428: 



JOUENAL OF THE KOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



VINE CULTURE AS EXEMPLIFIED AT THE PARIS 



EXHIBITION. 



By Sir James Blyth, Bart. 



Commercially, the study of the cultivation of the Vine has hitherto 

 had little practical interest for business men, if we except, perhaps, those 

 who are engaged in the distribution of wine. 



That these islands, the centre of our dominions for trade and govern- 

 ment, do not produce the grape in wine-making quantities, has perhaps 

 been sufficient reason for this in the past. For the future, however, 

 since space and time are gradually becoming annihilated, and the war has 

 drawn closer together the English-speaking people of the world, our 

 thoughts must be increasingly directed not only to our principal Colonies, 

 but to the outer fringes of the King's Empire. As "headquarters staff" 

 of the Imperial Commercial Army, it has, therefore, become more than 

 ever necessary to bear in mind the immense variety and infinite 

 capabilities of the soil throughout our world-wide territory, and, especially 

 for our present purpose, its adaptability to the industry of viticulture. 



Our Colonial brethren in Africa, Canada, and more particularly the 

 Commonwealth of Australia — whose new era of Imperial life and 

 Imperial unity has been so fittingly inaugurated by the visit of the Duke 

 of Cornwall and York — are only on the threshold of the science of wine- 

 growing. They have, therefore, still much to learn of \iticultural theory 

 and practice from fair and fertile France, whose vast vineyards provide an 

 unexampled object-lesson to the world in the profitable cultivation of the 

 Vine. 



Remembering that there are no fewer than fifteen hundred distinct 

 varieties of the grape grown on French territory and available for use in 

 connection with wine-production, and that Australia is some fifteen times 

 the size of France, it will be seen how enormous are the possibilities 

 awaiting the wine-grower in that continent, which in area, soil, and 

 climate is said to be capable of rivalling Europe. Indeed, it would not 

 be surprising if, before the lapse of many years, the British public were 

 provided vdth pure Colonial beverage ^^ines, cheap as well as abundant, 

 and possessing the additional advantage of having been produced by our 

 own kith and kin. 



The Colonial Secretary's project of bringing the produce of British 

 Colonists direct to British consumers — as witness the now accomplished 

 regular transit from Jamaica to Bristol of fruit, picked the very morning 

 of the day the steamer sails — is a striking illustration of what may be 

 done by far-sighted statesmanship to forge fresh links in the chain of 

 Imperial unity. 



The recent decision, too, of Lord Selborne and the Lords of the 

 Admiralty to use in future Cape or Australian instead of foreign wines, 

 in connection with the ceremonial christening of British ships of war, 

 even if regarded as a trivial incident, is also a straw ha]Dpily showing a 



