Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-04
VINEYARDS OF MENDOZA.
System of Miniature Irrigation-Fa-
nous Leaf-Tunneled Walks.

From the London News
The broad avenue of San Martin lies
| bathed in the summers heat. But for the
row of poplars that lines each side of the
street the whole Of its length would feel the
glow that. white and sitting. beats down at
intervals through the gaps in the massive
branches. AS 1t is the roadway Is dappled
with shade. while small canal trickles on
either hand by the side of the tree trunks
The glimpse Of moving waters makes the
sense of shelter doubly pleasant Still. the
morning is hot. even for Mendoza, and the
Argentine dust hovers over the cobbled
street.
|. But allies of the shade and of the streams
are now to be seen. A company of small
boys is advancing slowly on either side of
the street. Armed with poles to which are
attached bucket-like scoops. they dip the
latter into the small canals and fling the
water across the Thoroughbred Thus two
score or so of watery jets come tumbling
inward from either hand upon the surface
OF the road The battle with the dust is in
Iuil swing; Mendoza Is being watered AS
the carriage that is bound for yineya rd-
land passes through the ranks of the boys
the purified air fills one with gratitude to-
Waro thelr iaoors and the precious streams.
But these are not done with yet In the
town itself we have driven over the solid
culVerts at street corners, carelessly oblfy-
ious that the streams exist But In the
not altogether pleasant attention AS the
cobbles give way to soft earth 1t is over a
sheaf of boughs laid across an open stream
that the carriage passes. AS the town Is
more attenuated. The loosely set fragile
bridges bend beneath the weight of the car
rage, but the wheels roll and bump over
them In an astonishing series of providen-
tfal escapes.
The houses fall away and the poplar
groves rise thickly on all sides. Here is a
lowly forest of slender, graceful sap!ings:
there Is a broad clump of others whose
trunks have attained to the thickness of
foot or so: while farther on rises an i'm
posing collection of giant size. each stand
Ing well apart from the rest There are
millions of these poplars each priced ac-
curately according to its size. For in Men,
doza the poplar industry is active and the
trees are grown. bought and sold with the
same readiness with which wheat crop Is
dealt in. In the meanwhile we have reached
the frontier vineyards One may notice the
vine leaves first in the midst of the poplars
themselves. Here is Il row of trees about
whose bases the luxuriant foliage OF the
creepers clings ere it stretches out a broad,
green arm to clasp the next trunk The
lengthy passage of the tendrils across the
air Is inexplicable at the first glimpse. A
nearer inspection. however. reveals net
work of bamboo canes which connects the
one trunk with the other. 1t Is upon these
that the vines are trained in all the beauty
of their LEAKAGE and glowing fruit that
HduSs just DenedtH the more SOInDer IOliaS6
of the poplar But the country Of the grape
once entered has more to show than this.
There are the open vineyards. the squares
of land dotted and intersected by the
plants. Some there trained as In France
and Germany. upon a low prop: others,
with staff to climb as lofty as a hop pole
coil themselves high in the air There are
vines in rows clipped for all the world like
| privet hedges, and here are some aga.n
| that are fashioned into standard bushes
| and at a little distance resemble nothing 50
| much as very young pollard oaks.
But the chief glory of the Mendoza vine
| grower lies in his walk-his covered street
| of vines. One of these, with Its stout
| framework of bamboo all but hidden be-
meath its soft covering Is wonderful sight
One may enter a tunnel such as this,
| stretching. perhaps. for several hundred
| yards-a tunnel with walls of leaves
| through which burst the shafts of light
On either side and above the head hang the
clusters of grapes. of purple or faint gold,
and looking backward or forward along
| the lane. IL Is ire same-the soft bloom of
the punches, close set in their inverted
pyramid stretching to the point where they
are lost In the white light at the tunnels
end.
Walking through the vineyards one may
learn the reason of their luxuriance. Here,
there and everywhere are tiny canals of a
yard. a foot or even OF slighter BREADTH
The little streams spread themselves In ali
amazing network of dainty irrigation. one