enervating influence of excessive heat, and death soon closes the scene.

Young settlers will act wisely by adhering to the following simple instructions. 1st. Pay great regard to temperance in all things. Wear flannel next the skin. Do not gluttonise on meat because it is cheap; nor smoke tobacco all day long because your neighbour, the hardy old settler, whose nerves are as unimpressible as the diamond, does so. 2nd. Live on the plainest food, which should be well done, and well masticated; dine, if possible, on one, or at most, two dishes, and make but three meals in a day. Shun crude vegetables and fruits. Prefer that liquor-sparingly used-which is least apt to produce acidity, such as sherry wine, or weak brandy and water. Drink no colonial ale, nor water that has not been boiled; but be not afraid of black tea, which in moderation is virtually a stomachic. 3rd. Do not needlessly expose yourself to heat or night air. Avoid violent exertions. Sleep with the head high. If pos

sible, take a gentle ride on horseback in the cool of the morning. Do not indulge in the frequent and indiscriminate use of medicines; and above all, avoid spirits, and mercurial preparations. For irregularity, which should never be neglected, four grains of the compound colocynth pill, or two three-grain compound rhubarb pills, taken at bed-time, will usually be found a sufficient dose for an adult.

CHAPTER X.

The Cultivation of the Vine.

THE formation of a vineyard involves a considerable outlay of capital, and a patient waiting for the harvest. To insure success, experience as well as discrimination is needful; and it is only by carefully observing certain established rules, hereafter to be mentioned, that the young vine-grower can hope to raise fine and abundant fruit.

In regard to site, neither low swampy tracts, nor the tops of hills, should be chosen. A

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situation between the two would be a happy medium. The vineyard should be on rising ground, facing the north, north-east, or east, and sheltered from the cold westerly winds by abrupt hills, or belts of trees. If these exist not, a row of quick-growing native timber should immediately be planted, at a distance from the vines sufficiently great to prevent the roots of the trees from running in among, and injuring the vines. This point should be attended to at the outset, as though the soil of the vineyard may be improved, the site cannot be changed; and if the vine is exposed to the cold south-westerly winds, which often succeed the hot, the sudden transition from heat to cold will shrivel the grapes, and render them worthless.

It is well known that the grape-vine possesses the property of imbibing by its roots the chemical qualities of the soil on which it grows, imparting thereby a flavour to the wine which no art can change, even were the principles of fermentation, and the subsequent manage

ment of the vintage ever so well understood. Great care should, therefore, be taken to select a soil suitable to the growth and habits of the plant; and as the cultivation of the vine in Australia is too recently established to furnish from experience a correct data in regard to the varieties of soil best suited for the production of fine vines, and the perfect maturation of the grape, we cannot do better than look to old established vine-growing countries, and to the best reputed works on the subject for information.

Accordingly to Bosc (Cours Complet d'Agriculture, &c., art. Vigne), the greater part of the vineyards of France are on a soil argil-calcareous, sometimes primitive, as those near Dijon, and sometimes secondary, as those at Bordeaux. Argillaceous gravel is the next in frequency, as near Nismes and Montpellier, and that which produces the Vin de Grave of Bordeaux. Both good and bad wines are produced from the débris of granites, amongst the former are the Côtes Rôties and Hermitage, on the Rhone.