The testimony of experts throughout Australia is unani- mously in favour of raising the vine sufficiently above the ground, so as to keep the grapes well off the soil, and also to provide for the free circulation of air beneath. It is true that in some parts of the Continent the practice for ages has been to keep the vines well down against the earth. But this is done to secure the advantages of the radiated heat, and enable the grapes to ripen. In Australia, however, even in the elevated districts, the sun is usually warm enough .to ripen the grapes without this being necessary. THE GROWING OF THE GEAPE — ON PRUNING. Before leaving these references to the growing of the grape I pm'pose making a few remarks upon pruning, a sub- ject which is as interesting as it is important. The objects of AUSTBALIAN WINE. 201 pruning are manifold. By it the cultivation of the vine is facilitated ; the best results are obtained from each variety of grape ; the yield is increased ; the product is more uniform in character ; and the quality of the wine is vastly improved. But a great deal of the work of pruning is so entirely technical that it would utterly fail to possess any attraction for the general reader. Consequently I shall attempt no more than to briefly refer to those particular matters which are of Australian concern. Now, it is laid down as a rule for pruning that some vines should be pruned short, w^hile others require long pruning ; that is to say, one variety of vine requires to be repressed, as it were, and in another the branches have to be kept long to produce a superior quality of wine. The explanation is that while the sap is on its way through the roots, the stem, the branches, and the shoots of the vine, for the production of fruit, it is distilled out, so to speak, during its passage from the earth to the fruit. As Mr. George Sutherland prettily puts it, the grape is, in fact, the crowning product of the whole plant. In this way, the farther the sap has to travel through the whole vine on its way to the growing fruit, the better will the resulting wine be. To a certain extent this is true of all vines, but more especially so in the case of Shiraz and some of the Pinots. In various districts of France, in order to bring the grape to perfection, the vine-growers will train out their main branches along trellises to a length of 50 and even 60 feet, so as to give the sap the longest possible distance to travel ; and, further, for the purpose of concentrating into the fruit the Avhole result of the vine, all the buds and little shoots, which would distract therefrom, are carefully taken away. This gives to the vine a very curious look, but it serves well to illustrate how greatly vines differ as to 202 THE AST OF LIVING IN AUSTRALIA. whether they require short or long pruning. It also helps to a better understanding of the two main styles of training the vine already mentioned, namely, the " gooseberry bush " and the " trellising."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The testimony of experts throughout Australia is unanimously in favour of raising the vine sufficiently above the ground, so as to keep the grapes well off the soil, and also to provide for the free circulation of air beneath. It is true that in some parts of the Continent the practice for ages has been to keep the vines well down against the earth. But this is done to secure the advantages of the radiated heat, and enable the grapes to ripen. In Australia, however, even in the elevated districts, the sun is usually warm enough .to ripen the grapes without this being necessary. THE GROWING OF THE GRAPE — ON PRUNING. Before leaving these references to the growing of the grape I propose making a few remarks upon pruning, a subject which is as interesting as it is important. The objects of pruning are manifold. By it the cultivation of the vine is facilitated ; the best results are obtained from each variety of grape ; the yield is increased ; the product is more uniform in character ; and the quality of the wine is vastly improved. But a great deal of the work of pruning is so entirely technical that it would utterly fail to possess any attraction for the general reader. Consequently I shall attempt no more than to briefly refer to those particular matters which are of Australian concern. Now, it is laid down as a rule for pruning that some vines should be pruned short, w^hile others require long pruning ; that is to say, one variety of vine requires to be repressed, as it were, and in another the branches have to be kept long to produce a superior quality of wine. The explanation is that while the sap is on its way through the roots, the stem, the branches, and the shoots of the vine, for the production of fruit, it is distilled out, so to speak, during its passage from the earth to the fruit. As Mr. George Sutherland prettily puts it, the grape is, in fact, the crowning product of the whole plant. In this way, the farther the sap has to travel through the whole vine on its way to the growing fruit, the better will the resulting wine be. To a certain extent this is true of all vines, but more especially so in the case of Shiraz and some of the Pinots. In various districts of France, in order to bring the grape to perfection, the vine-growers will train out their main branches along trellises to a length of 50 and even 60 feet, so as to give the sap the longest possible distance to travel ; and, further, for the purpose of concentrating into the fruit the whole result of the vine, all the buds and little shoots, which would distract therefrom, are carefully taken away. This gives to the vine a very curious look, but it serves well to illustrate how greatly vines differ as to whether they require short or long pruning. It also helps to a better understanding of the two main styles of training the vine already mentioned, namely, the " gooseberry bush " and the " trellising."

The art of living in Australia