*

The labor required during the first three years is very slight; thorough hoeing two or three times in a season and spring and summer pruning is all that is necessary. In the second year the vineyard is supplied with stakes, usually of good white oak heart, costing about twelve to fifteen dollars per thousand. Locust stakes are better and cost about double that sum.

The common practice is to have only a single stake to each vine; although some very successful cultivators use two stakes with two " bows" to each vine.

The "bow and spur" method of trimming is the most general method although many prefer instead of bending the branch in the shape of a "Bow" or circle, to train each vine across to the next stake in the row.

Mr. Robert Buchanan, very kindly furnished me with the yield in wine from his vineyards, as a basis to estimate the profit of the business. I think, however, that most cultivators will fall nearly one-fourth short of this result.

The estimate is from a very exact account kept of the produce of his Vineyard, during the seven years 1848 - 1854, inclusive, and as follows:

Being for the whole period an average of 846 galls. per acre, as the annual yield.

The great enemy of the vintner here is the rot Of this there are two kinds; although some persons think there is but one, with a slight variation in its manifestation. The first makes its appearance in the form of a spot of yellowish brown upon the berry, and is called the "spot rot." This spot rapidly enlarges, so that in twenty-four hours from its first appearance in a vineyard, one-half of the crop is often blackened, and presents the appearance of having been for weeks affected with decay.

The other variety of this disease first shows a slight discoloration under the skin of the berry, sometimes in veins or blotches, and has hence derived the name of "blue rot".

In the vineyard of Mr. Mottier, I saw a portion of his vines so affected by this disease, that by slightly jarring the vine a shower of berries would fall to the ground.

All the searching and experimenting of the best vine growers, have failed thus far to discover aught of its cause or remedy. Some have in despair given up the attempt to make any discoveries in this direction, and are in hopes to escape the difficulty by finding new varieties not subject to the disease.

The mildew in some seasons affects the berries soon after the fruit is "set" and presents the appearance of having meal sprinkled over the whole cluster.

Both the rot and mildew when examined by a microscope, show a growth of Fungi upon the surface of the berry, but whether this microscopic plant is the cause or only the effect of the disease, is not yet a matter upon which the "Doctors" agree.

I was much gratified also by a visit to Mr. Charles Reemelin, formerly a member of the State Legislature, and quite prominent as a politician. The more quiet pleasures of his farm and vineyard have, however, of late years, won him from his public life, and he is enthusiastic and energetic in his cultivation of the grape. He adds to an extended European observation, an intelligent American experience, and in his enthusiasm has actually prepared a Manual of the Grape, a work much heeded, giving in its minutest detail the instruction necessary for beginners in vineyard culture.

This work will soon be issued by G. M. Saxton & Co. of New York, whose extensive list of agricultural works your readers are already acquainted with.

Throughout the country there is no new branch of agriculture receiving more general attention than Grape culture, and at the present rate of increase, the next decade will find our production of wine, a very considerable item in our agricultural statistics.

It is an interesting question how this will affect our population viewed in relation to the subject of intemperance. I would not attempt to decide this question dictatorially, but it does seem to me that the manufacture of wine in all its concomitants is a thing so utterly unlike the surroundings of those pests of every neighborhood where they exist, the brewery and the distillery, with their horrid stench and their bloated and filthy laborers, that the two things are in all else as opposite. The occupation of a vinedresser, is one requiring a higher grade of intellect than even the ordinary branches of farming, and all pertaining to the vintage is chaste, joyous, and beautiful. Rarely a besotted vintner can be found, and in the wine districts of Europe, there is not a tithe of the drunkenness that prevails where the "Worm of the Still" supplies without competition the beverage of the people.