CULTURE. 207 



operation with grafted vines. Foex has had annual 

 layerings of Pinot grafted on Taylor made at the School of 

 Agriculture, Montpellier. The layering started in 1879, 

 when the vines had only been grafted one year, and have been 

 continued ever since; the grafts always retain the same 

 vigour, and have not become liberated fnom the stock; the 

 rootlets grown on the wood annually layered always re- 

 mained weak, and were destroyed by phylloxera two or three 

 years after. 



(g) Quality of Wine from Grafted Vines. We think it is 

 better to discuss this question here rather than when study- 

 ing grafting, for from this point of view it is only of 

 secondary importance. 



At the beginning of the reconstitution of vineyards with 

 American vines, peculiar ideas were formed as to the effects 

 that would result when they were grafted with European 

 vines. It was said, for instance, that red varieties could not 

 be grafted on white kinds (for example, Taylor), and 

 especially that French grafts made on Labrusca, Candicans, 

 Riparia, etc., would produce wines with a foxy, acrid, or 

 harsh taste. The numerous experiences known by agricul- 

 turists and arborculturists should have at once condemned 

 that opinion ; and facts have since proved it erroneous. 



It is now admitted, without dispute, that wines produced 

 from grafted vines are not only of equal, but of appreciably 

 superior quality (particularly in alcoholic strength) to those 

 produced by the same varieties when not grafted. This 

 superiority is due, in most cases, to the earlier ripening of 

 the grapes, as will be explained later on. 



But for the finest wines (grands cms) the influence of 

 grafting is still disputed. Some people doubt if, in the dis- 

 tricts producing the finest wines, the grafted vines yield as 

 perfect a quality as that obtained before the reconstitution 

 by American stocks, and, for example, that the grafted 

 vines require excessive manuring, and that this treatment, 

 though raising the quantity of wine produced, must in- 

 directly diminish its quality. We have said on several oc- 

 casions, and the fact is now well known, that some American 

 vines are not more exacting in the matter of fertility than 

 the European varieties. And again, numerous comparisons 

 that have been made in the vineyards producing fine wines 

 (Burgundy, Beaujolais, and Medoc) have fully proved that 

 the quality of the wine from grafted vines is equal, if not 



