EXTRACTS FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 143 



[From the Britannia.]- 



CULTURE OF THE GRAPE VINE. 



A Deicriptive Account of an improved Method of Planting and Managing the RootM 

 of Orape Vines. By Clement Hoare. Longman. 



The results of Mr. Hoare in the management of vines are so 

 wonderful, considcrinc; tiie simple means he takes to produce them, 

 that we should be inclined to view his assertions as too marvel- 

 lous for belief, if we did not know that he is himself one of the 

 most successful cultivators of the vine who ever lived in England, 

 and if he did not assure us that he "has not recommended any 

 point of culture the merits and advantages of which he has not 

 himself for years repeatedly and carefully tested." We glance at 

 a few of the principal topics in this ingenious treatise, which we 

 earnestly commend to the notice not only of the horticultural 

 world, but of every one who loves a garden, and desires to see it 

 yield at a very small cost an ample supply of delicious grapes. 



For the management of vines in greenhouses, Mr. Hoare strongly 

 reprobates the practice of planting the roots in richly manured 

 borders. His theory is, that grapes are formed and brought to per- 

 fection, not from any nourishment received from their roots, but 

 by solar heat and light alone, and that the roots of vines in this 

 country are so far from requiring any stimulative power, that they 

 require to be checked, that the growth of the branches may not be 

 too rapid. This check, he explains, is afforded in w^armer countries 

 than our own by the great dryness of the climate and the superior 

 heat of the sun, so that the tops of the shoots as they advance in 

 growth are turned into a kind of jelly, and rapidly harden into 

 wood, whicn thus becomes firm and close in texture, and bears buds 

 at very short intervals. But from that check not existing to the 

 same extent in England, our climate being more humid, and our 

 sun less fervent, the vine has a natural tendency to luxuriance in 

 growth, the branches are long and tender, and the buds on them at 

 much longer intervals. This theory is explained with delightful 

 clearness in Mr. Hoare's treatise, and illustrated by a decisive ex- 

 ample : 



Some few years since the author received a bundle of vine cut- 

 tings from one of the most celebrated vineyards in Spain. They 

 were the entire growth of the year, as each had a portion of the 

 preceding year's wood attached to it. The longest shoot measured 

 eight and a half feet, but the average length was about eight fe'et. 

 The wood was perfectly cylindrical, and of the closest texture, 

 and almost as hard as heart of oak. The buds w^re large, promi- 



