30 AMERICAN VINES. 



green vines have been seen side by side in the same plot. 

 And is the climate of America so different from ours? The 

 same plants, the same cultures, succeed in both countries, and 

 if there is a difference it is in favour of ours. In America 

 the temperature often goes to very great extremes (from 30 

 to + 43 C) ; rain falls in periods alternating with long and 

 intense droughts to such an extent that many plants cannot 

 reach complete development, all conditions that are less 

 favorable to the vegetation of the vines or other plants 

 than our temperate climate, where rain does not alternate 

 with long periods of drought, and where extremes of tem- 

 perature are not so great. 



American vines are less sensitive to cold than European; 

 in the Rh6ne Valley, n6rth of Lyons, the temperature went 

 down to 30 C in 1890, the indigenous vines of all ages were 

 entirely frozen and had to be cut down close to the ground. 

 The American vines, on the contrary, resisted well and did 

 not suffer from the cold; the Jacquez alone had a few buds 

 frozen. 



Therefore, without being taxed with exaggeration, we may 

 say that the climate of France is more favorable to the 

 American vines than the climate of America. 



It suffices to examine what takes place in France to be 

 convinced that the milder, more temperate, and less liable 

 to drought a climate is, the more favorable it is to the 

 growth of the American vines. Thus, in the south of France, 

 Riparia and Rupestris are the only stocks commonly used. 

 All the others do not grow well there. Vialla, Herbemont, 

 and York-Madeira have been totally discarded. In less 

 warm regions, such as the south-east, centre, and east of 

 France, the Vialla, Herbemont, and York-Madeira have been 

 for a long time cultivated with success, either as grafting- 

 stock or direct producers. The Vialla is almost' the standard 

 grafting-stock of the Beaujolais, as well as in certain soils 

 of Bourgogne, Charentes and Gironde The Herbemont, 

 which does not grow in the south, has a splendid vegetation 

 in similar soils in Gironde or Charentes, etc. The same 

 thing applies to York-Madeira and Oporto, etc. It is that 

 in these warm regions these cepages can live in the 

 upper layers of the soil, which is better, or, to be more correct, 

 less noxious; it is also that the phylloxera, which must be 

 taken into account in the adaptation of a vine to the soil, 

 does less harm in cold than in warm regions. If, therefore 



