VINE CULTUKE AS EXEMPLIFIED AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. 429 



drift towards closer commercial relationship, which may likewise have 

 momentous results in developing the idea of Empire among our people 

 who inhabit almost every quarter of the globe. 



While we cannot ignore the consideration that climate will have 

 s, certain influence on the quantity and kind of wine consumed in 

 countries not producing their own, it has probably received too much 

 prominence in comparison with other factors which govern exports of 

 wine as well as other articles. Thus we find that Brazil, as a former 

 Portuguese colony, is the largest importer of wine from Portugal ; and 

 that several South American provinces or States which were colonised by 

 Spain take principally her wines. The practice is simply an illustration 

 of the saying that " trade follows the flag " ; which, however, is only to 

 a small extent true where the means of communication are inadequate. 

 The trade of the Iberian Peninsula with South America dates back to 

 the time of Spain's colonising activity, when her galleons carried her 

 wine to America and returned laden with the gold and produce of her 

 dependencies. 



To recount this is to emphasise the importance of our home market 

 for the produce of our Colonies, since the Mother Country, ever ready to 

 receive from all parts of the world commodities which cannot be produced 

 under equally favourable conditions at home, specially welcomes from 

 every clime the products of her own people. 



If suitability to stand a long voyage be regarded as a leading 

 characteristic of the wine which Australia or the Cape can send to this 

 kingdom, we need not fear that questions of freight will present any 

 serious hindrance. Indeed, if the freights from the Antipodes be com- 

 pared with those from France, Spain, or Portugal to the British Isles, 

 the difference will not be found of much moment as a commercial factor, 

 bearing in mind the natural preference for the produce of our own 

 Colonies. 



The recent Exhibition in Paris, therefore, affords an appropriate 

 occasion to call attention to the culture of the Vine as illustrated by the 

 great French nation, w^hose extensive and varied experience entitles her 

 to teach all nations the technique of this huge industry. 



The varied phases in the progress of the grape from its germination 

 up to its distribution as wine matured for public consumption — in fact, 

 from the vine-seed to the wine-cup — were portrayed in a thoroughly 

 practical manner at that most instructive of international Exhibitions. 

 Hence it is fitting that its educational value concerning one of the 

 greatest and, as it is regarded by many, one of the most beneficent of 

 industries, should be placed on record, so as not to be lost to the com- 

 mercial community of this Empire. 



It will not be possible, w^ithin the space of a paper such as this, 

 to make more than a passing reference to the modes of culture which 

 prevail even in the districts producing the wines best known to commerce 

 in this country. 



In France the vineyards are worked to-day on methods almost the 

 same as have prevailed for generations. In certain districts, and those 

 producing the most valuable wine, as in Champagne, hoe and hand- 

 labour is the rule ; while in others the plough, with either oxen or horses, 



