242 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
is to have an agent, say at Bordeaux, a man well skilled and one who 
would be a man to whom we would have to pay a good salary, but it is 
just as important to us, and more so, to have such a man as it is to have 
the special agents of the Treasury that are over there. We want one 
at Mayence, in Germany, and may be at Hamburg, which is one of the 
great ports, and probably one in Italy. Ido not think it would be 
necessary to have one in Spain, because our imports from there are 
not sufficiently great. But it is important, if we are going to enforce 
this law and protect our people against misbranding, that this should 
be done. 
Now, you may not know that the Secretary, at my suggestion, three 
years ago sent a special agent for this very purpose over to Europe to 
see if it were necessary that such an inspection should be made, and 
he went to France, and the testimony which we collected is somethin: 
surprising. The Secretary, very wisely, 1 think, never published this, 
because it was confidential; but it is the universal practice, as it was 
learned from this agent, to misbrand and mislabel, and I have brought 
with me some illustrations of it. You take the wines of these coun- 
tries—of the Rhine and the Moselle and the Gironde, the great 
wine-producing region of the world. In France there are about 38 
vineyards that have the right under the Government to bear a special 
name. They are called classed vineyards or classed wines, and have 
the right to bear certain names. Every wine almost that we get in 
this country bears one of those names. The same is true of the Rhine 
and of the Moselle. There are certain vineyards which, under the 
authority of the Government, have a right to bear particular names. 
As I have said, nearly all the wines we get bear those names. We 
know very well that most of the wines are not entitled to bear those 
names, do not come from those vineyards; but we can not prove it. 
If we undertook to say that these were violations of the law, we would 
have to have evidence; we would have to prove it. 
The Cuarrman. How are you going to get the proof by your agent! 
Mr. Witry. We would put an agent there who is an expert, and 
every invoice that came over here would have to bear his visé. They 
would make what you might call a studbook. When you importa 
fine stallion or bull, you require that he shall bring his pedigree with 
him, or he will not be admitted free of duty for breeding purposes. 
The Cuarrman. That is their Government certificate. 
Mr. Witey. So it is—— 
The Cuarrman. Not an agent of our Government. It is their own 
Government that gives us that certificate, and we abide by it. 
Mr. Witey. They have their regular herdbooks, as we have, of 
course. What we want is this certificate, and we want a competent 
expert who will be able to pass upon that and say whether these 
warrants are what they pretend to be. 
The Cuarrman. How is your agent going to get that information! 
Mr. Witey. That is the simplest thing in the world. In the first 
place, these vineyards are well known. They make a vintage every 
year; they have a sale at auction, and they sell nearly all the wine at 
the end of the vintage, or the next vintage, perhaps, because they 
keep it a year or two; but they sell their vintages at auction. These 
are bought by great houses at Bordeaux and other places, and so it is 
known where all that wine goes. A tun of wine goes to a certain 
place, and that is known. There is where the trouble begins. The 
