TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11510, 17 February 1903, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In an interview published S^m Viticulture in the "Post,"' Signor'J||| in Bragato, the viticultural New Zealand, expert, gives some cogent reasons for his enthusi- jgsk ostio faith in the possibilities of-the making industry in New Zealand. There he says, huge areas of land, especially .of Auckland, which are eminently suiUUt,£j§ for vine-growing, and if the industry properly established under expert vision and with Government assistance, ther!jl|f| is no reason why excellent wine should.not be produced, which would quickly find market, both within and beyond the cdo»£*Js|| The intending vine-grower it cautioned choose the variety of plant best adapted his soil, and to secure adequate against the, south and south-west The land must be carefully trenched depth of from 18in to 24in, and when tb*-||a|., vines are planted they must be" drained, sulphured, and sprayed for fOUt v v% years, before any return can be I;Mm The small capitalist who indulges* ia th». %W$ industry ia advised, during this period; to- *||j take up dairying or some other pursuit *I*S»* sfflm When the four years have expired, the pro-' "ira fit from his grapes will amply, recoup }*J| him for his first outlay, and probably en--) ~<||| able him to discard his alternative source of *jj|jj revenue. Experience is not necessary,' 1 if * r '-js| the vine-grower will only obey the expert ,"j|| advice accorded him. To lay down a vine- ~'fM yard of five acres cost* £150, spread over %& four years, and the erection of the plant for f%m wine-making means another £100. At the '•s££ end of the fourth year the yield wHI be ,*s& about 400 gallons of wine per acre, which nt the present time would be worth from*/® 8s to 15s a gallon, and at bedrock 2s 6d. Even this lowest figure, which anticipated would not be reached for t*9,?sJjraE or fifteen years at least, would just cover tb*;vj||f primal outlay in-the first year of Owing to the prevalence of, phylloxera, tto~|f|i , expert urges that no European vines, but s§|| only Australian stock, should be used. . vine-grower in the North of Auckland, 1* i?j|l|| stated, draw a revenue tost season of.£l2»||||| from three and a half acres and tho case is not an isolated one. Bragato urges that the Government,s-osJ4]||w| assist the industry by establishing nurs*ritij|||S in tho different districts, from which ant vines could be supplied, and by areas open for selection under the less* perpetuity system, and offering to settlers to take them up. Under tWsjftvjSJ duteumstances he is confident that would be a great future before the industry.'V-;^ A subject commented upon. j jVjj|| Agricultural Jby our recent visitor; 3*v\^s ' Museums.* Krukoff, during _k to°C<,?il round Australia in- agrv j|j| cultural observation, was the absence of ~fim much effort to impress the public at Isrgs f*M with an idea of what the countiy was >M capable of producing. In America mat- \.„J3$ tere were very different. . Museums were "jT|i everywhere - for agricultural' display, and * j: these were frequented by the public, and $$ formed useful centres of information for inquiring strangers from various parti of • ( i the world. "In that" country," hs W* j marked, "they do not hide their HgM ;,;- under a bushel when they produce a good -* thing, or a new thing, or a useful product, -, t of any sort. They bring it into th» museum, and the World is able to at; « amine it, and obtain as much fciforfflßtfc** -\" at possible or to how it was produtsd.' - ;i . In Russia also, M. Krukoffs ow-aH** v' try, where hs holds an important i*pl' - cultural Inspectorship, made in nearly every important centos **, ' ( the display, both of local products, ssd « the latest improvements in machinery s-4 _ appliances, for the farmers' delight. Ia Melbourne the visitor certainly found » praiseworthy exhibition of ««ential out, ' * preserves, dried fruits,, flax, linseed, and * numerous special products; also many varieties of cereals, flax, sorghum, fruits of various descriptions, and, in f«*» samples of nearly everything produced by the soil of Victoris, but all cramped JnU a little wretched room connected with. |- the office of the expeit in agricultural produce. "Museums," said M. Krukoff, "«rs * a great educational medium in Russia, and . in various places that I have visited, and •* they might be made very educationid in Vie- h | f toria, where the town people do not seen j, to know-anything about ths • soil can produce, and their _stcres£ M "°%;£»*, excited to the extent it would he tf ""Jitff £ tould visit a> spacious building .s»§!= the products would he well displays*. ,jg| The interest taken in the ft2ric ? JtM ". , £y|j|

lion of oft Jubilee Exhibition *.U confirm this statement as to our own local growths. Melbourne expert* rather ** come the criticism, however, as bearing 07- question already brought forward; for a proposal had lately been made to ntilbs ttakrge- space of ground mW» Itreet, now occupied o* a frat market, for TOWUm E"o change their site, and 3TE wTiS by rLng in the open -rd, and spending a comparatively small sum in flooring and asphalting. _ museum of industry would be secortd to meet .U -quirements for years to come. >«« th»t 2 B«H.b visitor hs* drawn attention to i, want, it is hoped that the Agnestnrsl Department will bring the scheme to S J save sad. reproach in the future iTthat. given when M. Krukoff declared Zl wile in f«" -»"*«• h « f "J" ( yidem«t of greater vereuti.ity than in Victoria, in no place had he teen such 'wretched neglect of the most commonplace .-item of making the versatility known. Now that writing has beCuriosities come practically universal, 0 f ihe art of cahgraphy Penmanship, threatens to become extinct. Even the schoolmaster no longer aims at producing, in fl o wing and graceful Ua« th-ss. pretty .wallows on the wing, birds m tke.r nests. ,__ so forth, which the pedagogue of un earlier d»y delighted to trace without lift- < M J,b pen from the paper. In a few leers doubtless, they will even disappear from'the pages of those American miscrilanies of information, warranted to contain "plain and simple instructions in the art of appearing to the best advantage on all occasions." Though a contempt for good handwriting is lamentable (and even the elaborate convolutions of the scroll work were rather pretty), one is less disposed to regret the general abandonment of some other tricks of the art. These, naturally enough, are the least likely to disappear altogether. A favourite exercise of the old caligraphists, which fulfilled no useful purpose, and only tried their own eyes and those of the readers, was to scratch a. chapter of the Bible on the face of a threepenny piece. This particular kind of useless industry dates from a very remote period, its first exponent, as far as history records, being a person of antiquity who transcribed the whole of Homer's Iliad on vellum, enclosed in a nutshell. Pliny affirms that Cicero once saw the useless marvel, but apparently the latter was not sufficiently impressed to leave an account of it. Possibly the feat gave rise to the expression "in a nutshell." In modern times the celebrated Huet, Bishop of Avranches, went to the trouble of imitating the achievement. A certain Peter Bale, moreover, an Englishman, varied the feat by writing a Bible which he enclosed in the same way. Disraeli, the elder, in his "Curiosities of Literature," mentions a drawing of the head of Charles 1., in the library of St. John's College, at Oxford, "wholly composed of minute written characters which, at a small distance, resemble tho lines of an engraving. The lines of the head and tuff are said to contain the Book of Psalms, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer Comparatively recently, specimens of the exceedingly minute writing of the late W. Webb were easily obtainable at the London jewellers' shops. Mr Webb used to write with a diamond, on glass, and he was successful in reproducing a chapter of Bt. John, and, 'in another instance, the .Lord's Prayer, on the scale of the whole Bible _> a square inch. It is thought that . this feat will probably never be surpassed.