A tear ago last spring we made an engagement to visit this settlement in early autumn, and test the qualities of the produce of such of the fifteen hundred seedling vines raised by Philemon Stewart, as the season should bring into bearing; but, unfortunately, the frost of June gave a finale to all the grapes set at that time, and this was a finishing stroke to the prospects of fair specimens for that year, though we were pleased to notice that a new crop followed that frost, many of which attained a fair maturity.

The opening of the present spring brought to our mind the beautiful young vines of New Lebanon, and we renewed the promise that, if circumstances favored, we would this year enjoy the luxury from which the last cut us off, and witness the triumphs of Mr. Stewart's labors.

Accordingly, on the 3d of October, one of the few clear and sunny mornings that have smiled on our northern region this fall, we set forth on what is always a pleasure to us, a jaunt across the Taconic hills, and a visit to this hospitable community. The road, be it regretted, is not altogether of such a character as to make one's way smooth and easy over the ups and downs of nature's clivities.' Here the water had taken advantage of the earth, loosened by travel, and worn its course lengthwise of the road, until an obtrusive rock barred its further progress, and turned it into the weed-grown side ditch. Anon, a water-course had caved in, and left no memorial of its former being but a deep slough half filled with stones. This we found on the Massachusetts side of the hill, in a section without inhabitants for some distance, rendering it still worse if accident should happen to life or limb of the traveller.

Good roads we have ever considered among the prominent features of refined rural life, and we deeply regret that in so many places these thoroughfares, so essential to human progress and human comfort, are becoming so sadly neglected.

The-neatness and order with which the Shakers manage their affairs, are too well known to need any comments. It is only necessary to visit them to find very much in their habits worthy of imitation. There are no communities more hospitable to their friends than they, and none more cheerful ,in their habits. Travellers may speak of them as stiff and formal; but if they knew them better, and won their confidence with greater courtesy, they would see the error of such uncalled-for opinions.

Something over a year ago we were shown, by Philemon Stewart, a large lot of grape-vines, originated by him from seed. Few of them at that time were coming into bearing, and the late frosts of June, of that year, prevented those that would otherwise have done so, from giving even tolerable specimens.

The last season has, however, been more fortunate. Of the hundreds of vines, many have now shown their first fruit As any one would expect, it was a strange and mixed variety. Some worthless, some ordinary, and a few promising well. Of those that bid fair, we tasted some twelve or fifteen varieties. These are to be made subjects of further culture, and when their character is fully established, Mr. Stewart proposes to submit them to the action of some reliable pomological society for character and name.

It has required much labor and anxious care to bring these vines forward to their present condition, as, so far as present appearances can show, there is a reasonable prospect of remunerative success. Indeed, should one new variety of desirable qualities of flavor and hardiness be the result, the work will be a triumph. If more than one, all the better. What we most need is good hardy grapes, such as will meet the culture of all circumstances, and bless the million with their healthful clusters. The man who will originate such a variety will surely be a public benefactor.

During the past year Mr. Stewart has been removed, to take charge of a society in Maine, near Portland. He informed me, in his recent visit to Lebanon, that he proposed in the spring to start vines of his better varieties in that locality, to test their qualities in a more northern home.

We inquired what manure was best adapted to the vine? These seedlings have thus far been left to nature, and grown without manure or pruning thus far. But for grapes under culture, bones are considered first. We saw a large pile of these in preparation, with muck taken from a pond, soap suds, and like material.

In this Society we saw a beautiful plantation of Pears on the Quince. Their method of cultivating them was novel to us. Instead of setting them with the junction of the Pear at or below the surface, they had been put at about the same depth they stood in the nursery, and hillocks of compost rising twelve or fourteen inches above them. We demurred at this system of culture, but was told that it had been designed to raise the general surface as high as the hillocks, by bringing on a prepared soil: a laborious operation, truly, but no doubt a salutary one when adopted.

They have been very successful with these dwarfs so far, and we would recommend unbelievers in this system of culture to visit a few such plantations. They would see the thing is possible, and in some instances practicable.

In the natural world nothing runs to waste, nothing is lost even in decay. The leaves of the forest that fall annually - the old giant trees which, after centuries of existence, make the earth groan as they come down to lay their monster trunks asleep upon its bosom, decay and become parts of new vegetations, to smile again in youthful beauty, feeding the flowers and swelling the fruits.

In their usual economy, this Society allow nothing to waste. The slight-est refuse, instead of being allowed to lie and moulder away, and poison the air, is carried off and deposited for some special uses. At one of the families of sixty persons we saw a specimen of this saving operation, well worthy of general imitation. We were shown a new building, neatly finished and painted, in the rear, and under which, entirely inclosed, is a vault some fifteen feet by twenty, and ten feet deep, stoned and laid in water lime. Over the eastern portion of this was a privy, neatly arranged. Entering through the east wall was an iron pipe of sufficient capacity, the outlet of a subterranean drain leading from the dwelling, and designed to convey all the wash of the house to this reservoir. On two sides of the reservoir were spacious platforms for the storage of such materials as they choose, to be thrown into the vault as absorbents and neutralizes. In this way they will manufacture great quantities of valuable manure from materials which are too often wasted, and do it in a way conducive to health by taking what is too often allowed to poison the air by evaporation.

If arrangements of a similar character could be furnished in the public places of cities and large towns, would they not be a great accommodation to the people as hygienic auxiliaries, and to cultivators in the country from the increase of fertilizing material they would afford?

It appears to us, from a view of this arrangement, that similar ones might be provided on public squares of cities and large villages, and made profitable investments to any one who would erect and take charge of them. There would certainly be nothing repulsive in the appearance of such a building as the one we saw in New Lebanon. But if it should appear so to others, let it be screened by a clump of trees or arbor of vines. We are sure if they were once adopted, the public would not readily have them removed.

[A valuable suggestion, not only for towns and cities, but for every homestead in the land. We might often learn useful lessons from those we affect to despise. - Ed].