THE PRODUCTION OF COGNAC BRANDY. 429 



Eau de vie is a French term equivalent to the English word spirits, 

 and hence is applicable to alcohols derived from any source. But the 

 eau de vie de Cognac is the spirits obtained by distillation of the fer 

 mented juice of a few varieties of grape, chief among which is la 

 folle blanche as it is called. This is a white grape. The name, which 

 means literally " the white fool" is probably due to the fact that the 

 folle blanche produces only a very inferior wine, which commands 

 but eight cents a gallon, while a common red wine brings sixteen. 



In the Deux Charentes there are three kinds of vineyards, called 

 " vignes pleines" " vignes en allees" and " vignes d boeitfs" In each 

 the vines are planted in rows, which in the first are five feet apart. 

 Hand-labor is generally employed in the cultivation, though the 

 plough is used to loosen the ground where the rows are wide enough 

 apart. The vignes en allees consist of long, narrow strips of land 

 planted with vines in rows, every fourth or fifth row or so having a 

 slip of ground sown with grain or vegetables in between. In these 

 vineyards, which are more common in the Grande Champagne, the 

 vines as a rule are planted rather wide apart. The vignes d boeufs are 

 so termed from the rows being wide enough apart (from five to six feet) 

 to admit of oxen and a plough passing between. The vines, as a rule, 

 are left without supports. The producers are mostly small farmers, 

 who cultivate their own vineyards, with little if any help. When help 

 is employed, the wages vary from two to three francs a day, according 

 to whether meals are furnished or not. These peasant proprietors are 

 a frugal, saving class, and are not uncommonly rich. 



It is unpleasant to relate that a speedy and almost complete sus- 

 pension of this important industry is threatened in the ravages of 

 the Phylloxera vastatrix, a minute and (to the naked eye) invisible 

 insect, that preys on the roots and leaves of the vine, to the unfailing 

 destruction of the plant. Large rewards offered by the French Gov- 

 ernment have had the effect of calling forth a number of remedies, 

 but none of them have proved efficacious. During the year just past 

 the insect spread nearly all over the Deux Charentes and reduced the 

 vintage, so that it nowhere amounted to more than one-half a crop, 

 and in some places not more than a tenth, the average being about 

 one-sixth. Many farmers, in despair, actually cleared their fields and 

 sowed them in grain. In many places a large part of the vines have 

 been killed and the influence of the scourge was to cause a general 

 neglect of the vineyards. 



The grapes are picked, for the most part, by women wearing high- 

 crowned fluted caps, who use a hook-shaped knife to sever the stems. 

 Each carries with her a small wooden box with sloping sides, into 

 which the fruit is thrown. When these boxes become full they are 

 emptied into the baskets of the men who carry the grapes to the cart 

 at the edge of the vineyard. The carts have long bodies and very 

 high wheels, and a huge tub, fixed between four upright stakes. The 



