SEPTEMBER 209 



that the invasion of Phylloxera cost the people of 

 France in thirteen years 1873 to 1885 about 

 400,000,000 sterling, just about twice as much as 

 the war indemnity exacted by the victorious Germans 

 in 1871. 



How was the mischief stemmed ? How has it been 

 brought about that the Medoc, which was a blasted 

 wilderness five-and- twenty years ago, is now as fertile 

 as ever, and that when I drove for forty miles north 

 from Bordeaux last September (1906), it was through 

 one continuous vine-field, where the exquisite bloom 

 upon the bunches and the deep verdure of the vine 

 foliage betokened the highest culture and the utmost 

 vigour of growth ? 



The answer is found in one of the romances of 

 natural history. Among many chemical materials 

 applied to destroy the swarming parasites, the most 

 effective was proved to be sulpho-carbonate of potas- 

 sium, with a solution of which the soil had to be 

 saturated. The cost of this remedy, however, was 

 prohibitive to all except the owners of such soil as 

 produced a very high quality of wine. Small culti- 

 vators, and those whose land produced wine command- 

 ing a price of only from 6 or 7 a hogshead, could 

 not afford to employ a remedy which the Bordeaux 

 conference of 1881 reckoned to cost 11, 4s. per acre 

 the first year, and 8 per acre the second year. 



Deliverance came from the quarter whence it might 



have been least expected. The grape-vine, whereof so 



many varieties are cultivated in Europe, is not native 



to any part of that continent, but is the development 



o 



