Vlll PREFACE. 



original matter, however apparently irrelevant, since 

 most intelligent persons can make proper allowances for 

 changes of circumstances, and are interested in knowing 

 how many things can be accomplished where greater 

 obstacles to success are presented than they themselves 

 are forced to contend against. To persons interested 

 in Horticulture and Fruit culture, residing in the more 

 northern sections of the Union, and -especially the 

 British provinces, Vfhere considerable difficulties are 

 met with from the shortness of summers, and rigor of 

 winters, a w^ork containing the latest and best informa- 

 tion relating to the modes of rendering the natural 

 sources of heat as efficient as possible, cannot fail to be 

 acceptable. The same may be said of those who in 

 every section of our country desire to be able to raise 

 fruits, vegetables, and flowers, under protection, and by 

 the most judicious application of artificial heat, bring 

 these to perfection in every month of the year. 



Within a very short time the vine culture has met 

 in the United States with extraordinary success, and 

 the production from native grapes of wine rivaling 

 some of the best kinds derived from the Khine and 

 Moselle, has occasioned no little surprise, especially 

 among those who entertained the prevailing theory that 

 no good wine could be produced on the eastern portion 

 of a continent. Mr. Longworth of Cincinnati, the chief 

 among many pioneers, by refuting this dogma has laid 

 his countrymen under the greatest obligations, and 

 added a new resource to the already teeming wealth of 

 the American soil. It is the importance which we 

 think invests this subject, that has led us to devote such 

 particular attention to American grapes and the modes 

 of culture adopted successfully in the vicinity of Cincin- 



