344 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



appear at various centres, electric plant is installed in several orchards 

 and factories, and the Harbour Board provides cold storage at Cape 

 Town Docks pending shipment. 



More co-operation, more' information, more preserving, more of 

 the best, less of the worst, and less of Government aid except in 

 experimental work, are the desiderata in connection with the fruit 

 business at the present time. Development of fruit export must be 

 persevered in, even if unprofitable at present, in order to have a 

 market prepared by the time larger crops come in ; but it is also 

 important — probably more important — to have the local demand fully 

 supplied all the year round, with good material from local sources, 

 even by cold storage, and to oust the wretchedly bad seedlings which 

 mainly breed pests and have no commercial value. 



South Africa is a fruit country throughout, but each locality has 

 its own possibility, and it is only by studying these, and working 

 thereon, that success can be looked for. South Africa is meantime 

 its own best customer, but the time is not far distant when foreign 

 markets must be forced, at lower rates than those prevailing here, 

 but still at paying rates if systematically handled. 



Vines. 



As already mentioned, portions of the Western Province are 

 among the best vine districts in the world, the climate and soil being 

 unequalled, and the yield per acre proportionally good. In the 

 Eastern Province, Natal, and the Eastern Transvaal the summer 

 rains interfere seriously, and vine culture is not likely to become a 

 large commercial business there. Even in the Western Province the 

 product is almost a natural one, very little trouble being taken to 

 produce high quality, with the result that in European markets the 

 Cape dessert fruit, despite its splendid flavour, is considered poor, 

 through the crowding of small berries and the presence of what should 

 have been thinned out. London agents also complain that shipments 

 arrive in very unequal condition, fruit raised under artificial irrigation 

 being inclined to suffer during the voyage, but probably the kind 

 rather than the treatment has to do with this, for kinds grown in 

 different districts vary considerably. In one English report it is 

 stated that Cape grapes have a bad reputation now, which will take 

 some time to do away with. According to the 1904 census, the stand 

 of vine-stocks in the Cape Colony is 77.893,187 plants, of which 

 19,237,259 are grafted on Phylloxera-resistant stocks, and 58,655,928 

 are ungrafted. There are only two districts in which the number of 

 grafted is more than that of ungrafted, viz. : — 



Paarl 9,553,302 grafted. 3,986,743 ungrafted. 



Stellenbosch 5,383,423 „ 2,903,575 



In the two vine districts next in importance the conditions are 

 reversed, viz. : — 



Worcester 634,700 grafted. 12,878,825 ungrafted. 



Robertson 36,75° „ 12,722,017 



