It is self-evident to one familiar with the grape-growing regions of the old countries of Europe and Asia, that certain parts of the United States are destined, in the progress of civilization, to become eminently distinguished for this peculiar department of industry.

Notwithstanding the comparative small amount of wine manufactured in this country, at present, and considering we are a young people, the amount is beginning to attract a marked attention. If Mr. Longworth has been successful, many thousands might be equally so, and upon the principle that straws indicate the course of the wind, the wine-making of Ohio, and a small domain under culture in Missouri, show what may be accomplished, ultimately, over a vast extent of hill and dale.

Parts of the United States are destined, as agricultural knowledge is diffused, to become great wine-making sections. This is assumed to be entirely susceptible of demonstration; but it is not worth while to discuss that point, beyond declaring at the outset, nature has nowhere given stronger indications of a soil admirably adapted to vineyards, if the varieties of native grapes growing spontaneously from the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, to the Gulf of Mexico, in one direction, and from the Arctic border to the Pacific Ocean in the other, are to be regarded as the testimony of nature herself.

But my first object is to describe the method of grape-growing in the oldest country in the world; first, because it was where man was first engaged in the peaceful labors of horticulture, and his eminent civilization is traced to the commencement of hand-craft in a garden under the special direction of his Creator.

The writer of this paper has traversed the far-off land of ancient Syria; examined with the curiosity of a traveler, its geographical features and its unrivalled agricultural capacity, and, therefore, deals with facts and not with speculations. As the particular object of this communication is to treat of the grape, other and certainly interesting topics that could not fail of being of practical utility to our own industrious countrymen, must necessarily be passed over, for the present at least.

In the book of Genesis, the minute account of the size of the Eschol clusters, which the spies brought into the Jewish camp, slung on a pole between two carriers, furnished a clew to the condition and development of that excellent fruit, in the Land of Promise, at a remote period in the history of humanity.

One hardly dares to assert that the vine is equally prolific and gigantic there today. Such, indeed, is the fact, where the smallest amount of care is given to its protection, and any reasonable amount of encouragement is bestowed on the vines.

Unlike the grape culture of Italy, by festooning the vines from tree to tree, at intervals of a rod or two, or the German mode, of raising the shooting shaft up the side of a pole, like string beans, in the Holy Land the roots are set out in a rocky, but rich valley, generally tolerably secure from raging winds. After the vine begins to run over the ground, the roots being from four, six, and sometimes nine rods apart, the centre or first leading vine is cut off, almost level with the ground. The lateral limbs are then permitted to strike off from the common centre, in all directions, resembling the spokes of a wheel, radiating at all points of the compass. Those are permitted to creep off almost indefinitely, so that the surface is occasionally seen quite covered by an interlacing net-work of vines, as complex as a melon bed. On the hard ground, basking on bits of rough limestone, the berries lie securely, undisturbed by sudden blasts of the storm; swelling and ripening beyond any examples here or in Europe, even under the best auspices of the gardener.

Here is a point that is deemed of transcendant importance in reference to vineyard planting at the West. Missouri, an immense tract of prairie in eastern and western Kansas, and very choice sections of Nebraska, are yet to be the great wine-making regions of North America, on this side of the Kooky Mountains. The prairies are not understood even by western farmers. Valuable as are their crops, when the vine is systematically planted on them, as they will be, one single acre will yield a far greater return in a single season, than ten ever did in wheat, corn, or other familiar products.

The Syrian method places the cluster beyond the contingency of sweeping winds, the first obstacle to contend against in raising vines on poles, Rhine fashion, or giving them the look of clothes-lines, as throughout Italy. At Herman, on the Missouri river, where Prussian vine dressers are thriving by making admirable hock, I feel convinced their profits would be enhanced by simply introducing the Palestine system.

It is because the writer foresees in the future, how this successful branch of industry is to flourish on the far-extending prairies, that he dwells with more force and pertinacity on this, in his view, great subject Following the simple, but in all respects, safest course on flat sections of the country, or rather where a sudden blast of wind, from acting against the swinging cluster, either breaks it off, or blights the berries, the happiest results would follow.

Such is the bounty of the harvest in Syria always, and it must have been so for ages, that the writer has had wine, rich, luscious, and nutritious, on the table in Jerusalem, which could be afforded at fifteen cents a gallon. The juice was pressed out by exceedingly rude apparatus, the grapes having first been brought from villages by the Arabs. And there is no reason why the same economy might not be practiced here. We have hardly commenced thinking about wine-making yet, but that time will also come. Wine and temperance are the characteristics of Syria. More of this, however, on another occasion. To be sure, Mohammedans do not drink wine, but others residing in their midst do, who are proverbial for their sobriety, industry, and probity.

[The above is from a gentleman who has traveled extensively in the East, and with an observant eye. So many associations cluster around the history of the grape, that something fresh from the land of its home will be read with peculiar interest. We should be very glad to have the subject continued. - Ed].