128 MONTAGNE ON VINE MILDEW. 



ravage oui" vineyards ? Such questions cannot be answered in a 

 satisfactory manner. Nevertheless, as nothing violent is durable, 

 it is probable that we shall be relieved in time. We should 

 above all hope to see it cease or be modified, if one of those drj' 

 and severe winters, which are now so infrequent, should chance 

 to destroy the seeds of the parasite. But should this not be the 

 case, we must patiently submit, using every means of pi'evention 

 which that divine Providence which is constantly at work has 

 placed in our hands, and which cannot permit such a calamity to 

 be perpetual and to press indefinitely upon one of the most useful 

 conquests of human industry. 



I firmly trust that such will be the case with this as with some 

 other afflictions of which we have witnessed the alleviation, as also 

 of some epidemics of which men and animals have been the 

 victims at more or less distant epochs ; I doubt not that it will 

 gradually wear out. What has taken place in many localities, and 

 especially this year in the environs of Paris, confirms us in the 

 hope that it will halt in its march, and that we shall at last be 

 relieved from the most terrible scourge which has ever affected 

 the productions of our soil. 



Though arrived at the end of my task, I am so far from having 

 exhausted it that I have scarcely skimmed over the surface. I 

 have been obliged to pass lightly over many questions which 

 demand new researches. T have nevertheless thought that this 

 summar)^ imperfect as it is, which has extended to a greater 

 length than I imagined, will be sufficient to show, in its true 

 light, the state of the agitating question which is debated under 

 our eyes, the solution of which from its grave interest deserves 

 our care, but which demands nothing less than the union of all 

 our efforts, and the concurrence of every degree of light and 

 intelligence. 



Paris, November 25, 1853. 



