8 May, 1907.] Reconsfituiion in the Giroude. 313 



RECO^STITUTIOX IX THE GIROXDE. 



M. d^k. Biirucy. 



It was in the department of the Gironde that phylloxera was first 

 discovered in France, and it was alsO' here that the American vine first 

 became largely used, even though it is still and always will be held in 

 abhorrence in certain favO'Ured districts where insecticide treatments and 

 submersion ha\'e been successful in safeguarding the old French vines. 

 Where opinions are so distinctly divided one may expect to ihear much on both 

 sides, but it is quite evident that the American vine has come to stay, and 

 that its culture is now in everv way as successful as was the culture of the 

 ungrafted vine before the invasion of phylloxera. Spending a holiday in 

 the Gironde, after an absence of some twelve years, I could not but be 

 struck by the enormous increase of vineyards all through the districts 

 with which I was familiar. Throughout the valley of the Dordogne from 

 Fibourne to Bergerac the train passes through a perfect sea of vines, 

 e\'en covering the steep slopes of the hills overlooking the valley. Often 

 the ground was even terraced as in the Rhine Valley, but always the 

 expense of carrying back the earth washed down from the steep slopes by 

 the rain is an item of considerable trouble and expense. Just before the 

 \intage began the vineyards had an exceptionallv fine appearance. Vividly 

 contrasting with the rest of the land, which was parched by an excep- 

 tionally dry summer, they were beautifully green and bearing a reasonably 

 large crop of verv perfect grapes completely free from, all fungus diseases. 

 T saw a few cases of Cochvlis, but the damage was inconsiderable. 



In the plain on the rich gravelly banks of the Dordogne I saw crops 

 that would certainlv yield 800 to 1,000 gallons to the acre, but this is, 

 of course, distinctly the exception, and the wine resulting is of but very 

 poor quality. Roughly speaking, if these exceptional spots are not con- 

 sidered, the average vine-grower will get a vield of between 250 to 300 

 gallons per acre. This would be above the average in the Medcc, and 

 particularly so in many of the famous classed growths where high prices 

 are always available. But speaking of the a\erage grower who sells his 

 wine new, unless he can get a crop bordering on 250 gallons on the aver- 

 age, his profits will be very small indeed. With working expenses, mount- 

 ing up to nearly ^6 per acre, and wine being worth but 6d. per gallon at 

 first racking, the grower's lot is hardly an enviable one just now. Plenty 

 of this season's wine has been sold on the vines for delivery immediately 

 after vintage for 5d. per gallon, casks not included, for a red wine, very 

 light of course, from an Australian stand-point, but quite marketable in 

 France. White wines are worth a good deal more, but although I speak 

 of actual sales representing the produce of perhaps 10 to 15 thousand acres 

 the prices are really in a sense fictitious through growers teing forced to 

 sell almost at any price through the partial or complete failure of all other 

 crops, in the vine-growing districts, from the drought. 



The excessively low prices are by no means confined to any one district 

 in France, but almost without exception the\- are caused by the intense 

 cultivation of very heavy bearing varieties, which flood the market with 

 most inferior wines so poor and thin that they must lie consumed before 

 they are twelve months old. When the advantages of reconstitution 

 were realized, and ])rices were high, many growers aimed at (|uantitv 

 rather than quality, with the result that viticulture in France is passing 



