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DLX.—WINE PRODUCTION IN FRANCE. 
In the Report on the trade of Bordeaux for the year 1896 (Foreign 
Office, Annual Series, 1897, No. 1916), which has been communicated to 
Kew by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a striking picture is 
drawn of the effects. i vu phylloxera on the wine production of 
France, and of the vari expedients which have been resorted to to 
make up thé ciega in Foia ion. 
ANNUAL PRODUCTION. 
« The annual wine production of France, : during the 25 years 
preceding the year 1879 amounted on the rage to 1,100,000,000 
gallons, a quantity sufficing both for the wants "i home consumption in 
this country and for those of the export trade to foreign countries 
(about 65,000,000 to 75,000,000 gallons per annum), has since that 
time (in eonsequence of the ravages of the phylloxera and other vine 
iseases, as well as of ne atmospheric influences during many 
years) declined to an average annual yield of about 725,000,000 gallo ons, 
a falling-off, therdiung " about 375 ,000,000 gallons per annum 
“ [n order to meet this deficiency France, as is we "— has been 
obliged to import Temm foreign (more — -— = , Italian, 
Portuguese, and Dalmatian) wines, which are to s tent sold in 
their nag Re state, but the far larger proportion are pedo p blending 
with the light French wines of the commonest class. hese blended 
Franco-foreign wines a ready market, as th ns 
France. On the other hand, however, the dearth of the cheapest kind 
of French wines, which in € times were T enough to be 
obtained even, by the modest purse, has given rise to a great 
development of the odia oi of artificial Me ipee from raisins 
and other grape substitutes), ar these find a ready market, especially 
amongst those poorest classes the population who look more to the 
low price than to the quality "of the liquor, of which they are accus- 
tomed to drink a large quantum. That in the Gironde, for instance, 
this daily quantum of wine is considerable amongst both the poorer and 
wealthier inhabitants is evident from the fact that the average annual 
consumption of wine per head of the population in this department 
amounts to 32°34 gallons. 
ARTIFICIAL WINES. 
* Though the importation of foreign wines and the manufacture of 
artificial wines had the natural effect of keeping the prices of the 
genuine French product on the whole at a low figure, their competition 
was not so seriously felt and complained of mc the wine growers and 
merchants of this country so long as the supply of such foreign or 
artificial wines kept within the limits iiy required for m the 
deliciency in French production. 
* But of recent years the a and sale of artificial wines in 
France, ell as the importation o wines, have experienced 
such an js coal enm that, the pee French article is 
wre being driven of the market, and wine growers and merchants 
every year find iba more and more difficalt if not ipii to dispose 
