WINE 1137 



single hill produces Johannisberg ; and Steinoerg is the vineyard of a suppressed 

 monastery. The mimerous wines of Burgundy and the Garonne take their names 

 respectively from circumscribed spots ; and so narrow and apparently so capricious are 

 the respective limits, that a ditch divides portions which from time immemorial have 

 been sought with avidity, from others which in the market will uniformly bring but 

 one-fifth the price. The produce of the celebrated vineyard of Lafitte, near Bordeaux, 

 for the year 1848, was soFd at 4,000 francs per tun, while the wines of the immediate 

 neighbourhood realised only 200 francs. The proprietor of a vineyard which is only 

 separated from that of Lafitte by a narrow gully, a few years since expended a large 

 sum of money in endeavouring, by improved cultivation, to assimilate his wines-to 

 that of Lafitte. To some extent he improved the quality, but the wines never ap- 

 proached the peculiar character of the Lafitte, while the expense incurred was so enor- 

 mous that the enterprising proprietor was ruined. The costly Clos-de-Vougeot grows 

 in a farm of 80 acres. Romanee-Conti is but 6 ; and the famous Montrachet of the 

 Cote-d'Or is distinguished into three classes, of which one sells at one-third less than 

 the other two, ' yet these qualities are produced from vineyards only separated from 

 one another by a footpath ; they have the same aspect, and apparently the same soil, 

 in which the same vines are cultivated and managed in precisely the same manner.' 

 (Henderson on Wines.) One small valley in Madeira alone produces the finest Malmsey. 

 (See Sir Emerson Tennent On Wine, its Uses and Taxation.) Art and horticultural 

 science have, he remarks, been applied to extend the limits thus circumscribed by nature, 

 but with such unsatisfactory results, that, as a rule, it may be stated that the higher 

 class wine of any known district has not been successfully reproduced beyond it. 

 The red wines of Portugal grown in the Alto Douro can no more be made in the ad- 

 joining provinces of the Minho or Beira than the white wines of Spain could be suc- 

 cessfully imitated on the Rhine. 



Vine Diseases. The Oidium Tuckeri is the name given to one of the diseases, 

 Mr. Tucker having first carefully observed the growth of this destructive microscopic 

 fungus. In connection with the cultivation of the vine, and the manufacture of wine, 

 it is necessary that the peculiar. characteristics of this disease should be described. 



It is stated that the epidemic first showed itself in a hothouse in England in 1845. 

 White efflorescences were remarked, which covered the vine ; the grapes were soon 

 after attacked, and, hindered from swelling, the skin burst, and at last they became 

 rotten and fell off. In 1847 it appeared in France ; attacking first the hothouses, it 

 spread rapidly to the trellised vines, and to those cultivated near the ground. It then 

 invaded Spain, which it devastated ; and finally, in 1851, made its appearance in Italy. 

 This fungus attacks the hinder parts of the vine, and rarely the stems. The leaves 

 and tendrils also become more or less affected, the green colour of those parts 

 becoming paler, and marked with a dark yellow, as if burnt, and emitting an offensive 

 smell. It was fancied at first that the fungus was produced by the puncture of an 

 insect, and its presence was actually ascertained in the seed of the grape,. and on the 

 hinder side of the leaf. This insect established itself on the leaves, and formed a 

 cobweb-like film, rising like a blister on the upper part of the leaf: The birth of it 

 is, however, now generally admitted to be posterior to the invasion of the oidio. 



The 'Reports of Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and Legation on the Effects 

 of the Vine Disease on the Commerce of the Countries in which they reside ' all point 

 to sulphur as the only reliable remedy for this disease. The most practical method of 

 applying sulphur to the vines was that introduced by Dr. Ashby Price. By boiling 

 sulphur and lime together in water we obtain a brilliant yellow solution, which is a 

 sulphide of lime ; with a diluted solution of this the vines are washed over every part. 

 By the action of the carbonic acid of the plant it is speedily decomposed, and over 

 every part a thin white film of sulphur is produced, which effectually destroys the 

 parasite without injuring the vine. 



Within the last few years the vines of the south of France have been ravaged by a 

 new disease due to the invasion of a parasitic insect named by M. Planchon Phylloxera 

 vastata. The first appearance of the disease was in 1865, when it was observed in 

 the neighbourhood of Avignon, Dep. of the Gard. In the following year it spread 

 from this centre, and also appeared in several localities in the Deps. of Vaucluso and 

 the Bouches-du-Rhone. Spreading at first gradually, but afterwards with alarming 

 rapidity, the disease has extended to such an extent that in 1873 it had established 

 itself in no fewer than twelve departments. The dreadful destruction which it causes 

 may be seen by comparing the statistics of the grape-crops of recent years with those 

 of the same localities prior to the appearance of the Phylloxera. For example, in the 

 Commune of Graveson the mean crop just before the year 1865 was 10,000 hectolitres ; 

 this amount then became reduced year by year, until in 1873 it reached only 50 hecto- 

 litres. In some Communes the crops have been almost entirely destroyed. The 

 Phylloxera, which is undoiibtedly the cause of all this mischief, is a very minute 



VOL. III. 4 D 



