THE VINE IN CHAMPAGNE. 807 



ready described. This method of cultivation, however, necessitates 

 three or four plowings ; further, at the early spring pruning all the 

 fruit-bearing branches of the preceding year are lopped off; then sup- 

 pose one had to choose between four branches left by the preceding time 

 of growth, it would in general be best to cut off two and preserve those 

 which were nearest the parent stem, one being pruned with two "eyes" 

 and provides the woody matter, and as for the other, destined to become 

 the fruit- bearing branch, it should be of medium thickness, with well 

 projecting knots, and with a tendency to grow horizontally. At a later 

 season the first is fixed vertically to tall stocks 6 feet high, and the 

 second is bent round, fixed, and becomes the bend. 



Both low and high vines undergo at proper times, differing accord- 

 ing to locality, manuring, and improving operations of various kinds. 

 Whether the vine should be manured, and if so under what conditions 

 and at what times, is a disputed question amongst the greater number 

 of writers. Thus, Dr. Guyot recommends manuring every three years, 

 and enough manure to be put in each time to last those three years, viz, 

 3 pounds per vine in the best soils, 6 pounds per vine in medium soils, 

 and 12 pounds per vine in poor soils. On the other hand, M. Violart, 

 of Ay, another eminent authority, recommends the moderate use of 

 manure for oldish vines, and protests against the mischievous use of 

 manures for young vines. 



The fruit which is grown from it is only nourished by the manure that has been put 

 into the soil; it hardly takes any of the nature of the soil. An abnormal vigor is 

 given to the vine, and it is in a way plethorized for several years, and when the juices 

 of the manure are exhausted it begins to grow weak ; it is ill, as the vine-dressers 

 say. It is therefore necessary to manure young vines with much moderation, but the 

 older ones will bear more. 



One of the most important questions, important both by reason of its 

 presence and its dangerous character, is without doubt that of the dis- 

 eases of the vine. 



Although the phylloxera has not yet made its appearance in the 

 champagne country, still there is no lack of other scourges to the culti- 

 vation of the vine. Every year has its records of substantial disasters, 

 more or less local in character. Here, as everywhere else, despite the 

 attention and shrewdness of vine-growers, and notwithstanding the in- 

 vention of many means of protection, there are some vines, generally 

 those with the lowest situation, which pay a heavy duty to the frosts 

 and mists of spring. Often, also, some districts are robbed of their 

 produce by hail. 



Apart from these cosmic disturbances, in some districts where the 

 earth, more likely rich than poor, rests on an impervious understratum, 

 generally of a strong character, there appears, after a luxurious vegeta- 

 tion of several years, the disease which the vine-dressers call chabot 

 the withering and death of the plant^, which is due simply to the rot- 

 ting of their roots, caused by an excess of humidity collected in an uu- 

 ivteutive substratum. 

 15GA i!7 



