PEACTICAL PAPERS—VINE CULTURE, ETC. 303 
impossible for the honest wine grower here to come into such 
relations with the wine drinkers there as shall secure to the 
latter the benefits, sanitary and moral, which the French peo¬ 
ple themselves derive from the pure juice of the grape so 
abundantly produced in this country. It is not an unusual 
practice for dealers to buy of producers in the back country a 
coarse, deef) red wine for thirty cents per gallon, and a strong 
white wine for forty-five cents per gallon, mix and bottle them 
and send them abroad labelled with all the high-sounding 
names of ‘‘Medoc,” etc., to sell at enormous profits to unsus- 
pesting foreigners. 
Further south than Bordeaux, in the country about Mont¬ 
pelier and Bezires, an inferior article, but perfectly pure, can 
be obtained of the producer at five and six cents per gallon, 
or one cent per bottle. Of late years, and since the abatement 
of the grape disease, the production of France has been very 
large, the four millions of acres in cultivation yielding an aver¬ 
age of one billion two hundred millions of gallons, which 
would give to every man, woman and child in the country, a 
half bottle full every day, even after allowing two hundred 
millions of gallons for exportation. 
Owing, perhaps, to the intimate relations- between America 
and Grermany, our wine commerce with that country is con¬ 
ducted in a much more satisfactory manner. A good deal of 
excellent German white wine now makes its way to us, and is 
highly appreciated. 
Hungary, whose product is second to that of France only, 
can supply a wide range of varieties, and at prices extremely 
reasonable. As the Hungarian producers seem to know, as 
yet, but little of chemistry, we suppose their wines to be gen¬ 
erally pure, and as they are not yet fully introduced into the 
markets of the world, we should think they might be advan¬ 
tageously purchased to a greater extent than has yet been done. 
Besides the sherry, of which we consume so largely, Spain 
has an abundant and rich vintage with which American con¬ 
sumers would be better acquainted if her merchants had more 
of the enterprise of those of Bordeaux. 
