176 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



According to Mr. Hoare, grapes may be grown in i)er- 

 fection in England, and to a great extent (by following 

 his directions,) on walls and espaliers, and he gives a 

 scale of measurement of the vine, by which to regulate 

 tlie crop, as follows : A vine of three inches in circum- 

 ference may bear five pounds ; a vine of three and a half 

 inches in circumference may bear ten pounds ; and advanc- 

 ing in this ratio to ten inches circumference, and, for every 

 lialf inch of increase, allowing the vine to ripen five 

 pounds additional of fruit, so that the highest number 

 will give a yield of seventy-five pounds. If this can be 

 done, and he tells us that he gives the result of his prac- 

 tice, it would seem that the question was settled. But it 

 appears that there are those holding difierent opinions. 

 In the Gardeners' Chronicle of June 10th, 1847, is the 

 following, on an article relative to planting the banks of 

 railways with vines : — 



" "We entertain no doubt that some of the traditions 

 current in this countrj', as to vineyards having once been 

 profitable, are true, although others ai'e apocryphal ; but 

 we altogether disbelieve the statement that the wines of 

 England were ever of good, or even tolerable, quality. 



" Upon all such points, we have to depend upon asser- 

 tions, whose value cannot now be determined, and a 

 question like that of vineyard cultivation in England 

 must be decided upon better grounds than tradition, and 

 the reports of persons whose taste was wholly unlike our 

 own. The fact evidently is, that, where nations had very 

 bad internal communications, and slow and d fiicult com- 

 mercial relations, it was necessary that objects of gener- 

 al consumption should be made in every possible place ; 



