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course of preparation the evening meal of the working staff. Although 

 hoary with age, this room was spotlessly clean, a shining example of what 

 can be done when a proper pride is taken in the daily task. We wandered 

 over the grounds and vineyards ; the latter beautifully kept, but showing, 

 unfortunately, little more than what we should call a good second crop, 

 The whole district appeared enveloped in gloom, for the vintage appeared 

 likely to prove a more or less complete failure. Mr. Barton did not think 

 that more than a fifth of a normal crop would be harvested for the whole 

 district. Apparently, in this neighborhood, the caterpillar of a moth known 

 to the French as cochylis is quite as much to blame as the abnormal prevalence 

 and virulence of cryptogamic diseases, the natural consequence of a very 

 wet season. This caterpillar a close relative of our old friend the codlin 

 moth attacks the vine flowers in the early spring, just as they are about to 

 open ; and later on in summer there appears a second brood, which bores 

 its way into the berries, enveloping them the while in a light, silken web. 

 The damage done this year by the cochylis has been very considerable. Let 

 us avoid importing this undesirable emigrant. 



As one traverses the Bordeaux vineyards one cannot help being struck 

 with the curious results of the extreme parcelling of property in France. 

 Here and there, wedged in amidst the vines of larger owners, without fence 

 or division of any kind, one comes across a dozen rows or so of vines, said 

 to be the property of some small peasant owner. An ancient custom has 

 decreed that whilst wane made from the larger areas may be worth 16 a 

 hogshead, the wane from these few intruding rows can never rise above 

 ordinary M6doc.' Careful manipulation has doubtless much to do with the 

 ultimate quality of any wine ; it must be admitted, however, that imagina- 

 tion has its full share in the commercial classification of Bordeaux wines, 

 established hundreds of years ago, when it may have had its raison d'etre, 

 but maintained to-day I believe very largely in the vested interests of the 

 most conservative of trades. 



From time to time one hears it stated that the Bordelais vinegrowers had 

 manfully stood out against the introduction of American vines, and set them- 

 selves to master the phylloxera by other means. I can readily understand 

 the heartiness of their initial opposition to any practice unknown to their 

 grandfathers, for they are too painfully aware that let them vary but a hair's 

 breadth from general ancestral practice, and forthwith, in sympathy, down 

 come the market quotations of their wines. The phylloxera, however, an 

 American intruder without time-honored pedigree, was not to be denied. 

 Ancestral cult and ancestral scruples were soon swallowed up in black ruin, 

 and the conservative Bordelais found themselves compelled to borrow the 

 methods of their more enlightened neighbors ; and to-day, I was credibly 

 informed, the great bulk of Bordeaux vines are grafted on resistant American 

 stock. Nor does one hear much talk of any depreciation in quality of the 

 new wines, as who should, before the logic of accomplished facts ? 



