James Busby

“ Whatever other errors the work may contain, he trusts that they are not of a nature seriously to mislead any one who is guided by it; and trusting to the importance of the matter, rather than to the manner in which it is treated, he submits it to the colonists of New South Wales, entreating for it, in the absence of any other English work on the subject, the candid consideration of the advantages which may result from it as it is, to balance the defects, which may distinguish it from what, in abler hands, it might have been. ”

“ A western exposure is little favourable for the vine. The heat of the day has already dried up all moisture from the soil, when the evening sun, darting his oblique rays under the foliage, scorches and withers the fruit, stopping its vegetation before it has attained its full growth, and inducing a premature ripeness. It is the more unfavourable, that the grape, dried and heated by the last rays of the sun, passes suddenly to a temperature cold and moist ”

“ The naked summit receives every instant the impression of changes and movements in the atmosphere;—there the winds agitate the plant;—fogs produce there a more constant, and more direct impression,—the temperature of the air is colder, and more variable;—there, also, hoar frosts are more frequent; and all these causes combine in lessening the quantity of fruit, in checking its progress to maturity, and in giving to the wine an inferior character to that of the middle of a hill, which escapes the effects of these agents, or is exposed to them in a limited degree. ”

“ The general law of nature must be obeyed, and each must yield its place to a successor. The art of the planter readily divides a single tree into almost any number that he wishes, but the character of the new trees, thus raised, is very essentially different from that of a young seedling plant; they possess a preternatural maturity, and retain the habits and diseases of the tree, of which they naturally formed a part. All efforts, which have hitherto been made to propagate healthy trees, of those varieties which have been long in cultivation, have, I believe, been entirely unsuccessful. ”

“ It is rather a question to be determined by circumstances, than by a general rule. If, on the one hand, the vine is pruned in autumn, the wood may be still unripe; and it is an observation, whose truth has been confirmed by long experience, that a vine, pruned before the wood has reached maturity, is sure to perish in the course of three or four years. If the operation is delayed till the complete maturity of the wood, it has much to fear from the severity of the winter, as, from its open and spongy nature, it is very susceptible of injury from frosts and moisture. ”

“ There are circumstances by which he must be guided, in leaving a greater quantity of bearing branches, or retrenching their number: these are, the nature of the climate, the exposure, the nature of the soil, the vigour of the plant, the quality of the wood formed the preceding year. The age of the vine ought, also, to be considered, and the kind to which it belongs; one kind, is famous for ripening a large quantity of grapes; another, is capable of bringing only a small quantity of grapes to perfection. The vine, too heavily charged, is soon exhausted; too lightly, it yields little but wood. ”

“ The plants, indeed, grow luxuriantly, and produce fruit in abundance; but, before arriving at maturity it is very generally attacked by disease or blight. It would seem, that notwithstanding the astonishing facility with which the vine changes its qualities, when in transplantation, it experiences the effects of a slight change of climate or soil, there are changes so violent, that few of its varieties possess the power of altering their habits sufficiently to endure them. ”

“ Qualities are thus produced in fruits, which, naturally, they would not attain; and there are two sorts of maturity, that which nature, left to herself, gives, which is sufficient to propagate, by seed, the plant in its natural climate, and that which art procures, in carrying the fruit to a higher degree of perfection, at the expense of the other parts of the tree. In the vine, there way be said to be a third sort of maturity ”

“ Even in a vineyard, situated with every advantage of exposure, nothing should be allowed to interrupt the direct action of the mid-day sun, which, of all causes contributing to the perfection of the grape, is certainly the most powerful. The practice of planting fruit trees in a vineyard, is hence disapproved of, though in some districts it is conceived that they are advantageous in protecting the vines from the effects of frost, and from this idea it is quite common to see the peach, the olive, the apple, and the walnut trees, planted in vineyards. ”

“ If a light shower falls, it is evaporated before it sinks beneath the surface, and the same coherence, which prevented the entrance of a less degree of moisture, opposes itself to the evaporation of those heavy rains which penetrate deeper. Thus, the root seldom receives moisture but in excess, and the air and heat, finding the same obstacles to their entrance and circulation as the water, a perpetual coldness in the soil checks the vigour of the plant, or an excess of moisture rots its roots, and causes its decay. ”

“ The substance of what the French writers have said on this point, amounts to this:—You have, already, extensive and excellent vineyards, and in the lapse of ages, each variety has found out the soil and situation which fits it best or has found out the soil and situation which fits it best, or has become naturalized to the climate and soil where it grows. Choose your plants from the best in your own neighbourhood, attend to their cultivation, and to the fermentation of your wine, and you will have the best your land is capable of producing. ”

“ If, then, from the fickle and fugacious characters of the vine, there is a risk that a valuable variety may lose its desirable properties, when transplanted to a new climate, the gratification afforded by success in the experiment, is still liable to be checked by the fear, that that variety is bordering on decay and dissolution, and may only survive for a few years, to reward the enterprise and industry of its introducer. ”

“ All climates are not favourable for the culture of the vine. If it grows, and seems even to vegetate with force, in the colder climates, it is not less true, that its fruit never attains a sufficient degree of maturity, and it is an observation which constantly holds just, that beyond the 50th degree of northern latitude, the juice of the grape is not capable of undergoing a fermentation, to convert it into an agreeable drink. ”

“ The necessity of adhering to a system of pruning, which will equalize, as much as possible, the fruit which a vine is allowed to bear to its strength, is so great, that there are few instances of vines being let. The interest of the farmer, might induce him to leave a quantity of fruit on the vine, which would destroy its future capacity for bearing. Thus, to charge a plant as heavily as it will bear and to charge it to death, are synonimous expressions. ”

“ Without such exportation, how were the colonists to obtain the numerous articles of manufacture indispensable in civilized life, and the not less numerous articles of luxury, which previous habit had made necessary to their comfort, much less to advance with those rapid strides to wealth and importance, which have, in all ages of the world, been the characteristics of new, colonies, planted in favourable situations? ”

“ High winds are always prejudicial to vines; they parch the stocks, the fruit, and the soil, and produce, especially on strong soils, a hard and compact crust at the surface, which prevents the free circulation of the air and water, and keeps an injurious dampness at the root.
The influence of fogs is, in many points of view, injurious to vines; besides the putrid miasm they too often deposit on the fruits of the field, they moisten the surface of the plant, without penetrating farther, and when struck by the rays of the sun, their evaporation is instantaneous. ”

“ Before, then, we can determine the causes why the same kind of plant does not produce every where, indifferently, the same quality of wine, and establish principles by which we shall be able to foresee and announce that which ought to be, as well as to account for that which is, it is necessary that we should examine, separately and with care, what is due to each of the causes which most strongly influence the vine, and its products. ”

“ The rains which fall at the moment of the flowering, are also to be dreaded, from their tendency to cause the running of the parts of fructification, and the imperfection of the fruit. But those genial showers, which fall when the fruit begins to enlarge, furnish to the plant the principal elements of its organization, and if heat follows to facilitate the elaboration of these elements, the grape can hardly fail to reach perfection. The most favourable weather for the grape, is that which gives an alternation of heat, and gentle showers. ”

“ In all the notices which history has left us, of its introduction into France, and its culture in that country, as well as in those which carry us back to the ages of fable, in Italy and Greece; there is, as far as I have been able to find, no mention of the propagation of the vine by seed. The materials, indeed, from which our information is derived, are scanty and obscure, but it is remarkable, that at this day, the unlettered vigneron of France, is scarcely aware that it is possible by this method to propagate the plant ”

“ It is not surprising that so lucrative a branch of rural economy, and one which, besides the internal and foreign commerce it gives rise to (decidedly the most extensive of any in France) , is understood to yield to the government of the country, a revenue at least as much exceeding that derived from any other branch of agricultural industry, as the profits of vineyards to the proprietors exceed those of other soils, should be considered as one of the very first sources of the wealth of France, and that its improvement should be considered of the first importance. ”

“ A proof of the fitness of the climate might also be urged, in the success which has attended the introduction of the fruits of wine countries, and even of the grape itself; though many climates bring the grape to perfection as a fruit for the table, which nevertheless do not impress upon it the characters peculiar to those grapes, from which good wines are made. ”

“ The proportion which it is necessary to preserve between the sap circulating in the plant, and the heat which is to modify that sap, will not admit of a larger growth; besides, it is only near the surface of the earth that there is a sufficient degree of heat to ripen the grape. In warmer climates, a vine is capable of bringing to maturity a large portion of fruit, and its height, and its branches, may be proportionably increased, but there seems, in this respect, a bound which may not be passed with advantage. ”

“ The vine delights in heat, and the grape only attains to perfection in a dry soil, struck by the rays of an ardent sun. When a rainy season induces a constant humidity in the ground, and maintains a damp and moist temperature in the atmosphere, the grape neither acquires saccharine principle nor flavour, and the wine made from it is weak and insipid. ”

“ With regard to a market for the produce, the distance of Great Britain from the colony might, at first sight, encourage the belief that wine would not bear the expence of conveyance to that country, and perhaps this might be true of inferior wines; but, besides that, these could be converted into brandies. New South Wales possesses, from its situation, peculiar advantages, in competing with those countries which supply the Indian market, for which, as appears by the evidence before the House of Lords on foreign trade, the demand was never so great as of late. ”

“ The sinking hopes of those, who depended on the tillage of the soil, have been considerably revived by the late permission to distil spirits from grain in the colony; and there cannot be a doubt, that agricultural industry will thence receive a new impulse; but the benefits derivable from this permission, are of a limited nature.
It will, no doubt, increase the demand for grain, and, consequently, its production; and it will have the very important effect of shielding the colonists from, or at least of mitigating the effects of, a failure of crops. ”

“ The offspring of every plant and animal, when unchanged by cultivation, bears a very close resemblance to its parents; but amongst the cultivated kind of each, it is extremely various; still, however, generally shewing some similarity to them. By taking advantage of incidental variations, and by propagating from those individuals which approach nearest to our ideas of perfection, improved varieties of fruit, as well as of animals, are obtained. ”

“ Towards the close of the last century, when the light of science, which in France had so long beamed on objects less important to mankind, began to shed a few scattered rays upon that art, which is, in some degree, the basis of ail others: ant men of genius began to think, that philosophy, without compromising her dignity [6] might cooperate with practical experience, in illustrating the business of the husbandmen, it is not suprising, that so interesting and important an article as the vine, should have attracted particular attention. ”

“ It is, in fact, the foundation on which a successful cultivation of the vine, in New South Wales, must be raised; and a point which, if attended to in time, may save the expenditure of immense sums in a nugatory manner, and determine, not only the degree of success which may attend the cultivation of the vine, but in a great measure the expense at which that success must be purchased. ”

“ When the sun can reach the garden at its rising, and continue a regular influence, increasing as the day advances, it has a gradual and most beneficial effect in dissolving the hoar frost which the past night may have scattered over young buds, leaves, and blossoms, or setting fruit. ”

“ It may be concluded, from what has been said, that the most favourable exposure of the vine is towards the south; and that an eastern, though inferior to a southern exposure, is preferable either to one to the west, or to the north; the vine which enjoys the greater portion of the sun's rays being that which, with equal soil and culture, will generally produce the best wine. ”

“ From the principles which have been established, in treating of the effects of climate, soil, and exposure on the vine, it naturally follows, that the season impresses a character on its produce, as it may be distinguished for cold or heat, for humidity or dryness. Accordingly, it is found that a cold and rainy season, in a climate naturally warm and dry, produces on the grape the same effect as a colder climate. ”

“ Notwithstanding—that a concurrence of so many favourable circumstances, with regard to soil, exposure, and seasons, is necessary to bring the grape to that degree of perfection which, with proper management, insures a good wine; the vine, in climates favourable for it, is a hardy plant. ”

“ The flavour, and especially the saccharine principle of the grape, are effects of the uninterrupted rays of a powerful sun: where the sun's rays are less powerful and constant, the sour or acrid juice, which developes itself in the grape at its first formation, is not sufficiently elaborated, and does not lose its primitive character of greenness, before the return of winter arrests its further progress to maturity. ”