lo Dec, 1910.] Tlie Wine Industry in SoufJicrn France. 



757 



this is very distinctly sliown in Fig. 3, concerning whicii Degrully and 

 Ravaz say^ 



The roots of young plants raised in a nursery are . . . distinctly plunging. 

 When the soil is favourable they penetrate to a depth of more than 3 feet the 

 same year that they are planted, and this is what all nurserymen know very well. 



The difference between tlie root formation of young vines in subsoiled 

 or unsubsoiled land is too evident, almost, to need pointing out. The 

 vine will always form enough surface feeders or horizontal roots ; the 

 difficulty is to get the deep ones properly established, and this from the 

 moment the vineyard is planted. If the ground is penetrable only during 

 the first seasons, this desirable end will he achieved. Even if the soil 

 should set to a considerable 

 extent later on, the deep 

 roots will remain where they 

 have once penetrated and 

 confer upon the vineyard a 

 resistance to drought which it 

 could not otherwise possess. 



Large areas of very sanch' 

 soil exist in the neighbour- 

 hood of the rivers Murray 

 and Goulburn. On these 

 wind-formed sand hills, or 

 pine ridges, as they are often 

 called, from the Murra\- 

 Pines ( Calliiris verritccsa 

 and others), which grow spon 

 taneously on them, man} 

 successful vineyards have 

 been established without 

 much care having been given 

 to the preparation of the 

 land. No doubt, in such 

 easy penetrable soils, subsoil- 

 ing is not so vitally necessary 

 as in stiffer ground ; never- 

 theless, even here, the 

 advantages to be derived 

 from it would amply repay 

 its cost, which, owing to 

 easy execution, is not con- 

 siderable. Such, at least, is 

 the opinion of Professor G. Foex, the celebrated French authority, who 

 writes as follows concerning the preparation of land for the establishment 

 of the coastal vineyards near Montpellier ; planted in almost pure sand, 

 in which immunity from Phylloxera permits the growing of non-resistant 

 French \arieties, on their own roots : — 



Even sea sands, which are so loose that one is obliged to artificially fix the 

 surface,* furnish an infinitely more vigorous vegetation and a much superior yield, 

 when they have been trenched than when they have only been ploughed super- 

 ficially. 



3. ROOT SYSIEM OF YOUNG VINE (rUPESTRIS 

 DU lot) planted ON DEEPLY WORKED LAND. 



* The cutting effect of the particles of wind-blown sand on the tender .shoots is such that the forcing- of a 

 certain (juantity of rushes into the surface, by means of a spscial implement, is a regular cultural 

 operation in these coastal vineyards. 



