432 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



vineyards. It has taken France over twenty years to secure an almost 

 complete mastery over the scourge. Other countries of Europe to which 

 the phylloxera has spread have been, and still are, fighting this worst 

 enemy of the vine, but with a knowledge derived from their neighbours 

 which gives our present growers a great advantage. Without enumerat- 

 ing all the means which are used to treat the soil preventively or reme- 

 dially, one chief and efficacious method of reconstitution of the vineyards 

 may be mentioned. It was found that in the American wild vine the 

 root, which is the only part vulnerable to the phylloxera, was immune 

 from its attack. Millions of these American stocks have been imported, 

 or struck and grown in France, and upon them have been budded scions 

 of the French vines, with the result that, apart from other remedial 

 measures, the pest can thereby be defied. The loss of the past is, to this 

 extent, gain for the future. Every vine-grower has now at his command 

 defensive and remedial means of fighting the foes of his vineyards. 

 What to use and how to use it is at the disposal of all at very short notice, 

 and it can safely be predicted that never again will so much money 

 value be lost before the remedy for oidium, phylloxera, or mildew is 

 applied. 



The figures regarding the samples of wine, which formed so large a 

 proportion of the number of exhibits submitted to the juries, will better 

 enable the British public to appreciate the importance of the wine 

 industry of the world. This will be recognised if it be borne in mind 

 that out of the 75,000 exhibitors, representing all classes of merchandise 

 and manufactures of every country, more than one in nine, or no fewer 

 than 8,924, were included in Class 60 (wines, and spirits distilled from 

 wine). 



They may be classified for British readers as on page 431. 



Of the total number of 15,843 exhibits of wines and wine-spirit, 

 11,928 came from France and her Colonies, and 3,915 from all other 

 parts of the world. And it is therefore not surprising that while these 

 11,928 exhibits were awarded 4,005 honours, those from other countries 

 obtained 1,109 honours only ; although it is at the same time noteworthy 

 that nearly half of the highest awards — Grand Prix — namely, thirty- 

 seven out of seventy-nine, were given to foreign competitors. 



That France — with some 4,326,000 acres (1,730,451 hectares) under 

 \-ines — is easily first as the leading ^vine-producer will be apparent from 

 the figures on page 433, showing that her production in 1900 was about 

 half the yield of Europe, and considerably more than a third of that of 

 the globe. 



This quantity of 1,482 million gallons produced last year in France 

 will be seen to be the more surprising when it is stated that only a decade 

 ago the production of both Italy and Spain was almost identical with that 

 of France, each country then producing about 600 million gallons annually ; 

 while in one year in the eighties Italy actually held the first place for 

 quantity, France being second. 



Of the world's production of 3,618 million gallons, 3,403 million 

 gallons were produced almost entirely in Europe, and 206 million gallons 

 in America ; while the British Empire, with a vastly larger area than 

 Europe, and embracing, as we have said, every variety of soil and climate, 



