Inclement Weather, Diseases, Etc. 313 



match is lighted, and each plant is covered with an iron 

 bell [Fig. 140], which must be perfectly air-tight, and 

 of sufficient dimensions to inclose the plants, without 

 crowding them. These bells are 

 slightly pressed into the ground, to 

 prevent the entrance of air at the bot- 

 tom. The effect is then the same as 

 that produced on the stakes. In or- 

 der that the operation may go on rap- 

 idly enough, it would be advisable to 

 have about one hundred of these small L IG * r *J 

 bells, so that when the last has been Iron Eell ^f or 

 laid down, sufficient time may have Sulphurating 

 elapsed say two hours since the 

 placing of the first, which should then be transferred to 

 another plant, and so on with the rest, throughout the 

 extent of the vineyard. Of course, the dimensions of 

 these bells must necessarily vary with that of the plants, 

 and the length of sulphurated wick to be used should 

 proportioned to the size of the bells. It will always be 

 better to put too much than too little. M. George 

 Perrier estimates the cost of this process, both for stakes 

 and plants, at $14.40 per acre. But it must not be for- 

 gotten that in that part of Champagne there are 24,000 

 plants to the acre. It is true that these plants are re- 

 duced to very small dimensions, as we have shown, fur- 

 ther back. 



[We have an insect in the United States, which is very 

 similar to the May-beetle of Europe, and called by the same 

 popular names, but by the entomologists it is named the Lacb- 

 nosterna fusca. It appears, in the winged state, early in May 

 and is often quite injurious to many of our cultivated fruits, 

 27 



