254 



The World's Commercial Products 



below the surface. Hence the temperature remains at about 58° F., and shows very little 

 variation throughout the year. With many of the difficulties inevitable to a new industry 

 overcome, champagne-making at the present day promises to become an important branch of 

 the Victorian wine industry. 



In New South Wales the grape-vine flourishes all along the coast district, especially in the 

 country round Newcastle, and the wines of the Albury district, near the Victorian border, have 

 a high reputation throughout Australia. 



The wine-growing industry of the State is still in its infancy, though with a growing local 

 demand, and with the opening up of a market in England, where the wines of New South Wales, 

 in common with those of Victoria and South Australia, enjoy a considerable popularity, the 

 future -of grape- culture in the colony seems to be fairly assured. 



The vine was planted in the early days of colonisation in New South Wales, but it was 

 not until 1828 that viticulture and wine-making became a definite industry of the country. 

 About that time large numbers of stocks were imported from the finest wine-growing districts 

 of Europe and planted in the Hunter River district, and a few years afterwards the Murray 

 River valley received attention. The grapes flourished, but the wines manufactured from 

 them were anything but satisfactory, the reason, as usual, being that the colonists but imper- 

 fectly understood the vigneron's art. At the present time, however, neither pains nor money 

 are spared to introduce skilled labour and to adopt up-to-date methods, and the results of 

 such intelligent treatment are apparent in the status which the wines of New South Wales 

 hold in the estimation of experts. 



VEGETABLES 



Among the commercial products of the world vegetables are a most important item, and 

 their value as foodstuffs needs no emphasizing. The inhabitants of the world could subsist 

 without animal-flesh, could scarcely subsist entirely on cereals, but they most certainly 

 could not subsist without vegetables. Practically every nation, savage and civilized 

 alike, cultivates a few plants for use as vegetables. The- vegetables we know and prize 



most are one and all the 

 result of long cultivation, the 

 origin of most being lost in 

 antiquity. The world has been 

 ransacked, and for the vege- 

 tables cultivated in the United 

 Kingdom nearly every country 

 under the . sun has been laid 

 under contribution. 



Large as are the supplies 

 produced in the United King- 

 dom, they are insufficient for 

 the requirements of the people, 

 and great quantities of raw 

 vegetables are annually im- 

 ported. In 1905 our imports 

 of these commodities amounted 

 in value to £13,872,842. In 

 1903 these imports totalled 

 £15,319,994. The average for 

 the last ten years amounts to 

 over £12,300,000 per annum. 



By permission of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading 



WINDSOR CASTLE POTATOES 



Copyrights. & S. 



