204 Journal of Agriculture. [8 April, 1907 



Viticultural Industry. 



■ Both the number of growers and the area under vines have diminished 

 somewhat during the past few years. The quantity of wine produced is 

 remaining about the same, while there has been a great increase in raisins 

 and currants. 



Tlie principal centre of the wine industry is Rutherglen, and, unfor- 

 tunately, this district is suffering from the ravages of the phylloxera. The 

 only way to cope with this pest is to replant the vineyards with American 

 resistant stocks, on which there are grafted European vines of the variety 

 required. In the work of reconstruction we follow chiefly on the lines 

 of the French vignerons. In consequence of the phylloxera, the yield of 

 French vinevards fell from an average of about 1.300 million gallons in the 

 seventies to 528 million gallons in 1889. It is now as large as it was before 

 the onset of the disease, and in the chief wine-producing districts as much 

 as 90 per cent, of the area under vines has been reconstituted. At the 

 Viticultural Station, Rutherglen, the Department has undertaken the work 

 of supplying the State with resistant vines. A small vineyard has also 

 been replanted with the grafted vines wath very successful results, the 

 vines bearing most prolifically, and the wine produced is of high quality. 

 Up to last year the number of vines grafted was greater than the require- 

 ments of the affected districts ; but with the advance of the phylloxera there 

 has been a sudden increase in the demand. It is generally recognised that 

 the whole of the infected area must be replanted within a few years. 

 Steps have been taken to meet this emergency as promptly as possible. A 

 well-equipped grafting-house has been erected, and the nurseries greatly ex- 

 tended. At present there are 230,000 grafts, and 100,000 slips are in 

 the nurseries, and the numbers available will be doubled next season. 



It is necessar) to have the land on which the resistant vines are planted 

 deeply worked in order to insure successful growth. It is therefore pro- 

 posed to supply the vines onlv to growers who will fulfil this condition, and 

 at the request of the vignerons an officer has been appointed to superintend 

 the work of reconstruction. 



The Fruit Industry. 



Since 1903 all branches of garden and orchard work have made steady 

 progress. Satisfactory yields are obtained with greater regularity than 

 formerly, and the systematic measures which are now taken against the 

 different fungus and other pests have resulted in a general levelling up of 

 the condition of the fruit when it reaches the market. Numerous in- 



