lO May, 191 1.] The VJine Industry in Southern France. 347 



It is very generally recognised that grafted vines require more manure 

 than ungrafted ones. This is largely owing to their greater fruitfulness. 

 Taking more out of the soil, they necessarily hasten the day when resti- 

 tution must be made in order to maintain yields. There is also another 

 reason. The heavy sacrifices entailed by reconstitution have caused vine- 

 yard owners to take advantage of every device which science or art cuuld 

 suggest, in order to increase yields. It is in the increased quantity of 

 manure employed, that we find the greatest change from older methods. 



Ill pre-phylloxera days, the usual rule in well kept vineyards was to 

 apply 22,000 kilos of farmyard manure per hectare, every third year 

 (about 9 tons per acre). This would be equivalent to a yearly addition 

 of 2>})\ lbs. potash and soda, 26^ lbs. nitrogen and 13!^ lbs. phosphoric 

 acid. These figures were given by H. Mares* in 1862. At that time, 

 there were authorities who questioned whether the manuring of vines was 

 fully repaid by the increase in yield. To one of these, M. Cazalis-Allut, 

 M. Mares replied — 



That pr.ictical examples are hard to find, since they should cover periods of 

 at least twenty to thirty years, but that practical men, who seek everywhere for 

 manure with so much care, and pay such high prices for it, have solved the 

 question in the affirmative. 



At the present day in southern France no one questions the efficacy 

 of manure and it is used far more abundantly than it was in the sixties 

 of last century. 



Manure FoRMULiE. 



As might be expected, opinions vary greatly and, though every one 

 manures, the substances employed, and their relative proportions, vary 

 considerably. In a general way, farmyard manure is still applied much as it 

 was in pre-phylloxera times, and is very largely supplemented by artificial 

 manures. The quantity of farmyard manure varies from 8 to j 2 tons 

 per acre every second or third year. The large increase in the use of 

 chemical and other concentrated fertilizers is the most striking modern 

 development in connexion with vineyard manuring in Herault ; it is 

 the logical outcome of the recognition of the high eflSciency of these sub- 

 stances, after long years of application on a steadily increasing scale. It 

 has also been forced on the growers by the insufficiency of the supplies 

 of ordinary farmyard manure. In a region where viticulture pre- 

 ponderates to such an extent as it now does in Herault, the forms of 

 agriculture which lead to its extensive production are only developed to 

 a small extent. Supplies of farmyard manure were barely sufficient forty 

 years ago, when the vine did not predominate as it now does, and when 

 production was not forced to anything like the present extent. Now-a- 

 days, the quantities of farmyard manure are hoplessly inadequate and 

 commercial fertilizers have thus become the basis of modern manuring. 



In a recent article, Professor L. Degrully gives the following formulae 

 for different descriptions of soils. He points out that thev must not be 

 considered to be rigorously fixed and unalterable; that growers — 



may combine any other formulae which may suit them; if they jjrefer to employ 

 other ni'rogenous organic manures than oil cake, which has been taken as an example, 

 it will be easy to carry out the simple calculations necessary in ortler to remain 

 within normal limits. 



• H. M'lr's, III l.ixire tlf la Frrme. Vnl. T.. p. 224. Vno\ irhcs tlio conipiwifldn of firmvnrd minuro 

 employod in H^rimlf ns — Nitrocon. -4 to -.'i pi-r ront. ; pliiKphorlr nrid, -7 to -M piTcnit.: ninl potiisli, 

 •4 to •.'» per rent.; on till'* Ijisw, the muuiil nrlilltinnx would be pot;mh, 241 t" •'" It'*.; nitrogon, 

 24J to :n lbs.; nud plio«pliorir nrid. 43 to 40i lbs. 



