How beautiful is the external! Art and wealth combined have produced a most lovely effect upon the lawn, or in some cozy part of the grounds where it pleases the taste of the proprietor. This little beautiful fruit structure is a very graceful ornament, and all visitors admire it; indeed, they are fascinated, and led to exclaim in the moment, "What is that beautiful glass structure for?" "For the growth of grapes," is the reply. At this moment curiosity knows no bounds, and away rush our visitors to see the beautiful grapes. But what is the spectacle inside this charming house? the eyes are strained in looking for grapes; but, alas! none or few are to be found. The only prominent feature the visitor becomes cognizant of is the fumes of sulphur, or some other "special antidote," which would seem to be an ever necessary concomitant to the inside of beautiful graperies. What a wonderful contrast between the exterior and interior of some of the costly graperies! We have seen many this season where the name "culture " is a disgrace to horticulture.

A grapery, when once planted, would seem to have an act of Congress reigning over it: thus plant; thus shalt thou ever remain! I do not recollect whether our forefathers embodied a clause in the Constitution bearing on this point; but if such should prove to be the case, can it not be broken? Suppose we "secede" from such a "very tyrannical" form of things, and set up for ourselves, shall we be let alone? You will guarantee our safety, Mr. Editor, so we will proceed.

That failures in grape-growing exist to a greater or less extent, none will deny. Now what are the causes 1 This part of the question we propose to examine a little in detail, and as briefly as the nature of the subject will admit.

The causes of failure in grape-growing are presented to our mind thus: the wrong in border-making; the wrong in planting debilitated vines; and, lastly, a little wrong arising from inexperience. If I should tell the readers of this journal that ninety vine-borders out of every hundred of those of present date do not contain ten per cent of the vine's feeding-roots, they would, no doubt, feel surprised. This, however, is my opinion. A good rich border - good rich loam - plenty of rotton dung - bones, and a great many other things, constitute the border of a great majority of our best practical gardeners in Europe as well as here. My experience in this vine-border making is, that the richer the border is made, the quicker the roots run out of it - the quicker such a border becomes useless to the plant. The roots of grape-vines, when growing in any good ordinary soil, are not small and fibrous, but long, resembling so many whips - feeding from their very ends principally; and, consequently, when young vines are first planted, their roots extend in direct lines as rapidly as possible, because the elements necessary to the plant's growth are found in every particle of soil the absorbing spongiole touches; and hence, these roots drive on in direct lines, and never turn to the right or left until the gross elements they were previously feeding on, cease to be.

Now it will be evident to any intelligent person, that as soon as the stimulants cease to surround the spongiole in its onward driving movement - the instant the food is not to be found at the root's mouth, another action of the root ensues, which is this: the sudden bursting forth in all directions from that long, straight root, of an innumerable host of foragers; like soldiers in an army, when food is not to be found in one direction; they divide off into all parts of the country, which results in the end in the collection of vast supplies. Now, it will be easily seen why our fine rich borders do not contain the feeding-roots of the vines, and why it is that such numbers of vine-roots are always found in poor, miserable soils, outside of the rich borders. There is no way but one of keeping the roots in such rich-made borders, and that is to wall up in cement, and concrete the bottom. This, however, is a useless expense.

Look, for instance, at the loads of rotten manure placed annually on many vine-borders, and no perceptible difference seen in the crops of fruit, neither in the foliage nor wood. The feeding-roots are outside the border, and this gorging with rotten dung is constantly being applied to the conducts - mere conducting water-pipes, that can not be influenced one way or another by its application. All the fine expensive drainage to such borders are just as useless as are the rich materials of which they are composed, and the only direct influence such borders have ever had on the vines planted in them, would be, perhaps, for the first and second season, inducing coarse, heavy, long-jointed wood, to be miserably half-ripened in the fall of the year, bursting forth the next spring into puny insignificance. It is true that where the soils outside of the borders are moderately fertile, the roots extend in direct lines, as when first coming through the border, and thus for years maintain a good healthy growth, which, I have no doubt, causes many to suppose that their borders are of the No. 1 class; but a tracing of the roots would soon reveal the true secret of affairs. This action of the root we have just illustrated is dependent solely on the quality of the plant when first planted.

If the young plant is strong, having large, long, and strong self-supporting roots, their action in the rich border will be just as we have described; but if the plants, when first planted, are poor, miserable things, called two and three years old, being grown, or rather kept dying, for that period, in four and five-inch pots, whoever gets them, they are to all practical purposes rootless. Now the action of the roots of this class of vines in borders of the order named, is just the reverse of the former. It should be remembered that vines having poor, half-dead roots when planted, never resuscitate; they remain for years in almost the same condition, but die ultimately. Plants of this class, if planted very early in the spring, remain in statu quo till June or July before showing much symptoms of growth, and then weakly; but as the weather increases in heat, the plants increase in strength, until they make what appear to be strong vines by November. Such vines, let their apparent strength be what it may, are worthless as good fruit-producing vines. And why? Because such plants are no better than rootless cuttings.

The roots they possess do not contain a sufficient amount of organized matter to sustain and push strongly the bud intended to form the cane or young rod; and consequently, after the bud has pushed forth, and exhausted the organized fluid in the woody portion of the plant, such roots can not supply further resources, and the plant remains in the same state, until, like a cutting, it pushes new roots out of the wood at the base or the collar of the plant. The new roots, as they issue forth, become very strong, but invariably they go direct to the bottom of the border. They are, in fact, so many tap-roots. They grow downwards just as do Parsnips and Carrots, nor do or will they stop in the descent, if the border be open and porous, no matter how deep, until they strike the hard bottom; then they turn and run along the bottom. Now of what use to such roots are all the costly materials of the border? The greater the amount of rotten dung such borders contain, the greasier they are, the more impervious they are to air, and, consequently, the quicker is disease in its various forms brought on in the plant.

Roots can no more live without the influence of the atmosphere than can leaves; consequently, how can we expect good results out of such deplorable conditions? From this action of the root arising from, and dependent on the quality of two classes of plants used, we would ask, What per cent. of the rich, gorging materials that borders are composed of is absorbed by the vines said to be growing in them? Is there a fair compensation for all the "old sod," rotten dung, guano, lime, bone, superphosphates, special fertilizers, and perhaps dead horses? Would there not be more realized from ordinary ground by growing common vegetables than is realized from many of our fine grapery borders, in proportion to capital invested? From these remarks our readers will, we hope, be led to see where two of the great wrongs exist in the culture of the exotic grape under glass; which is in one instance owing to the roots being directly at the bottom of the border and under the compost which they should be in, up, and working through; and in the other case having grown directly through the border and to the outside; and that owing to such results in both cases, the expensive food prepared and placed fbr the plants is not consumed by them.

Having hinted at the wrongs and the causes which produce them, we shall next hint at the remedies. - (To be continued).

[Fox Meadow has here opened a very interesting and suggestive aspect of the grape question, and we shall wait impatiently for its conclusion. In the mean time, we hope his professional brethren will study it attentively, and send us any conclusions it may suggest. Fox Meadow is evidently minded that neither himself nor grape-growing shall stand still; he is manifestly of opinion that all the mysteries of grape culture have not yet been mastered. To us, such manifestations on the part of old and experienced gardeners, augurs well for the progress of the science of horticulture. Who would lag behind when every thing is progressing? If in any matter, however small, we have been wasting our capital and labor, let us find it out as soon as may be. - Ed].