XL 
FRANCO-AMERICAN GRAPEVINES 
I SN'T IT ODD that all the grapevines of France, grown 
in enormous quantities for the manufacture of Bur¬ 
gundy, Champagne, and other wines, have American 
roots! 
The tops of these grapevines, throughout France, are 
of the native French varieties that have yielded their 
choice grapes through the centuries. The roots, how¬ 
ever, are of the wild grapevines of America, which are 
incapable of producing fruit that would furnish wine 
acceptable to the cultivated European palate. 
There is a long and tragic story of a miracle of science 
back of these fields of vines that are American below the 
ground and European above. It began about half a cen¬ 
tury ago when a blight struck the vineyards of France 
and they began to wither and die. 
Science, hurrying to the rescue, found that a tiny in¬ 
sect, a plant louse, which they called phylloxera, was at¬ 
tacking the roots of these vines and causing their death. 
These insects formed galls in which to hatch their young, 
and these galls killed the vines. 
In studying this insect, in attempts to find out how to 
fight it, it was learned that the United States was its 
native home. It was the insect that had made it impos¬ 
sible to grow European grapes in the eastern states. But 
the American grapevines had got used to it, through liv¬ 
ing with it for centuries, and did not mind it. 
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