1 Srpr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 201 
Viticulture. 
VINEYARD NOTES. 
By E. H. RAINFORD. 
Soon after vines are pruned, the first ploughing should be given to break up 
the soil and facilitate its aerification; and where vines are trained on wire and 
cross-ploughing thus impeded, the soil between the vines should be hoed or 
forked. It is necessary that care be taken that vines are not ploughed at any 
time to a greater depth than they have been accustomed to, as, closely below 
that depth, will be found an extensive arrangement of surface roots, and a 
ploughing deeper than usual will tear these up and seriously injure the plant. 
The writer saw lately a vineyard where this had happened last season, and 
the result had been —no crop, and half the spurs of the vines dead. It is 
advisable to start a moderately deep ploughing with young vines, ard to enable 
this to be done the surface roots should be pruned off in the first two years, 
after which the vine will be strong enough to stand the laceration by the 
plough of any new small surface roots that may afterwards form. One of the 
troubles of the vignerons in the coastal districts is the short time the vine 
remains dormant; until late in the autumn it continues to vegetate and 
even to form fresh bunches of grapes, which is very exhausting to its 
vitality. Much of this is owing to climate, but something is undoubtedly 
due to the fact that, between the vines trained on wire, the roots are almost at 
the surface, and in some cases between the rows also, where a superficial 
searifying is all the cultivation the vine gets. The result is that, in warm 
damp weather, the surface roots continue to absorb and circulate sap with 
consequent activity of vegetation. Were the vines ploughed sufficiently deep 
from the first, these surface roots would not form, and the vine would be less 
influenced by vicissitudes of temperature. 
In some places the young shoots of the vine are liable to be injured by 
late frosts. Should this happen, vignerons are strongly advised to prune the 
affected shoots down to the eye at the base of the first leaf. This should be 
done if possible within twenty-four hours of the injury, and in nine cases out 
of ten the result will be healthy, fertile wood for next season’s pruning, 
whereas if the frost-bitten shoot is left to itself it will, if badly injured, die 
right back, or if only slightly damaged will send outa number of laterals, none 
of which will make the requisite fertile, healthy wood. Care must be taken 
to rub off all water shoots which will start from the old wood and the base of 
the spurs. ‘This procedure has been thoroughly tested in Hrance, and found 
to be the best in most cases of frost-bite. 
Botany. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF NEW GUINEA, 
Continued from Vol. IIL, page 162. 
By F. MANSON BAILEY, F.1.58., 
Colonial Botanist. 
Order LEGUMINOSA, 
MANILTOA. 
M. Schefferi, K. Sch. (IL. grandiflora, Scheff.) A small tree or wide-spreading 
tall shrub, the branchlets more or less covered with circular lenticells. 
Leaves 3-4-jugate, leaflets rigidly coriaceous, about 34 in. long, 2 in. broad 
in the centre, somewhat rhomboid, very oblique, the costules near the upper 
oO 
