A South Australtan Vineyard 8oil. 137 



A SOUTH AUSTRALIAN VINEYARD SOIL. 



By CiiAS. F. JuiuTZ, M.A., D.8c., F.I.C., Agiicultural 

 Research Chemist, Capetown. 



JiiKiNc; my brief tour in Australia in the latter haif of 1914, 1 

 had the opportunity of visiting, amongst other localities of interest, 

 the district of xing*aston, about 40 miles north-east of Adelaide, South 

 Australia. The State of South Australia has about 20,000 acres under 

 vines. Some of these are situated on the slopes of the Mount Lofty 

 Ranges, and others at the foot of the Barossa Ranges. To the latter 

 belong the vineyards around the town of Angaston and the estates of 

 the widely-famed Chateau Tanunda. The late E. T. Bullen, the 

 well-known author and lecturer, after visiting- these South Australian 

 vineyards wrote: "This strong, red soil, bearing evidence of 

 abundance of iron on every hand, seems to be the natural home of 

 the grape, and to be free in an amazing degree from those insect 

 pests which have made the lot of the French and Italian vignerous 

 such a weary one. Every A^ariety of grape seems to flourish here in 

 such wonderful luxuriance and fecundity, and witlial in such health- 

 fulness of foliage and fruit, that the eye wearies of admiring- their 

 prolific masses." 



jS'ot far from Angaston and Tanunda is the Seppeltsfield estate, 

 which has some TOO acres of vineyards and the largest winery in the 

 world. The Chateau Tanunda Company, on the other hand, lays 

 itself out for the distillation of brandy rather than t1ie production of 

 wine, but the feature that claimed my attention while walking across 

 the Company's vineyards was the character of the soil, and it seemed 

 to me desirable to obtain some of it for comparison with the soils of 

 South African vineyards. 



Geologically the Angaston district belongs to what is known as 

 the lower members of the Cambrian series, with pre-Cambrian scliists 

 and igneous intrusions in places. The lowest limestones of the 

 Cambrian rocks of vSouth Australia also occur in this district in the 

 form of highly crystalline marbles. The estates of the Chateau 

 Tanunda, from whicli I procured a soil sample, are on the Cambrian 

 formation, comprising clay-slate, shale, sandstone, grit, and con- 

 glomerate, with limestone and dolomite. The Barossa Range, to the 

 east, consists of pre-Cambrian boulder beds, with slate, quartzite, and 

 quartzitic conglomerate. 



One of the most important discoveries yet to be made in South 

 African geology," said Dr. Rogers nine years ago (presidential 

 address to Section B of the S. A. Association, Capetown, 1910, p. 31), 

 " is the position of the stratigrapluLsl succession of the equivalent of 



