The Garden in Spring 



no particular inducement to purchase Messrs. 

 Smith, Brown & Co.'s " Special Verdelho," 

 which is always kept to the same standard. 



For the spirit which must be added to the 

 grape juice in the manufacture of wine no 

 other than that made from sugar-cane is now 

 available. The importation or manufacture of 

 rectified spirit from any other source is for- 

 bidden in the interest of the sugar cultivation. 

 It is frequently said that grape brandy is the 

 proper spirit for this purpose, that no other 

 combines and matures with the juice of the 

 grape in the same manner. The opposite is 

 asserted here ; you are told that it is the same 

 thing chemically. The very word is enough to 

 make the amateur who contemplates a purchase 

 close his cheque-book with a snap. 



To return to the banana. For reasons 

 already stated its cultivation has declined here 

 in recent years, for under the prevailing fiscal 

 arrangements it is quite impossible to grow it 

 at a profit in competition with the Canary Isles 

 and Jamaica, where more enlightened conditions 

 prevail. But small if dwindling plantations 

 still exist, and a few trees are to be found in 

 every garden. It imparts to the scenery a more 



177 N 



