I have lately made an excursion to Burlington, New Jersey, for the purpose of obtaining the exact measurement of the most extraordinary grape vine I have ever heard of. It stands on a farm called West Hill, the property of my late brother, two miles from the city of Burlington, New Jersey, and the truth of what I am about to relate may be readily verified, though in print it may really seem incredible. At three feet from the ground, it measures six feet one inch round the trunk, and at ten feet high it is positively three feet in circumference! It is a native male grape, and has been the wonder of the neighborhood as long back as the memory of man reaches. It is still healthy, and its giant folds run over and cover four trees, one of which is a full sized black oak, and the others are quite large.

" The casual reader, as he glances over these unusual dimensions, scarcely realizes the enormity of this vine. Let us try, if we can, to make it comprehensible, by a comparison or two. A string six feet one inch long will enclose two tolerably corpulent people, and these dimensions are as large as a good sized washing-tub. You may thus form an idea of its great growth. This vine grows near a springy soil, on upland, its roots no doubt penetrating to the water. May not this teach us a lesson, to give the rootlets, wherever it is possible, access to a spring or running water. It may be a question, too, whether we do not cut down our vines too much. I observed frequently in England that a whole house was devoted to a single vine, generally of the Black Hamburg, and I think they uniformly bore the finest grapes. To carry a single vine over a large grapery would of course require several years of judicious trimming and management".

The dimensions now do not materially differ from those of 1847. In May last it was measured with the following result: Two feet from the ground it measures 6 feet 2 1/2 inches in girth; four feet .high it is about six inches less; it there divides into two branches, the largest of which is 3 feet 3 inches in girth, and the smallest is 34 inches. The largest of the trees which the vine covers is 10 feet in circumference at 2 feet from the ground. The vine is very much decayed, but still puts forth leaves and young shoots. It has never borne a grape in the memory of a lady in the neighborhood, now 98 years old, and who has lived her long life within sight, or nearly so, of this gigantic production, and to whom it was a wonder in her youth. The largest tree is a black oak, the others are black or sour gum.

On pacing the circumference covered by the branches, it was found to exceed 100 feet.

*See Frontispiece.

Vines are recorded of the known age of 600 years. Statues have been carved from grape wood, and pillars made from it; even the large doors of the Cathedral of Ravenna are made of the grape tree. In some parts of Italy, says Miller, a vine is considered young at one hundred years, " and there are plants in existence which have been cultivated 300 years".

Have our readers any greater American vine to record than the one figured?