460 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Junz, 1899. 
other wine-making countries, and this wine is variously called Solera, Jeropiga,. 
&c. The sweetening power is grape sugar, which, by slow after-fermentation,. 
produces a fruity, aromatic bouquet. Some sweet winesin Queensland are made: 
from yarieties of grapes eminently unfitted for their manufacture, and the cost 
of the sugar to remedy the deficient density is a serious item in the expenses. 
bill. 
A better selection of vines when planting the vineyard is wanted. That 
vines producing high-density musts will do as well as others, is not to be doubted.. 
The writer has seen, on several occasions, grapes giving 26 degrees density 
growing alongside others giving 20 degrees and 22 degrees, the latter being only 
fit to make light wines, but were being made into port with the others. In this. 
respect this Department will be able to give future planters considerable assist- 
,ance, as at the State farms records will be kept of the must densities of 
numerous varieties of wine grapes under different systems of pruning and 
cultivation. In South Australia it is now recognised that to make good light 
wines the finer varieties of grapes must be planted, such as Carbenet, Malbeck, 
Merlot, Hermitage, Sauvignon, Riesling, &. With the exception of the. 
Hermitage, very few of the above are to be found in Queensland—partly because- 
some of them, unskilfully cultivated, did not do well at first, and so vignerons 
discontinued planting them; and’ partly because they do not give the crops 
which some of the coarser varieties yield. But seldom can you get both: quality: 
and quantity ; and if fine wines are to be made, quantity must be sacrificed. 
Lhe other point to be studied, in meeting southern competition, is the cost 
of production, and here vignerons are confronted with greater difficulties than 
with improvement of quality. Man cannot change climate, and that is one of 
the drawbacks that our vignerons have to contend against; but granted the 
climatic influences on cost of production, the cost of grapes in this colony is far 
too high. Is the difference in cost of wages between this and the southern 
colonies so great that grapes bought'in South Australia for £2 a ton cost here 
£8 and £9 a ton, as was the case this season? Or does the climate entail such. 
an extra amount of cultivation as to account for the difference ? Let us see. 
A certain vineyard of 300 acres in South Australia is cultivated by contract 
for 35s. an acre. ‘This vineyard is cultivated on the bush system, and can 
therefore be cross-ploughed. 
The cultivation consists of pruning, sulphuring, two ploughings, disbud- 
ding, and two or three scarifyings. 
Another vineyard of 150 acres, but trellised, costs 50s. per acre by contract. 
But as the vines are mostly Carbenet and other vines pruned to long rods, much 
more time is lost in the pruning, and this price, besides the two ploughings and 
three scarifyings, includes the hoeing of the strips left by the plough. 
Another vineyard of 20 acres is contracted for i 30s. per acre, but the 
owner has to pay for the sulphuring and hoeing round the vines. These figures 
are supplied by one of the principal vignerons in South Australia, and are to be 
relied on. He says that the sum of 85s. may be taken as a fair average for the 
cultivation of a vineyard in South Australia, exclusive of picking the grapes 
and delivering. To come to details, the same gentleman writes that pruning, 
when done by piece, costs from 1s. to 1s. 6d. per 100 for bush vines, and from 
2s. to 2s. 6d. for trellised. Men are paid 4s. 6d. a day and find themselves, or - 
4s. if provided with a house ; carters and foremen, 6s. a day. 
The average crop is under 2 tons to the acre, as not only are droughts 
frequent, but the vines are planted wider apart than in Queensland. In fact, 
taking one year with another, it would be nearer one than two. 
The price of grapes for some time in South Australia has been £2 a ton for- 
Mataro or Espar and similar kinds, delivered; £4 to £5 for H ermitage, . 
and £7 for Carbenet, Malbeck, &c. It will be seen that at £2 a ton for Espar - 
grapes the grower has little or no profit, and for this reason many farmers in 
South Australia are now grubbing up their Espars or grafting to Carbenets. 
The figures given by the New South Wales Viticultural Expert are as: 
follow :—Pruning, 10s. per 1,000 vines, a man pruning 500 a day. If, then, an 
