to the Vineyards qfSjpain and France. '91 



The colonists, he says, when once they have obtained grapes 

 suitable to their climate, ^' will require neither great study, nor 

 toil, nor expense, to enable them to make a good wine ; " and he 

 adds, " that, by a little attention to a few simple pi^inciples, they 

 may easily improve upon the practice of most old wine countries, 

 where error has become a habit, and a blind routine has been 

 sanctioned, or rather consecrated by prescription." Nothing 

 can be more just than these remarks. Settlers in these countries, 

 we are persuaded, would often do better by trusting to their 

 own resources, and thinking and acting for themselves, than by 

 blindly imitating the practices of countries from which they have 

 emigrated. A tour such as that taken by Mr. Busby is most 

 useful, even if it were only to convince us of the necessity of 

 thinking for ourselves. Wine and raisins will, no doubt, in a 

 short time, be articles of export from New South Wales; and 

 the high honour of having been mainly instrumental in bringing 

 about this desirable result will belong to Mr. Busby. We shall 

 now glance over his work, 



Mr. Busby arrived at Cadiz on September 26. 183], and soon 

 after proceeded to the vineyards of Xeres and its neighbourhood. 

 The whole extent of the Xeres vineyards, which produce wine 

 fit for the English market, does not exceed 7000 acres ; and 

 about double that extent will also include the whole of a district 

 which produces an inferior wine, generally sent to England as 

 sherry. " A great portion of the wines exported to England 

 unde," the name of sherry are the growth of Malaga, and are 

 brought round by sea, and transhipped at Cadiz. Most of the 

 sherries sold by retail in England under 405. a dozen are either 

 of this kind, or of the commonest qualities of the district above 

 alluded to in the neighbourhood of Xeres, known as the vine- 

 yards of San Lucar and Port St. Mary." We must refer to 

 the work itself for much curious information respecting the dif- 

 ferent modes of wine-making at Xeres and other places in Spain, 

 and in Burgundy and other places in France, and of raisin- 

 curing at Malaga ; and shall chiefly confine ourselves to glean- 

 ing what we think the most interesting particulars which have 

 reference to gardening and to common agriculture. 



In the south of Spain, no garden is ever formed but in a situ- 

 ation where it can be irrigated ; and the water for this purpose 

 is drawn from deep wells by what is called a noria, viz., a kind 

 of water wheel, which is described and figured in our Encyc. of 

 Agr., 2d edit. § T*^. The ground is laid out in small squares, 

 separated by channels for conveying the water. Each square is 

 a level panel, sunk a few inches below the water-channel ; and 

 at one angle of each panel is a small opening in its bank or 

 border for the admission of the water. On the margin of the 

 squares, garlic is commonly planted. The olive is raised from 



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