Vine Growing in Canterbury.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 199, 16 April 1887, Page 2

Vine Growing in Canterbury.

Few have any idea of the extent to wftteh grapes are grown near Cbris£church. I have visited abme of the vineries, and intend to go the round of all the larger ones before they are robbed of their purple and golden harvest. Meantime, one of the best of our descriptive writers (who, I regret to say has found the strain of journalism too severe, and intends to embark upon poultry-farming) has contributed to the Ly Helton Times an account of his visits to the vineries, from which, as the whole will . probably > exceed your space, I cull the following- details : —

THE VItfERIFS. The vineries are o,? all shapes and sizes and many thousands of pounds have been Bunk in their construction, for a few hundreds do not produce a very big grape house, glass, brick walls, ventilating apparatus and everything complete Curiously enough too, the growers are very few of them professional gardeners from the start. Men eeem to drift into vine-culture as they do, alas! into journalisms— from accident rather than design. One large producer here was » noted Christchurch confectioner in his time ; another is a baker by profession ; a third house was put by a stone-cutter, of all persons in the \yorld, and yet a fourth gentleman told me with great glee that, till he started grape growing for the market, he had " scarcely ever seen a vine.' 1 " But, blesa you, sir, there's no great art in it," ho added modestly. The vineries differ in location, as much as in shape and size. They are scattered all over the suburbs in out-of-i he way quiet lanes and grassy byeroads, and to visit them all— or all that I could discover— entailed a considerable amount 1 of riding. But it was pleasant work, and twice the labour and twice the time would not have been too much to devote to it.

"WALTHAM. Head and shoulders above all the other establishments of the kind, so to spaak, towers that of Mr Nancarrow. It is not only the largest, but likewise the oldest, and nearly every detail the most complete. As to the results* obtained there, one has only to see the grapes sold in the wellknown shop in High street, and to think of the Brobdingnagian clusters that used to appear regularly in show time a few years back, calling up youthful remembrances of the Sunday picture book illustrations of the return of Joshua's spies, to make certain that the skill and science of the owner is on a par with his appliances. The Waltham vineyards were established no less than a quarter of a century ago, by Lord, a genius in his way, for, though a mechanician and not a gardener -another instance of the fascination which seems to attract men of the most diver? e professions to grape culture — he worked up the whole subject thoroughly, and prepared his plans on the most approved and perfect scale Since his death they have been enlarged by the the present owner, until — so Mr Nancarrow assured me — there is not an equal area under glass in any place this side of the equator. The first house is of low construction, on the ridgeand-furrow system, in five 16 feet spans, at the pitch of the roof not very much higher than a tall man, while stooping is a necessity where the slopes meet at tho lowest point. The whole covers a space 120 feet by SO feet, and an immense amount of reflected heat is utilised through the variety of direction in the glazed surfaces. The " border," as the specially prepared bed in which the vine=J are planted is technically called, is inside, its general position being without. The vine stocks are planted very closely, in the middle, and the long branches trained, espalier fashion, in three rows, one above the other, to the sides, the last row being only shoulder-high, so that pruning, thinning, gathering, and other necessary operations, are carried on without the aid of ladders and the other devices which the system of high roofing entails upon the grower. The watering is done in the most ingenious way. A perfect network of perforated pipes runs everywhere along the ground and acrbss through the wilderness of trellised stems and foliage. Pressure is derived from elevated tanks outride, the water being pumped up by a little windmill of the ordinary make. To turn a few taps is but the work of a moment, and hey, presto ! the whole house is being watered automatically, as if a fine, healthy Scotch mist had suddenly taken it into its head to spring out from all sides at once. Labour is thus saved as it is by reason of the small height at which the vines are trained. The effect as far as picturesqueness is concerned, is not so great as in other houses. The place is too low, the vines are too densely trellised, and the lines of foliage cross each other far too frequently, to admit of any general view, or that long perspective of haneing clusters, appropriately rich in the imperial purple of the regal fruit, which is such a charm elsewhere. But what quality there is ! what delicate flavour in the Muscats, what size and colour in the black Hamboro's, and what luscious Sweetwaters and Alicantes are to be tasted there ! And how healthy everything looks, too, which thought may lead to a digression.

DISEASE, PHYLLOXERA AND IMPORTATION, "We have no disease," pays Mr Nancarrow, "except such as arise from our own carelessness. Mildew is the only thing that need be feared, and that comes through want of ventilation and proper care." His principle, indeed, is that •* loads of air and loads of care " are the two things chiefly needed for a vinery once properly established. Without air he declares that the grapes will neither fill nor colour — bloom will never come at all. But the care must be unremitting. A quarter of an hour's cold air suddenly striking on tender bunches of fruit that have been basking in a semi tropical atmosphere the whole day, gives a shock to their nervous systems that they can never recover. Catch Nature at her beet sunshiny hours and keep her prisonfir'; use her balmiest airs and healthiest sunlight ; shut put the sudden cold when your fruit is a ripening j keep your "border" rich with bones and good plant food, your plants clean, and there is no reason .why.you should not grow good grapes in this country under glass. Mildew is ypuj, ,own /aulfc —it comes, from some mismanagement;" chiefly from want of ventilation.: " molly, coddling" is as bad for vines 11 as 'for other tender things. The little < caterpillars,! green lupa—youV' worst foe4-Vou masttpick^off^neby one' 1 and inducfe him this life by pred-< sures varying- ;.according to 'circumstances' and the obstinacy of his slight vitality. Phylloxera is^ unknown. Ah I -Phylloxera^ That introduces! the? importation f question* 1 Australian grapee are at present under, tauv because BhyUoosetim'vastktriieiinUßted oncei the'vineyatfts of the- neighbouring contin-* ent. " Joidi-rqUifcf aright, < 'tob,' n says c enthusiastic producer. " See what even

that small amount of Protection* bajfetiarie* for the public hero. Mere you have the best of hot house grapes in any quantity. Today they are selling at eighteenpence the pound. When South Australian grapes were coming over, they ran up to Heaven knows what. Plenty of capital is invested in the business, plenty of energy is shown, and the public benefit. X<et in ther'fainted cheap Australian grape, and you l&h loose pois + on j you .kill the industry stralghWway, and injure" the^pUbluT seriously. Andi thiie' he carries his case triumphantly. ** Bosh I"; says another intelligent gentleman who has embarked in the business. "Let them come. The phylloxera don't come over in tblo fruit at all ; it comes upon the stocks. Let the public have the advantage of cheap grapes if they like them. There is no injury to the trade whatever? the Australian grape is over and done with long beforo ours are fit to put upon the market. Besides, it will be good even for our trade : once get people accustomed'to consume an article and they hanker after more of the same sort. We shall have to grow twice the quantity of the dearer sort when once we get them used to buying plenty of the Australians dt nine pence, which would pay ua and the senders very fairly," "Then," says a third expert, " Australian grapes aren't very good ; they are not so nice as green gooseberries, anyhow. Sawdusty and fleshy things. Never saw a real good shipment yet. They won't spoil our sale of better truit." And so the argument sways. I pretend to no judicial powers, but simply put both sides fairly before my readers

TO KBTL'RN TO THE HOUSES. Mr Nnncarrow's pecond house is on another system, and is 54 x 43. The space thus covered is divided under two Ion}?, low, sloping glass roofs, each looking like the letter A without its cross-bar. The vines are planted at the side 3, and trained up the low roof, and the interior is thus empty and airy, while the clusters hang down in a profusion that one can take in at a single glance, and such a perspective would gladden the heart, of a Stoic. Indeed, were this the place for such a psycological dis cu&sion, I could develop a very pretty little theory as tD the reasons for the good temper and cheery /facile ways of those who garden, and who rear and train the noble vine. But Mr Blackmore, I mind me, has told some of it very much more pi ettily than ever I can fiame to do, in the opening pages of "ChiHtowell," and to that charming work of riction I therefore modestly refer the reader This house is for late grapes, and the sorts principally grown in the two bouses are - Black Hatnboro, Hambro Muscat, White Muscat, Barbarossa, Buckland Sweetwater, Alicante, Fosters White Seedlings, an.l White Nice. The Hamboro Muscats and Alicante predominate, and their production is immense. Four and a half tons is about the quantity cut in Mr Nancm-ow's homes from November until well in June, for there is a forcing house besides, 90ft by 17ft, with a 19ft rafter stretching to the top of a 13ft brick well and hot water apparatus. There the natural season is anticipated by weeks, and at the time of my visit it was baie save for a few tardy bunches of Grosse Coleman in the corner. The rest had been sold long ago at 2s wholesale. And this enormous growth can be regulated to a cwt— if, as Air Nancarrow says, "we are not too greedy"' — for it is one of the delights of this fascinating pursuit, that you control your quality ancf amount of produce for yourself by a combination of care and careful thinning Prices range from 2s in the early days of the season, lSd later on, and II s *, and even 8d occasionally. The fruiterers sell at about 3s, 2s 6d and 18d.

UPAWA. Hard by the great Waltham establishment, over Wilson's bridge, are two other vineries. Mr Hawley, who grows between one and two tons of grapes yearly, houses his in two large high conservatories, 100 x 24 and SO x 1(>, respectively. A very bn k, active old gentleman is Mr Hawley, and merry withal, whose 14 or 15 years of gardening and grape growing have had the inevitable result, and warned old age off the premises most effectually. Upon my word, I believe if a man took to grape culture from the cradle lie might come near immortality. Black Hamboro's and a few Barbarosas are Mr Hawley's exclusive pets, and he has nothing to complain of in the etate of the trade Can get rid of all he grows. His houses, with their lofty double tunnel arched over with leaves and darkly clustering fruit, are a very pretty sight. That he has faith in the solidity of the business may be imagined when it is «aid that he has just erected a great new glass palace, 100 x 24, on the long rafter system. It is a little secret of his that this hale old cultivator glazed and painted the whole of it himself, 'and as he swore me to secrecy on that point, it is necessary to appeal to one or two of the indulgent public to help me hold my tongue. I appeal hereby. Further on Mr Gibb has two smaller places— ss xl 5 and 50 x 13 -which have been erected for two or three years. They are badly planned, though that is not his fault, but that of the former proprietor, and the fruit from want of thinning is not what it might be even in such unfavourable circumstances. Still, it sells at the current price, for to customers grapes are grapes, and Mr Gibb, like the rest, is satisfied. Down the Ferry road, past Lancaster Park, I stands Mr William Wilson's ßplendid house, the largest of its kind, so he tells me, in these seas. It is 03 by 25, and 25 feet high. The vines are trained up the sides, and on a beautiful flat trellis work, high overhead — a sight for sore eyes, now that the Black JfcJamboro's and Muscats are beginning to 1 colour, and hang in all their thousands luxuriantly. This place has been built for twelve or fourteen years, and is a most substantial and perfect erection. The glass rests on strong brick walls arched underground, where the vines run in from the " border " outside. The ventilation is done by a continuous crank arrangement with elbow joints, simplicity itself, and enabling the caretaker to lift the great windows along half a side wall with one motion of his hand. The border was most carefully laid down and subsoil drained, A heating apparatus is attached, and splendid heavy crops have been the rule, the place having been let for no less than £166 per annum. From first to last it cost some £1,500, and is gradually approaching its full productive powers, the vine being a plant which, if fed, produces fdr scores ot years no end in great abundance, as the historical instance' at' •Hampton Court testifies. most plainly," -; At Richmond there w a.once capital yin- # eryin a'mOsb deplorable state, owing to } the death of the original owner, and- the disinclination 'of the present Whei" to' put money into . a revival. I speiiifsome time t tb,ere, but the story 'of the contemplation of those eight houses is -too m6urriful to relate in fulT.^,, , , , , „ , -• c 1../ Mr Francis Parks, hard by, had jusfc started a particUlarly > promiBing'house''4sft '•£ 15ft; s in tfqi6h r *Bl{iQ? HambtfroV w^re'thfrj V&gning 'favourite's,'-' and as ' he' is/a grape-! Ivitfegrower df-mariy tftitita' ex^eriencei'thd^ 1 should turn dtft'Some' I very good"" si;u.fF« r iri; fchs seasons, .This ,compiete'V*'the' t?ale of mytintfestigafioh'g in 'the easteW ans ' Smithe'rii sides df GhifcHftfatafbh: L ' -5v t / . y a ,-

n ;NortH !of '4hef little parfeh of> Riccabton may be found one of the largest ■

bod^eWlW/oWI^W- vlnwfetn TMiftms kept by Mr Taylor, who is really of Teutonic extraction, and those who, by the aid of the kindly-hearted, pertinacious Ollendorf, have learnt in faultless German after the health of tho green cow of my grandmother's good tailor, may perhaps venture a shrewd guess as to how his patronymic should be spelled. Fou eight yffcra Mjf ./Taylor ( hus been at work; .and, his aoroo, quite barren at the begin.riih'g 'of that time, aYo now covered with many fruit and foliogo troeis, bolides his big glass -houses* Like tho others of his craft, he is talkative and oliQorful, and is preparing to extend hlfl< already capacious places, and get Rome oarly grapes in a house 48 feet x 20 foot). Me has another 30 feet x 20 feet, but the glory of the estate lies in the great double archway under glass, which measures 200 feet x 32. For a picturesque sight, commend me tq Mr Baylor's vinery. Thd westering sun fras striking in low at the time of my visit, and lit" up warm and generously little 1 patches of the fruit and foliage, and such a grand perspective of purple clusters depending from the high roof, that the ' long vista of beauty and productiveness still dwells pn my mental retina. As Mr Taylor himself confessed, he had not been bold enough in pruning time, and the quality of his crop has thereby somewhat puffered, though the quantity is tremendous The mainstay of his house, as generally, is the trusty Hamboro' variety, though Alicante and Grosse Coleman, Sweetwater and other sorts were not wanting. There ie a touch of the Fatherland and the thrifty character of its people even at the Anti po^es. A son of Bingen on the Rhine could hardly grow grapes without making something stronger than ginger ale out of them. Mr Taylors motto is "Nothing goes to waste here," and when the last good grape of autumn has found its way to the fruiterer s the scraps and bad bunches and remainders find theirs to the vat, and are made into wine. And it is by no means a bad tipple either- experto crale — and as cheering as the conversation and merry countenanceof its maker. Hothouse grapes make capital wine. " I could sell a couple of hundred gallons," quoth Mr Taylor, " at 2os a dozen," and he tells how his countrymen were just beginning to awaken to the fact that a quarter of an acre under glass m ill grow as much wine as ten under the open sky of the Fatherland, and are using their ne^ly acquired knowledge. Truly one lives and learns.

SUNNYSIDE. From Mr Taylor it is not a iar cry to Mr Trounce and Mr Bolton, of the Lincoln road, near Sunnyt>ide. The former has two principal houses 60 by 24 and 38 by 21 respectively, on the long-rafter system. They are order and success itself, and the quality of his Maddisfiel! Courts, Muscat Hamboro's black Bordeaux, and Lady Down's seedlings, is hadly to bo equalled, still Jess surpassed, by any in the district. It is the same old story : unremitting attention and plenty of pruning are the simple secrets which, with copious ventilation, bring about the lovely colour and grand display of fruit. " A vine needs as much care as a baby," is Mr Trounces theory, and, unlike the theories oi so many theorists, it is his practice, too. Like his neighbours, Mr Boltons house is 60 by 24, and has been put up for &ome four or five years It is on the same long, lowsloping capital A system, which is termed the " long rafter," and the interior is a very pretty sight. His range of sorts is much the same as Mr Trouncc's. Bub to find new expressions for the excellences of my hosts' grape-houses is beyond me, and I must connne myself to bare facts about the last, which is of Mr Young, in Salisbury street. It has been put up about two years, is 45 feetx 20 feet, and is now bearing a fine crop of very healthy-looking fruit, Royal Ascot anJ White Nice being added to the generally grown vaiieties, which have been named so often already that they need not be repeated.

MISCELLANEOUS. Of course during such an extended tour, miny little things came under my notice, besides grapes. It must be remembered, for instance, that nearly every one who grows grapes grows cucumbers and tomatoes. I saw ton 3 of the latter, and hear that they are hardly saleable now that the end of the season draws on apace. But not a single melon did I see, rock or water, or other kind. How was that? Then, again, it is said that though plums had been grown in bushels, the apples will not reach the matk of last; year, and that peara will be a very light crop. Ah mo ! that is sad, cad news. But it is consoling to know that everywhere the peaches are slowly recovering, and with that to salve the former wound, I beg a regretted farewell to vines and vinegrowers.