>?OTES, CAPTCRESj ETC. 45 



per cent, short of an average crop, the matter is serious 

 indeed, both for the welfare of the interested inhabitants of 

 the counlry itself, and of our own wine imports, should these 

 ravages extend and be continued. We can at present have 

 but little hope of extirpation or abatement, and it is possible 

 that Cognac will be relegated from the spirituous liquors to 

 the medicinal lists ; how our wine list will fare deponent 

 sayeth not. The year 1876 will long be remembered as a 

 most disastrous one in the annals of brandy production, the 

 present vintage being of very small proportions. The 

 following is taken from a trade circular, but is believed 

 to represent by no means pessimist views: — "The Phyl- 

 loxera was first noticed in 1865 among the vineyards 

 of the South of France, where it has been ever since 

 committing most appalling ravages. Thus, tlie Department 

 du Gard, which used to produce 126,000,000 gallons of wine, 

 now scarcely yields 40,000,000 ; the Commune of Castries, 

 in the Departement de I'Herault, produced, before the 

 appearance of the Phylloxera, 3,000,000 gallons ; whereas 

 one year after it did not give more than a quarter of a 

 million ; three years later the vineyards had been entirely 

 destroyed. Having travelled in a northerly and north- 

 westerly direction, the 'plague' appeared three years ago 

 amongst the vineyards of the Charentes. At first its ravages 

 were confined to a few parishes ; last year it showed itself in 

 more than two hundred, but only in small patches here and 

 there. These patches, however, were so many ' beds of 

 infection,' from which the pest spread to all the vineyards 

 around; and this year entire districts have been laid waste, 

 and innumerable fresh 'beds' have appeared on all sides, it 

 may not be out of place here to quote the words of a speech,- 

 made before the Agricultural Committee of Saintes in 

 September last, by M. Dufaine, then Prime Minister of 

 France, who is himself a large vineyard proprietor in the 

 Charentes : — 'The Phylloxera makes every day fresh ravages ; 

 and I ask you, gentlemen, supposing that nothing be found 

 to stop this plague, would you recognise our country, if you 

 no longer saw those magnificent vineyards which cover its 

 soil and make its wealth? Everything has been done: 

 inquirers have sought the Phylloxera in the very bowels of 

 the earth in order to destroy it; but until now all the efforts 

 of science have been powerless. The Government has given 



