WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 191 



sulphur, which is an elementary substance and unalterable 

 chemically, otherwise than by combining it with some other 

 element or compound. It is not changed in its preparation 

 as above named, any more than would be pure lead if made 

 into shot by melting or by being cut to the proper shape. The 

 same analogy holds true as to its" source pure lead from one 

 mine or country is chemically identical with that from any 

 other mine or country. So with sulphur from Sicily, from 

 California or any other country. This I state for the benefit 

 of non-chemists, some of whom have thought prepared sul- 

 phur to be a compound altered from its elementary condi- 

 tion and hence variable in strength. 



One point favoring the sublimed sulphur is, that in prepar- 

 ing it, the product is freed of the ashy impurity existing in the 

 crude article of commerce, to the extent of from one to three 

 per cent. This impurity, however, is a neutral volcanic ash, 

 which works no injury to the vine, and in buying ground sul- 

 phur can only be estimated as a loss of from one to three per 

 cent. a loss which is in no wise commensurate with the dif- 

 ference in price of the two forms, ground and sublimed. 



We find European authorities of the present date unanimous 

 in the opinion that finely ground or triturated sulphur is more 

 suitable for vineyard use than the sublimed. 



Prof. G. Foex, who is Director and Professor of viticulture 

 at the National School of Agriculture at Montpellier, in his 

 " Cours Complet de Viticulture," published in 1886, says: 

 "Formerly only sublimed sulphur was employed (in the vine- 

 yards) because it contained more sulphurous acid ; but since, 

 learning that the effect of the sulphur on the oidium is due to 

 the vapor which it emits at an elevated temperature, a result 

 obtained as well with ground as with sublimed sulphur, the 

 former being considerable cheaper, has come into general use. 



"Furthermore, the use of flowers of sulphur is seriously 

 objectionable, in as much as it consists of little globular par- 



13 



