674 Hoare^s Treatise on the Cultivation 



Scotland to have access to an artist who understands the subject 

 so thoroughly as Mr. Smith appears to do. 



This article, though on comparatively an humble subject, must 

 be considered as highly creditable to the EncyclopcEdia Britan- 

 nica, which, of all the general encyclopaedias that have ap- 

 peared, is, in our opinion, decidedly the best. Its arrangement is 

 inferior to that of the Encyclopdedia Metropolttana, but its execu- 

 tion is better ; and its pages are neither over-occupied with the 

 biographies of clergymen, like those of some Cyclopadias, nor 

 with classical biography, geography, and history, like those of 

 the Penny Cyclopcedia, more especially in the early parts of 

 the latter work. 



Art. II. A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Vine on open 

 Walls. By Clement Hoare. 8vo. Chichester, 1835. 



We have perused this little work with much pleasure, and 

 feel convinced that, were it extensively circulated, and its prin- 

 ciples acted upon, it would be the means of increasing the 

 domestic comforts of the labouring population in the southern 

 counties of England. But, although one of Mr. Hoare's prin- 

 cipal objects has been to show to the labourer the benefit he 

 would derive from the proper cultivation of the vine, even upon 

 the walls of his own cottage, there is also much in the work 

 worthy of the careful perusal of the practical and scientific 

 gardener. From a careful inspection of the vines grown upon 

 open walls, Mr. Hoare gives it as his decided opinion, that 5 lb. 

 ©f grapes might be obtained for every one which is now pro- 

 duced. He attributes the want of success of cultivators, generally, 

 chiefly to their ignorance of a proper system of pruning ; and 

 argues that, from their leaving too much bearing wood, the vines 

 show a greater quantity of fruit than their maturing powers are 

 able to bring to perfection ; while, the attempt to do so bringing 

 on a constitutional weakness, the final result is, a wall covered 

 with naked rods, with a few slender twigs and diminutive bunches 

 at the extremities. Anxious to ascertain the exact quantity of 

 fruit which any vine was able to bring to perfection without in- 

 juring itself, Mr. Hoare commenced a series of experiments in 

 1825; and, after carefully registering the results for each suc- 

 cessive year, up to 1830, he found that the circumference of the 

 stem of a plant, measured just above the ground, formed a true 

 index of its vital powers, unless these had previously become 

 exhausted by over-cropping, &c.; and, upon these facts of practice 

 and experiment, he formed a scale of the greatest quantity of 

 fruit which any vine can perfectly mature : from which scale it 

 will be seen, that, if 2| in. be deducted from the circumference 



