298 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. 



Export of Cape Wine. 



Mr. Cuthbert Buigoyne, member of the well-known London firm 

 of P. B. Burgcyne & Co., which has played such a prominent part 

 in creating an export trade in Australian wine, recently visited 

 South Africa in connection with our viticultural industry and the 

 possibilities of finding a market overseas for our wine. He has been 

 in touch with many of our leading wine farmers, and has placed 

 before them his views on our wines and the widening of our very 

 limited markec. We are indebted to him for kindly supplying us 

 with a copy of the notes of an address given by him, during his visit, 

 to a representative body of South African viticulturists, and which 

 we publish in this issue. Mr. Burgoyne's statements are valuable in 

 being an expression of opinion of a large distributor of wine, and 

 demand the careful attention of all concerned in an industry which 

 can be of great worth to the country and which calls for the vitalizing 

 stimulus of an expanded market. 



In this connection it is interesting to read the Jurors' Report 

 on the Colonial Wine Competition of the Brewers' Exhibition held in 

 London towards the close of last year (when South African wines 

 secured eleven first, five second, and two third prizes), which states, 

 inter alia, that " there were quite a number of rich, sweet wines with 

 distinctive styles, some very pleasing, but those that found the most 

 favour were the samples with not too much colour." The report 

 continues : " Although not generally known on this market, there is 

 no reason why a demand could not be created. The Cabernet and 

 Hermitage were of good quality, and the red fuller wines, more 

 resembling Burgundies, were sound and useful, but in some cases 

 might have been older. The best specimens were in the lighter white 

 wines of the type used mostly at meals, the Drakenstein and Reisling 

 showing very well." Thus, while Mr. Burgoyne was advocating in 

 South Africa the reed and good prospects of finding an extended 

 market in the United Kingdom, South African wines were meeting 

 with conspicuous success in an oversea competition, evoking from the 

 judges a favourable comment regarding the possibilities of certain of 

 our wines securing a footing on the oversea market. 



Maize Stalk Borer. 



Maize can be grown in the Union under a wide range of varying 

 conditions, and being easy of preservation as a food both for man and 

 beast, and having great industrial possibilities, is the most important 

 of the cultivated crops of South Africa. Of all the pests with which 

 growing maize has to contend in South Africa, the stalk borer is the 

 most formidable. Almost entirely unknown in some seasons, it 

 assumes serious proportions in others, destroying 50 per cent, or more 

 of the plants — and in parts as much as 75 per cent. — while in addition 

 the mature grain is reduced in weight. The subject has for many 

 years received the attention of Mr. C.W. Mally, Senior Entomologist, 

 Capetown, and we now have the great benefit of his investigations in 

 a work entitled "The Maize Stalk Borer," to be published by this 

 Department as Bulletin No. 3, 1920.* Mr. Mally has dealt with the 

 subject from a scientific, practical, and an economic standpoint, the 



* Obtainable on application to this office, price Is. 6d. prepaid. 



