HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 367 



Not more than twenty miles from hence, in an almost inaccessible spot 

 a horticultural garden smiles, often resorted to from this and other places. 

 Let me ask those who visit it, if they have not felt, whilst partaking of the 

 hospitality always there extended, that there is a wide difference in' the 

 manners of one who has given his time to horticultural pursuits, and those 

 of him whose whole time is given to raising tobacco. The spirit of content 

 and repose that pervades the former is in the latter, never seen. We hope 

 to see a taste for the pursuits we advocate becoming more general, and that 

 ere long its effects will be seen and felt about our country. 



A Lover of Flowers^ 

 OlarJcsville, Tennessee, 



(From the Germantown Telegraph.) 



PRUNING GRAPE VINES. 



The grape vine is perhaps the most useful fruit-bearing plant that we 

 possess ; at all events it is more available than any other, and good crops 

 can be secured in situations where the growth of any other fruit would be 

 impracticable. Any one having a square yard of ground unoccupied, near 

 their dwelling, may plant a vine and train the branches on the walls. It is 

 surprising that this system is not more generally practised. What could be 

 more beatiful than clusters of grapes hanging in profusion and greeting the 

 eyes from a parlor window ? Or how could a dessert be more conveniently 

 secured than by opening the casement and gathering a dish of this luscious 

 fruit ? Many opportunities of this kind are overlooked, and many a bare 

 wall and unsightly projection might be improved by the addition of grape 

 vine. Indeed many of our modern houses are so bedecked with ornament, 

 and like the "Rural cot of Mr. Knott," as described by Lowell, so full of 



"Lord knows what, of round and square, 

 Stuck on at randum everywhere." 



That the introduction of climbing plants upon these otherwise apparently 

 useless additions, would at last show that they were not altogether divested 

 of utility. 



