272 AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING 



M. Fancon, the honor of having indicated to the French 

 vine-growers the three means capable, according to situ- 

 ation and other circumstances, of resisting the terrible 

 plague which at one time threatened to annihilate the 

 vineyards of France that is to say, the employment of 

 insecticides, submersion, and American vines. 



"Of the first remedy we hear but few particulars dur- 

 ing the journey undertaken, by M. Lalande; of the sec- 

 ond no notice is taken at all; while, on the other hand, 

 of the results obtained by means of the third, most strik- 

 ing evidence is given, and, indeed, it is apparent that it 

 is to the last remedy that of re-planting with American 

 vines that M. Lalande and his fellow-travelers attach 

 the greatest importance. 



" On the first day of their excursion the chief interest 

 seems to have been, attracted to some vineyards in the 

 neighborhood of Beziers, where an extent of more than 

 five thousand acres of vines had been preserved for some 

 years past by means of sulphide of carbon, accompanied 

 each year by manuring over about a third of the extent 

 of the lands in question. As a result of this treatment, 

 it is stated that the vegetation was good and normal, 

 although there were some points where the sulphide of 

 carbon appeared not to have acted with the same effi- 

 ciency and success as elsewhere. The failure in these 

 cases, however, was attributed to the extreme humidity, 

 which had paralyzed the action of the sulphide, a failure 

 which, it is hoped, may be remedied in future by means 

 of drainage. 



"Proceeding on the second day to the neighborhood 

 of Montpelier, a visit was there paid to an estate on 

 which all the French vines had been destroyed some time 

 previously, and which now presented the interesting ap- 

 pearance of an entire reconstitution of the vineyard on a 

 grand scale by means of American vines planted ten years 

 previously, and subsequently grafted with the French 



