394 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [lo June, 191 i. 



these, lighter soils must be used for growing and the varieties suited to 

 them adopted. There will naturally always be ,a certain amount of heavy 

 tobacco smoked, but the tendency is towards the lighter kinds. In Victoria, 

 we have soils and climate suited to manv different tvpes which will yet 

 prove highly profitable. 



(To be continued.) 



VINE DISEASES IX FRANCE. 



F. de CastcUa, Government Viticulturist. 



In recent articles on the wine industry in Southern France we have seen 

 what remarkable results are obtained from intense culture applied to the 

 vine. Attention has been directed to the principal factors which contribute 

 to the very heavy yields obtained, especially those of more direct interest 

 from an Australian standpoint. 



Remarkable though such yields would be under any circumstances, 

 they become even more so when it is remembered that they are obtained 

 in spite of diflficulties such as we have little idea of in Victoria. Viticulture 

 in France is an almost continual struggle against a varietv of vine di.seases, 

 both fungus and insect, the majority of which are quite unknown to us ; 

 whilst those which we do know, attack the vines of France with a degree 

 of virulence such as we are quite unaccustomed to in Victoria. 



So far as vine diseases are concerned, we may truly be said to be the 

 spoilt children of Nature. The spray pump, though in common use in our 

 orchards, is not required in our vineyards, in which even the sulphur 

 bellows has, within the past few- vears, at least, .seldom been called into 

 requisition. This season, certainlv. there has been a re-appearance of an 

 old enemy, in the .shape of Oidium. which for a decade or so has been re- 

 markably quiescent. 



The rich harvest reaped in spite of these adverse contingencies, and 

 after an almost continual and costly struggle, cannot fail to arouse a feel- 

 ing of admiration for the perseverance of the French vigneron, as w^ell 

 as for the science of investigators who have placed in his hands the means 

 of repairing the evils resulting from man's interference with the balance 

 of Nature. The grave vine diseases which made their appearance in 

 Europe during the past century are not. as has been so frequently stated, 

 visitations of Nature, but introductions from North America. 



Our freedom from the most serious fungus and insect diseases of the 

 vine is an advantage as vet in.sufficientlv recognised by us. It should 

 awaken in us a sense of the remarkable suitability of this State of Victoria 

 for vine culture, and enable us to realize the rich reward in store for 

 those who tend their vines in as careful and thorough a manner as do 

 Southern French vine-growlers. 



In the lines which follow it is intended to give some idea of the? 

 many difficulties the French vine-grower has to contend against. These 

 remarks are not, like the preceding articles, limited to the department of 

 Herault — ^they apjily to the whole of France. It is worthy of note, however, 

 that the warmer southern parts are a good deal less subject to disea.se 

 generallv tlian the colder and moister regions. Nevertheless, even in 

 Hcraulti the treatment necessarv to protect the vine from its many diseases 

 constitutes a tax which is fortunately unknown to Australian growers. 



