VINE CULTUEE AND THE GRAPE. 



429 



These 14 departments, of whicli the first 8 are situated in the south, 

 furnish of themselves 66 per cent, of the total produce. 



Taking the value of the yield, the departments do not stand in 

 the same order. For instance, the most productive are (reckoning in 

 millions of francs) the following • 



Franrs. 



Herault 196,000,000 



Gironde 166,000,000 



Charente Inf e'rieure 105,000,000 



Charente 57,000,000 



Var .56,000,000 



Indreet Loire 47,000,000 



Gers 46,000,000 



Lot et Garonne 44,000,000 



Cote-d'Or 43,000,000 



Saoneet Loire 41,000,000 



Gard 32,000,000 



The vine has barely maintained its production in the vineyards 

 which produce the choice wines, but in other localities where it has 

 been largely manured and more productive vines have been sub- 

 stituted for those which bear less fruit, they now obtain double the 

 quantity of grapes yielded thirty years ago. 



In 1866 the average produce of wine stood at 30 "10 hectolitres 

 per hectare, while in 1840 the mean yield was only 18*65 hectolitres. 



The vine is trained in 100 different ways in France. It is gene- 

 rally propped or supported in Burgundy, Champagne, Lorraine, Orleans, 

 Macon, Touraine, and Berry. Most ordinarily it is cultivated on 

 trellises, more or less elevated, in Bordelais, the Dauphine, and the 

 county of Nice. It has no support in Lower Languedoc, Provence, 

 Saintonge, and Annis, and the culture is called the low vine system. 



Those which grow on the slopes of mountains, or in localities where 

 the temperature is not very favourable to the ripening of the fruit, 

 are supported by maples, walnuts, and willows. 



The vines which furnish the choice wines do not yield on the 

 average above 15 or 20 hectolitres of wine per acre. On the contrary, 

 those yielding the common wines often give, especially in the regions 

 of the south and south-west, 120 to 150 hectolitres per hectare. 

 There are, indeed, in Lower Languedoc, vines which produce in good 

 years 300 up to 400 hectolitres per hectare. The value of the ordinary 

 wines has largely increased in the last thirty years. In 1840 the 

 medium price which the grower obtained was 11*40 francs the hecto- 

 litre ; in 1866 it had risen to 28|- francs. 



The following has been the production of wine in France, according 

 to the statistics of the Minister of Finance : 



Hectolitres Hectolitres 

 (22 galls.). (22 galls.). 



I860 39,558,000 1870 53,537,000 



1865 68,943,000 1874 j63,146,000 



If we take other decennial periods for comparison we find that the 

 production in hectolitres was in : 



Hectolitres. 



1852 38,060,000 



1862 48,630,130 



1872 54,920,181 



