THE VINE IN COGNAC. 809 



year on the vines and in the production of the wine. This result would 

 be certainly most satisfactory if this average figure of production was 

 reached every year, which unfortunately can not be said to be the fact. 

 The comparatively limited exteiitof the champagne vines (for although 

 there are in the department of the Marne 16,500 hectares — 40,700 acres — 

 of vineyards, the real centers of champagne making only occupy from 

 600 to 800 hectares) is the principal cause of the high prices which the 

 first crop, good or bad, fetches every year. 



United States Consulate, 



Bheims, January 31, 1884. 



John L. Frisbib, 



Consul. 



COGNAC. 



REPORT BY CONSUL PRESTON. 



The culture of the grape- vine is the first and most important industry 

 of the people of this district. It is the principal source of employment 

 and of wealth, and therefore great attention is paid to it. They spend 

 much time and money in experimenting and studying the best means of 

 planting, grafting, and overcoming the chlorosis and phylloxera. 



The committee of viticulture of the arrondissement of Cognac which 

 directs these matters is, then, a very important body; its transactions 

 are made the subject of an annual report, the last one being made in 

 February of this year. 



They spent 30,000 francs for the purchase and gratuitous distribution 

 of American plants for grafting on the native vines of the country of 

 the Charente, for the creation of a nursery garden, and for the estab- 

 lishment of a school of grafting. 



The number of plants received the past year for grafting was 256,000. 

 To aid in the success of the plantations, they published and addressed 

 gratuitously to every one who asked for the plants, detailed instructions 

 to guide them in the grafting. There was some trouble in finding land 

 having all the qualifications necessary for a nursery garden, but at last 

 they hired land at Orouin, on the route to Saintes, containing 13,300 

 square meters. 



The soil was good, entirely cleared up, and sufiQcient for two hundred 

 and fifty to three hundred thousand grafts. A house was built of 

 wood, in which to preserve the plants which they receive for distribu- 

 tion, and there they will start a school of graftage. 



Numerous grafts will be made under the direction of a professor and 

 in the presence of the proprietors who will be convoked to witness the 

 works. 



Mr. Ilivas, the ?bble professor, const^iitly occupied in the study of the 



