36 



nature does not offer it, artificial means will have to be resorted 

 to. Deep gullies and damp, drafty hollows are as unsuitable for 

 them as the denuded summit of exposed hills, it often happens 

 that the blossoms will not set in either situation. 



Fruit land requires more thorough treatment than soil set 

 apart for general farming cultivation. 



In planting a vineyard or an orchard, it should always be 

 borne in mind that the work is being done for a long succession of 

 years, and that its future success depends very much on the way it 

 is first planted. No return will be expected for the heavy 

 outlay it involves for the first two or three seasons, although for a 

 long succession of years to come the grower may expect to be 

 handsomely recouped for the money, thought, and care spent in 

 first establishing the plantation. In order to achieve success, the 

 work must be carried out thoroughly and intelligently. Be well 

 impressed with the fact that a 20-acre vineyard or orchard, well 

 planted and carefully tended, will produce a crop nearly as heavy 

 as 40 or 50 acres of trees merely stuck in a soil badly drained, 

 unaerated, and only partially stirred. The vines and trees, more- 

 over, in the properly planted and thoroughly cultivated orchard 

 or vineyard will be more luxuriant, longer-lived, the crop more 

 healthy, more abundant, the produce will be easier to handle, 

 infinitely superior in quality, while at the same time the toil, 

 risks, and anxiety of the grower, will be considerably lessened. 



The nature of the soil influences appreciably the character of 

 the produce, and, to a certain extent, the different classes of trees. 



The vine, for instance, although one of the hardiest of the cul- 

 tivated plants, does not yield the same type of produce in all kinds 

 of soil. 



A typical and congenial soil for vines is a friable, easily 

 worked loam, deep in preference, with a healthy subsoil, naturally 

 well drained, to which both air and warmth can penetrate from 

 the outside, and which at the same time is sufficiently retentive of 

 moisture to invigorate the roots of the plant and permit it to resist 

 the most severe drought. Our red gum country typifies that class 

 of soil. 



The object the vine-grower intends to pursue should to a great 

 degree influence his selection of soil for planting his vineyard. 



For table grapes and raisins it may be stated that the richer 

 the soil the finer will the grapes be, and the more handsome the 

 well nourished bunches, with well-set swollen berries. 



The choicer " wines " on the other hand, are produced in soil 

 of a poorer description, especially on light sandy loams and iron- 

 stone gravel. In the case of wine, it often happens that quantity 

 is adverse to quality : on very rich alluvial flats, for instance, 

 the must contains sometimes an excess of albuminous matter, which 

 affects the keeping quality of the wines, while bouquet is lessened, 

 and a peculiar earthy flavour, disagreeable to the palate and the 

 nose, is distinctly perceptible. 



