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the cool season in the drier inland districts [ J . S. Edgar], Grapes
have also been grown on the mountains in the New Hebrides
according to the missionaries. In tropical countries vines should be
strongly manured to make them productive [C. Merton]. In Ita lv
vines are often trained high up over maples, willows and elms, since
Pimy s time ; m the Caucasus they sometimes grow on Pterocarya
Vmes attain an age of centuries and get stems 3 feet in diameter.’
I he doors of the dome of the Ravenna-Cathedral are of vine-wood
LbodenmJ. Tozetti saw a vine with branches extending diametrically,
as a whole, over 3,000 feet at Montebamboli. Rezier notes
a plant bearing about 4,000 bunches of grapes annually a t Besançon
[Regel]. A single plant of “ Black Hamburg ” under glass a t Rockhampton
England, bore annually 900-1,000 lbs. of grapes [Davis]
A vine of enormous magnitude a t Hampton-Court has also gained
wide cdebrity One of the largest vines in the world is growing a t
Oys (Portugal), which covers an area of 5,315 feet, and the stem
measures over 6 feet in circumference. I t was planted
in 1802, and gave in 1862 grapes for 165 gallons of wine, in 1874
R # (“ Society of A r t s ”). A vine near Santa
Barbara, California, which was planted 68 years ago by a Mexican
has a stem-diameter of one foot, the branches covering an area of
12,000 square feet ; it produces 10,000 to 12,000 lbs, of grapes
anmially [H. Gardner]. Another grape-vine, growing in the same
istrict, measures 5 feet 10 inches iu stem-circumference and has
produced 4 tons o f grapes in a year [Meehan], Shoots 18 feet long
rw V ® ® ” 0® the Campaspe-River, Victoril
[W. Napier], Instances are on record of bunches of grapes having
attained a weight of 20 lbs. ; those of Canaan, alluded to in holy scrip-
fore,^ must have been stiil heavier. A Victorian seedling, the Centennial
Grape, raised by Mr. G. W. Knight is very fine, the grapes
tovm g been sold by auction in Melbourne at £2 6s. per case In
Ita ly the estabhshing of vine-plantatious on ordinary culture-land is
regarded as enhancing the value of the latter four or five fold and
elsewhere often even more (whereas cereal-iand is ap t to deteriorate)
L n # T*T / 7®®:hiseases _can be kept off. The imports of wine
into the United Kingdom m 1886 amounted to about 15 million
gallons, worth more than £5,000,000, of which only a very small
proportion came from British colonies. The average annu'al production
of wme m France for the 10 years 1884-1893 was 660
million gallons the area under cultivation about million acres:
foe acreage and produce of Ita ly were n ot much less. The “ Bulletin
feon production of wine in France for the
year 1890 am o u n ts to 603 million gallons. In Italy, where the de-
vastations by the P ^ l lo x e r a have not been quite so great, the yield
was 621 million gallons according to the returns published by the
M produces abont 33 million gallons per
minum. Major B. C Trumon estimated the yield of Los Angeles,
Cahforma, a t 17 million gallons in 1888. The Champagne-grape is
eared on chalky soil. The production of raisins in th a t state reached
in 1889 nearly 28 million ibs. To obtain good raisins the grapes
must be perfectly ripe and their sap should contain a t least 25 per
cent, of saccharine principle. In dry parts of California the drying
process is effected solely by sun-heat, the time required from gathering
of the grapes to drying being rather less than two weeks. A slight
sweating is then caused to attain equality in the maturity of all the
raisin-berries ; this is done in boxes placed into a dark closed room
and takes two weeks more. In 1891 California produced 2,611,590
cases of 20 lbs. each [Paul Grallert].
The Corinthian variety, producing the currants of commerce, also
thrives well in some districts of extra-tropio Australia, where with
raisins its fruit may become a staple-article of export beyond home-
consumption. The Sultana-variety is not to be much pruned ; the
bunches when gathered are dipped in an alkaline liquid obtained from
wood-ashes, to which a little olive-oil is added, to expedite drying,
which is effected in about a week [G. Maw]. The produce of
Sultana-raisins fluctuates from 7 to 80 cwt. per acre. The plant
is best reared on limestone-formations. In Greece the average-yield
of ordinary raisins is about 2,000 lbs. per acre [Simmonds]. Besides
the Sultana also Muscat of Alexandria and Malvoisie a gros grains
are used for good raisins. By continued crossing of the Sultana-
variety, perhaps other seedless kinds might yet be originated. Britain
imported in 1889 1,173,000 cwts. of currants valued at £1,420,000,
and 573,000 cwts. of raisins, valued at £910,000. The currants imported
into Victoria in 1887 were valued at nearly £80,000; raisins
£36,000 ; since then however the local production of raisins has
largely increased. Australia has lately also become a producer of
pure gi-ape-braiidy. In 1892-3 the area planted with vines in the
colony Victoria was 28,000 acres. An extensive special work of
great value on the raisin-industry has been issued in 1890 by P ro fessor
Gustav Eisen, in San Francisco. Dr. W. Hamm, of Vienna,
has issued a Vine-map of Europe, indicating the distribution of the
different varieties and the principal sources of the various sorts of
wine. The writer would now merely add, that the preservation of the
grapes in a fresh state, according to M. Charmeux’s method, and the
sundry modes of effecting the transit of ripe grapes to long distances,
ought to bo turned to industrial advantage. The Almeria-variety has
lately been introduced by the South-Australian Government ; this
kind is distinguished for keeping well, and is largely sent from Spain
to the English market [Dr. Muecke]. The pigment of the dark wine-
herries is known as racemic aeid. The juice contains along with
tartaric acid also grape-acid. Tartrate of soda (Rochelle Salt) and
some other chemical bases can he produced even from vine-leaves [R.
Fletcher]. All these chemically defined substances have uses of
their own iu art and science. As is well known, the grape-vine is
subject to the attacks of various insect- and fungus-pests. The most
destructive by far is the insect called the Phylloxera vastatrix. None
of the remedies hitlierto suggested seem to have proved really effective,
or they are not of sufficiently easy and cheap application, and
fri.