CHOICE OF AMERICAN VINES. 51 



But it was soon recognised that it was impossible to 

 obtain any practical result from such producers. The foxy 

 taste of the wine made from most of them did not suit the 

 French palate, accustomed for a long period of time to the 

 taste of Vinifera wines, while those resulting from V. JEsti- 

 ralis, which gave wine of a clean taste, were far from yielding 

 as much as the old European ce"pages. But the main fact 

 which forced vine-growers to discard them was their 

 insufficient resistance to phylloxera in most soils. These 

 grafted forms resulting from crossings of wild resisting 

 species, such as V. Riparia or V. ^Estivalis, with other 

 species, such as V. Vint/era and V. Labrusca, which are not 

 resisting, can only thrive well in soils which do not allow the 

 phylloxera to develop freely. 



Only a very few of these direct producers are now culti- 

 vated, and only a few acres of Jacquez are to be found in the 

 most fertile parts of the Var cultivated for wine purposes ; 

 all the rest have been either uprooted or grafted. The 

 Clinton, which is now called Pouzin, only forms a few 

 trellises in front of the houses of small growers of Ardeche 

 and Drome. A few blocks of Noah are yet to be found in 

 the vineyards of the south-west of France. It has been 

 done away with in other parts of France, and grafting is 

 now the general rule, which is not surprising if we think of 

 the immense advantages it affords. 



Experience has proved how easy it is to train workmen to 

 perform this operation with success ; the use of grafted and 

 knitted cuttings made on the bench and planted in nurseries, 

 enables vignerons to create regular plantations in the first 

 instance by using well-selected stocks ; by its use it is easy 

 to produce a wine to which commerce is accustomed, and it 

 endows the grafted vines with a maximum resistance to 

 phylloxera, as it renders possible the use of stocks selected 

 amongst American wild forms, which by the process of 

 natural selection in presence of the insect have become 

 practically immune. 



However, the question of direct producers is again 

 brought forward. Those used at first are naturally not 

 mentioned with the exception of the Noah, perhaps, but 

 many new hybrids obtained in France, generally from 

 crossings between American and European vines, are offered 

 to viticulturists. Those nurserymen who offer these direct 

 producers to growers do not try to point out the advantage 



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