Mr. Pkter B. Mbad : Dear Sir, - Being a subscriber to your (valuable to me) Horticulturist, you will pardon the liberty I take to ask you, through the columns of your paper, a few questions.

I have erected a small grapery with border all inside, and planted my vines, which have commenced growing. 1st. Will it be prudent to sprinkle the border through hose from the hydrant, in which I find the water early in the morning to be about eight degrees colder than the surrounding atmosphere. 2d. What advan-tage is there in growing young canes to the top of the house to be cut I away at fall pruning? Would you not get better eyes near the base by pinching the leader about the 1st of August? Owing to shade in middle of house, can you not get as large a crop off two rows of vines as to have a centre row? Yours.

Mercer County, May 5th, 1862. A New Beginner.

[Early in the season we prefer to have the water as near as possible to the temperature of the house; but a little later, or when the vines have got well started, a difference of eight degrees amounts to nothing. Hold your finger partly over the pipe, so as to break the water into spray, that it may become as thoroughly aerated as possible. If your house is small and your vines vigorous, you can not prevent them from going to the top without incurring the danger of bursting your buds. It is a good plan, however, to break down the leader about a foot from the end during the last of August or beginning of September, whether the vines, have reached the top of the house or not. This helps to ripen the wood and de-velop the buds. A row of vines may be grown in the center of the house for three or four years, but should then be removed. - Ed].

Messrs. Mead & Co: - Gents., - Inclosed I send you a twig of the Peach with something attached that has never before come under my observation, and by an examination of the tree I find a few more on the small branches, but none on the larger ones. Will you be kind enough, in the May Horticulturist, if not already full, to give some little light as to what they are, and what sort of an animal gets up such work, and much oblige your obedient servant, C. W. H.

Newark, N. J. April 17th, 1862.

[The "something" is a remarkable species of Coccus, which we have never before seen on the Peach. We wish to compare it with some in Mr. Casilaer's collection, and will then try, with his assistance, to throw some additional light on it. In the meantime you should get rid of them as speedily as possible, for they are "regular suckers." - Ed].

In Elliott's "Western Fruit Book," 4th Edition, I see the following description of La Caucasse Currant, viz.: "New variety; vigorous, upright shoots, bunches very long, often 7 inches, with berries 2 inches in circumference, (a frac- tion over 5/8 inch in diameter,) sprightly, mild acid, promises valuable." Now please inform me if it is really of such dimensions, and where it can be obtained.

Altoona, Pa. Please oblige, respectfully, J. B. L.

[La Caucasse Currant is comparatively new, and as yet but little disseminated. We have not seen it of the dimensions mentioned, but have no reason to doubt that they may sometimes be attained. You will be disappointed, however, if you look for such dimensions as an average. The variety is advertised, we believe, by Mr, Wilder and Mr. Hovey. - Ed].

Dear horticulturist. - At last we have been released, as it were, from prison, and are coming into the sunlight of literature. We feel quite like as if we had kept a last from the good fresh mental food in the line of horticulture; therefore, our appetite being extra keen, do please forward us the Journal and all the back numbers since last May, at which time they stopped. I can not in a volume tell all the cruelty and devastation that has been enacted here since the war commenced, but our own family has been spared more than any other I know of, which I attribute, in some measure, to our vocation being Horticulture-will defer till another season a description of the fruiting of some twelve of Rogers's hybrid grapes, which fruited with me last year in the open ground. They so far promise to be far better than any hardy grapes yet fruited here. A very poor apple crop here last year; not one quarter of a peach crop; some pears; small fruit, as usual, more abundant. Our friend Berckmans, of Georgia, wrote me some time since that he was so pleased with the Taylor grape, in bearing with him, as to be induced to plant one acre of it this spring. It grows well here, but we have not fruited it yet.

The past winter has been peculiar here; cool enough to keep the buds back, and warm enough not to kill the fig trees unprotected but very little,, scarcely injuring the most tender roses in the least. Thermometer once got to 6 deg. above zero, but soon moderated. The first winter month it was often cloudy, but one slight storm fell all the month, and the mid-winter months only had one and a half days that were dear, and the last winter month was cloudy, and the strongest wind over felt, to my memory. The prospect for fruit here is better now than it has been, I think, for some ten years past. The peach buds are just showing enlargement; ground froze a little last night. Thy hungry friend, Oliver Taylor.

[The above from our old subscriber, Oliver Taylor, of Purcelville, Loudon Co., Vs., we give as a part of the history of the times. It is pleasant to observe, in the midst of so much cruelty and suffering, that Mr. Taylor thinks his profession of horticulture gained him some immunity from general pillage. We welcome Mr. Taylor within our fold again with unfeigned pleasure, and trust the day is not far distant when the Horticulturist will move again in ail its old channels. - ED].

Dear Mr. Editor, - So we are to have some plain practical talk in the Horticulturist about flower culture? This is far better than turning yourself into a pollywog. I sincerely thank your correspondent for drawing you out. I had long thought of trying to do it myself, but confess I was afraid that my letter would be thrown into that great basket of waste paper under your table. Since, however, you take it so kindly, 1 am ready to add my commendations, provided ! I you will not call me horrid names, or try to make fun of me. If you do I will give you what Miss Slidell gave Mr. Fairfax. (N. B. If you publish my letter you can leave this part out.) Women (I know of but one exception, and she is -not married) all love flowers, for they blend their fragrance and beauty about our homes, grace our family gatherings and our bridals, representing love and friend-ship, and we lay them upon the altar and the grave as emblems of faith and purity. Teach us, then, how to' make them more beautiful, and how to produce them in abundance. Let us cultivate them as flowers, and if possible avoid the Greek and Latin names. Last season I purchased a new variety of "Ipomea," and handed them, with other seeds, to a young friend to plant. When they came up I remarked that the spot Was a bad selection.