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THREE SEASONS
G020
IN
HUROPEAN VINEYARDS:
TREATING OF
VINE-CULTURE; VINE DISEASE AND ITS CURE;
WINE-MAKING AND WINES, RED AND WHITE;
WINE-DRINKING, AS AFFECTING
HEALTH AND MORALS.
By WILLIAM JOFLAGG.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
18609.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
PREFACE.
I THINK my work will be found in some degree
interesting to the general reader, if he have cu-
riosity, which Hume defines as “the love of learn-
ing.”
I think, too, it may prove instructive to the general
drinker as well, inasmuch as it relates to his daily
beverages, and their effects on his health and happi-
ness. j
But my chief aim has been to convey information,
both practical and theoretical, bearing on the impor-
tant matter of wine-growing in America. Inasmuch
as such information has of necessity got interwoven
and somewhat entangled throughout the whole tex-
ture of the narrative, and might consequently be dif-
ficult to refer to, I have added an index, which will
help the reader to search out what he may need to
find, under the several heads of “planting,” “train-
ing,” “pruning,” ete.
To the same end, I would here indicate, in ad-
vance, a few of the more important matters which
iv PREFACE.
will be found mentioned here and there, and not al-
ways just where they ought.
These are:
1. Long pruning, which, as commonly practiced in
America, I deem to have been an efficient cause for
the decay of our vines.
2. Drainage, the want of which, especially in the
Ohio Valley, I feel quite certain has been equally
injurious.
3. The advantage of growing wine on plains rath-
er than on hills, except where the quality obtained
from hill-grown vines is such as will compensate for
their larger cost and smaller yield.
4, Training in low souche, and without stakes, as
probably better adapted to our warm summers than
the expensive methods imitated from countries where
peaches can only be ripened on trees flattened and
fastened to the south sides of high walls.
5. Red wine, as preferable to white, for the future
beverage of Americans.
6. The sulphur-cure, as entirely efficacious against
the disease of the vine in all its many forms, if only
well applied.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Bordeaux, the City of Wine.—Rosa Bonheur’s Horses. —Bewildering
PINSHEUESSONS FI -V INC-CHITUTC scersacsiescdoeces conceceschecers sends Page 9
CHAPTER II.
A French Vineyard.—Crazy Vines, with no means of Support.—Slan-
ders against French Wine.—Defenseless Fields...........0+++0+ +0 15
CHAPTER III.
Aquitaine.—Fanciful Theories.—How French People drink Wine,
take Brandy, and use Water.—Sterne’s Diligence and the simple
Nuns.—Evening Scenes in the Kitchen.—Brandy Merchants.—
Soil.—Cultivation.—Whisky is not Brandy..........cceccsseeeeeees 24
CHAPTER IV.
Médoc.— Vintage Feast.— Vintage Dance.—‘‘ A discretion.”—
Frenchmen kind to their Beasts. —Soil.—Plowing.—Training.—La
Tour.—Making Wine.—Stemming Grapes.—Crushing with Feet.
—Fermenting.—Filling up.—Drawing off.—A Glass of the best
Red Wine in the World.— Pichon-Longueville. — Lafitte and its
Pebbles.—Léoville.—Cos d’Estournel.—Pomys.—Six Classes of
Wine and a Bourgeois Sup€ricure.............ccscosssceccssesenceeees 34
CHAPTER V.
‘Phe Sauterne District.—Soil.—Culture.—Severe Leaf-pruning.—
Three Vintages.—Head, Middle and Tail Wines.—Frenchmen eat
RIMMEL Yast cisilastiad(temns/sinls slospeetiaaine's os leew sibis osissieisi asinieGido ss swineisee 68
vi CoNTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Languedoc.—Pursuing Knowledge by the slow Train.—Third-class
Passengers. —Good Skeletons of the Peasantry.—Beziers.—Wine
and Brandy making.—Low Souche Training ...............+. Page 71
CHAPTER VII.
Burgundy and the Cote d’or.—First taste and last.—Disorderly
Vines. —Layering.— Wages. — Wine-making.—Plaster of Paris.—
Opposing Systems as to Stemming Grapes.—Crushing with Feet—
and worse.—Good Men and good Wine.—Quantity and Quality.
—Long Pruning ruinous.—Soils of the Cote d’or.—Mode of Plant-
ing.—Layering.—Vine-disease.—Red Wine.—What it has done
for the French and what it will do for US............¢.sesssssseseees 78
CHAPTER VIII.
Epernay.—Catacombs of Bottles.—Sparkling Wine.—How com-
pounded, doctored and dosed.—Americans should learn for them-
Belves How tO MAKE A. 02... cesccsocnserevascatas sano dese sane emeaetae 106
CHAPTER IX.
The Great Exhibition.—Foreign Drinkers and American Drinks.—
Falsification of Wines. —False Wines and true, and the Drunkard’s
Thirst.—Distribution of Prizes.—Pasteur and his discovery.—Eu-
PEDIC ao reesleceeciovcsissent suasies sok svucesee cee cobs descr teldce sekae Mea eee ane 118
CHAPTER X.
Rheims.—Chalk, Mutton, and Champagne.—Thick-set Vines.—St.
Thierry.—Charlemagne and the Nuns.—A serene Home and its
resident Proprietor.—Layering again.—Three Cures for the Vine-
disease.—Old Vines and new.—High Vines and low.—Soil.—Cul-
TUVATIOW csi eis cca ees vehsinsssaaaieaidesincs tea adlalac scanion se aee aan Rama 148
CHAPTER XI.
The Rhine.—The Sour Wine Country.—The Rhinegau.—Johannis-
berg.— Soil. — Cultivation. —Wine-making.— More Monks.—A
Tasting Party.—The Bride of the Cellar...............-se+sesssses 162
CoNnTENTS. vii
CHAPTER XII.
Swiss Vineyards.—Sandstone, Basalt, and Manure, and inferior
AIG SePane saver e race reese a attined dona nels da gbiceincouec nasesseeect Page 180
CHAPTER XIII.
Durkheim.—Sweet Pills. —Good Vine-culture.—Vices of modern
WW OOM ee ecteses cate acess ected sels ce vationcaveweedsacecuedseeeese stees 183
CHAPTER XIV.
Vienna, Beer, and Tokay.—A metaphysical Drink.—How Sweet To-
kay is made.—Frosty Mornings and Days of Sunshine.—Barbari-
MUSLOVEL OU Males ce iessns ances detdectecCneectsi'ceveedeMedevessscssessess 189
CHAPTER XV.
Italy.—Peculiarities of Italian Vine-training.—Sorrento.—Capri.—
Ischia. —Rome.—Tuscany.—The Riviera Road.—Italian Energy
SarelM LONI Ulnar aves Pitost raat welds evicececis( otiedeisasiciepisssleneapingaiontie sche 196
CHAPTER XVI.
The great Wine Country of the South of France.—Formation and
Soil. —Temperature.—Rains.—Winds.—The Oidium.—Ruin im-
pending.—The Sulphur-cure.—H. Marés’s Manual.............. 203
CHAPTER XVII.
Montpellier and Marés.—Cette.—Muscat of Frontignan.—Visit to a
Vineyard in low Souche.—Visit to another of 250 Acres.—Frost.—
The Foster-brother.— American Vines in Languedoc.—Wine-
MAKING. .)5.05046 Ree ee nce riseee sciede wen nas are cee easeaceasnwetesesess 284
CHAPTER XVIII.
Would low Souche Vines do well in America ?—Our Climate warm
enough.—Present Modes too expensive.—A glut of Wine to be
FSAKEOLAMOVMOPEULONcesseccasescieapeasenreshysseosscanescieareasessenses 301
vili CoNTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX.
How they plant Vines in Souche.—Good Reasons for five-feet Spac-
ing.—Cuttings.—Pruning and Training.— Bringing old Souches
ANGORSDAPE) vanes stsecssice seas eseneressesocesiceonsseciseussaaatan spaces Page 309
CHAPTER XX.
How to grow Wine cheaply.— What to do with it.—Probable Ef
LOCES: ic csceac de che nses tate tena dete melsenn searntementntaae® hentai tee aeae 319
THREE SEASONS
EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
LLIN
Oras eke A.
BORDEAUX.
[ WRITE this book because I have something to
say, and not because I have to say something.
It is of small importance how I tell what I know,
but I know what I have to tell is important. Prob-
ably no other American has made near so thorough
a pilgrimage among the vineyards of Europe as I
have, and certainly not among those of France.
When I began my explorations I had barely enough
knowledge of wine-growing to know what it was I
needed to learn, which was better, perhaps, than to
know so much as to feel above the need of learning
10 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
any more. It was only gradually and slowly, as I
continued my investigations, that I became aware
how much was to be gleaned from the experience
of other and older countries to enlighten the inex-
perience of our own, and of the importance of the
observations 1 was making, or, rather, the things LI
observed.
On the 20th of September, 1866, I arrived in beau-
tiful and rich Bordeaux, the capital of wine — the
centre, not of one great wine district merely, but of
many, and all of them of ancient and universal ce-
lebrity. Adjoining it on the northwest is Médoc,
where stand famous Chateaux Margaux, La Tour,
and Lafitte. Farther away, to the north, is the de-
partment of Charente, where in every hamlet true
cognac is distilled; southwardly, and up the River
Garonne, lies that strip of sandy shore, narrow in
measure but wide in reputation, where Y quem reigns
supreme among gardens, where grow first, second,
and third class Sauterne, the white rose of the Bor-
delais, as Médoc is the red; while all around, inter-
mediately and beyond, are the comparatively inferior
soils which yield the staple commodity of the Bor-
deaux market, the claret of commerce.
From the city out to the sea flows the wide and
deep Gironde, the ebb tide of whose waters is a flood
BorDEAUxX. if
tide of wines, going out in ships of every nation to
every port of the globe.
In the skill of the Bordeaux merchants for com-
bining and improving crude wines I can readily be-
lieve, for what is it but chemistry and cookery—sci-
ence and taste—and who are such chemists, or who
such cooks, as Frenchmen? This skill has made the
exports of their cellars the most portable, merchant-
able, and generally consumed of all the wines of
commerce. For this reason they are able to market
not only the product of the surrounding country, but
also large supplies drawn from the south of France,
taking, on an average, half the large crop of L’He-
rault, which they buy at from ten to twenty - five
cents a gallon, and sell again at so great a profit,
at least when Americans are the buyers, that lately
large quantities were seized in the New York Cus-
tom-house upon the very natural presumption that
what was retailed for six dollars a dozen on one
side of the Atlantic must have cost over six francs
on the other.
I ought to have made a few visits to the commer-
cial cellars and store-houses where this great com-
merce is carried on, but did not do so. I was tempt-
ed away into the open country by the beautiful and
soft weather which had just succeeded to the almost
12 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
incessant rains of that summer of 1866, so disastrous
to the cultivator. Contenting myself, therefore, with
a pilgrimage to the statue of Montesquieu in the
public garden, and a short stroll on the docks, I got
into an omnibus running to Créon,in the neighbor-
hood of which was the chateau of a gentleman
whom, though’ I had only met him once, and six
years before, I was resolved so far to impose upon as
to ask leave to look at his vines.
“Why there’s one of- Rosa Bonheur’s horses!” I
exclaimed, as a dray went by the omnibus, drawn by
one of the larger specimens of that admirable race
of animals which the well-known engraving of the
horse-market has made familiar to us all, on paper.
“Ts it possible those casks are full?’ “Yes, sir,”
replied my neighbor on the opposite seat ; “and there
are fifteen of them, each holding 228 litres, and with
the wood weighing good 250 kilos. But they can
well do that, those Normandy fellows—beasts of
nerve they are.”
And inquiries repeatedly made while I remained
in France satisfied me that it was indeed possible for
the heavy draft horses of Normandy to draw on one
of the enormous drays that are made for them be-
tween three and four tons. If we could replace our
six millions of nags, of one sort and another, with
BorRDEAUX. . 13
one third their number of a breed like this, the two
millions would do the work of the six, at a saving in
feeding and attendance equal to double the interest
of our national blessing. Thus computing, I said to
myself that if I had left behind me the land of steam,
Thad found the land of horses.
Two farmers, whom I afterward met while travel-
ing in Normandy, told me the Perche country was
really the home of the breed called Norman, and
that it was their custom to buy from there six-
months’ colts, which they raised and broke, working
them from two years’ old, and selling them when
they got to be five or six years old; the prices ob-
tained for full-grown and well-broken animals rang-
ing from $200 to $250. I am glad to learn they
are at length bringing them to America, where a late
importation sold for prices which averaged $2500.
Falling into conversation with my fellow-travelers,
I was gratified to learn that M. P——, whom I was
going to see, was esteemed a skillful and successful
cultivator, with few equals in the neighborhood. I
talked a good deal with my companions in the omni-
bus during our two hours’ drive. They were mostly
working vine-dressers, and being, as Frenchmen al-
ways are, polite and communicative, I learned from
them a good deal I had never heard before concern-
14 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ing the object of my inquiries, if one can be said to
have learned any thing when the lesson he takes is a
confused jumble of details which overloads his mem-
ory and befogs his intellect.
From my peasant acquaintances collectively I did,
however, obtain the following clear ideas:
1st. That each variety of vine needed a different
culture for each different soil, and again for each
different climate.
2d. That there was an old school and a new school,
with opposite theories on every branch of vine cul-
ture, planting, manuring, training, pruning, cultiva-
ting, and gathering.
3d. That every cultivator had his own whims and
prejudices to qualify his application of the newer the-
ories.
4th. That there were a good many varieties of
French vines, and a good many different soils and
situations in France. :
From all which I inferred :
First, that there was much to learn.
Secondly, that I should never learn it.
But a few clear lights will illuminate a good many
facts, so that with patience and labor the rubbish can
be known and rejected, and the useful brought into~
form and order.
Saint GENES. 15
CHAPTER: 11.
SAINT GENES.
— night I lodged in the only inn at Créon, a
humble little affair where the peasantry resort-
ed to enjoy ‘their hard-won leisure and drink their
wine, but where the food and bedding were good
enough for any body. The next morning I was driv-
en over to the chateau of St.Genes, whose proprietor
recognized and welcomed me with the politeness of
a Frenchman and the hospitality of an American.
With small loss of time, and without needing to
go far, we began the tour of M. P:
’s well-kept
and extensive fields. Having long attended to his
own. affairs, he was well informed on every practical
detail; and having once been a lawyer, he could ex-
plain them fluently. The weather was fine, the coun-
try was beautiful, and I was happy to be walking in
a French vineyard that day.
The soil of the first piece we entered was a sandy
loam ; in other places I found it to be gravelly loam,
16 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
but all was mixed with more or less of clay. The
better wines grew on the gravel. The piece in ques-
tion was furnished with wire trellis. The vines were
set two feet apart in the rows, and the space between
the rows was four feet wide. The posts were round
and straight locust saplings grown for the purpose,
and were placed twenty feet apart. Through holes
in them the wires were strung, and an ingenious con-
trivance tightened them. They were further sup-
ported by intermediate stakes. There were three
lines, each being eighteen inches from the other, and
the lowest at the same distance from the ground.
The fruit-bearing cane was trained along the low-
er wire, so that the bunches seemed to belong as
much to the one as the other. The canes thus train-
ed, however, are not allowed to grow into arms, but
are renewed every one, two, or three years. The
fruit of the second year, and which was produced
from buds on the shoots grown during the first year,
seemed to hang so close to the horizontal cane and
wire that I think those shoots must have been cut
back to one eye only, but on this point my recollec-
tion is not quite distinct. The shoots, as they grew,
were attached to the two upper wires. Although
the season had been bad, the grapes were healthy, |
and with a fortnight or so of the fine weather just set
SaAInt GENES. LY;
in, promised to do tolerably well. M.P——’s wire
trellis was indeed a pretty sight. That gentleman
thinks the wire saves one half the cost of manipulat-
ing-the vines; namely, of training, pruning, attach-
ing, rubbing off, pinching back, unleafing, amd gath-
ering.
“What is that?’ I exclaimed, with no little aston-
ishment, as, turning away from the trellis where
vines were so tenderly upheld, we entered on a field
where there was never a bit of trellis nor stake at all,
nor peg to tie to, nor tree to hang upon, but where
each individual plant, alone and self-sustaining, scorn-
ing all support—its arms embracing nothing, its ten-
drils twining nothing—stood on its own bottom, and
held up its own top, like a strong-minded woman
planted on her rights!
It was a field of the variety known as “a folle
blanche” (the crazy vine), vulgarly called “ enragatt,”
growing “en souche basse,” which may be translated
by stump or stool, sowche meaning literally “ stock.”
I paused long in presence of this abrupt commen-
tary on all our learned talk about different kinds of
trellis and modes of training to them, and did not
move on till I had learned something about training
“en souche” and “la folle blanche.” 7
I learned it was an uncommonly hardy plant, nev-
18 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
er injured by frost, nor, to M. P——’s knowledge,
by any disease; that it was a regular and reliable
bearer, and, on a good sandy loam, such as I then
saw, could be counted on for over a thousand gallons
to the acre, and sometimes gave as much as twenty-
five hundred.
As a workman drew apart the branches of one of
the souches, a profusion of full-sized white grapes
was revealed, all hanging close about the head, and
easily sustained by the rugged old stock, which was
about ten inches high and five inches thick. ‘It is
a perfect fountain of wine,” said the man.
The quality of the wine from the folle blanche
depends, of course, much upon the soil. In Médoc
they habitually grow it with the malbec, a fine vari-
ety, but whose must is deficient in acid; and the
combination results in a wine of the very first grade,
such as sometimes sells from the cellar at eight dol-
lars a gallon. Although commonly grown for quan-
tity, and on strong soils, it nevertheless makes the
most of its advantages, and on gravelly loam will
give a very good merchantable white wine. The
Bordeaux merchants compound it with a strongly-
colored coarse wine from the back country, costing
twenty-five and thirty cents a gallon, to make a cheap
claret, which is sold, labeled with the names of all
Saint GENES. 19
the great houses of Médoc, to Americans. The price
of wine from the folle blanche is forty cents and up-
ward, though M. P sells his for fifty and sixty
cents and upward. In the department of the Cha-
rente this plant is the favorite, and chiefly from its
strong juice the Cognac brandy is made.
Now white wine mixed with red does not make a
true red wine, and those of us who drink such com-
pounds as the above drink two distinct beverages mix-
ed together. But both are pure, and, if not adultera-
ted with alcohol, wholesome. Delavan and Dow tell
us that all our imported wines are not wines at all, but
mere chemical illusions, as if France, with a yearly
product of a thousand million imperial gallons, need-
ed to draw upon her cisterns, wells, and drug-shops
for the small quantity she exports. In.some parts of
the south they sell pure wine at wholesale for a cent
the bottle—not very drinkable stuff, to be sure, but a
good deal better than dye-stuff, one would think, and
cheaper too.
M. P
terested me, kindly offered to send me some cuttings
from them. Knowing how completely had failed all
attempts to acclimate European varieties in America,
I did not then accept the offer; but a few months
later, and after witnessing in the south of France the
, seeing how much his wine-fountains in-
20 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
wonders of souche training, I reconsidered and ac-
cepted. He sent them. They arrived safe, a thou-
sand of them, whereof three hundred took good root,
and are now growing finely on the banks of the Ohio.
Now when I shall come to relate my observations
in the south of France, my reflections thereon, and
plans and hopes thence resulting, I think they will
be found new, interesting, and important to my fel-
low vine-dressers. I think they will see in souche
training the true way to get wine cheaply and easily,
so that none shall need to drink water, except, as For-
tescue, the chancellor of Henry the Sixth, wrote of
the common people of England in the days when she
was “ merrie,” “occasionally, or by way of penance.”
And in the day when every farmer can, from half an
acre of land, easily and cheaply planted and tilled,
even by the unskillful, harvest what will fill his ten
or twelve barrels with honest juice for the habitual
daily drink of himself and family—our two hea
afflictions and sins, excessive water-drinking and ex-
cessive whisky-drinking, will vanish from the land,
and a beneficent change in our national tempera-
ment begin to be wrought.
The vines about Créon are not generally of so low
a class as the folle blanche, neither do they give great
wines, such as are made in Médoc or the Sauterne
Saint GENEs. . oI
district, but are of those rather which yield the good,
staple “ Bordeaux,” dearly loved of all Frenchmen,
and for which they must pay no very moderate price
either, since much of it commands, at wholesale, a
dollar a gallon. It can be had in America of honor-
able wine-merchants dealing with others like them-
selves on the opposite side of the water, or, better
still, who have direct relations with honorable propri-
etors there who reside on their estates.
The fields we next inspected were in good cultiva-
tion, but the vines were trained to stakes only, re-
minding me of those in the vineyards I had left be-
hind, except that they stood nearer together and were
rather smaller. They seemed to have had no very
close summer pruning, but little tying up, and no
leaf-pruning, though the time for it had passed. The
ground had been only twice plowed, I think.
The labor is to a great extent done by contract,
and of necessity it is carefully classified and speci-
fied. Where the superintendence is good, the system
works admirably. It is desirable we should intro-
duce it as soon as the vine-culture shall be well
enough extended, organized, and understood, but for
the present I should fear to try it. I remember that
in Brown County, Ohio, they once had, and may have
still, a simple plan of letting the whole labor, by con-
22 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tract, at forty or fifty dollars per acre for the year,
which was at the same time costing me as much as
seventy-five dollars. Wages in the neighborhood of
St. Genes were forty cents a day in summer and
thirty in winter. Women got but half as much.
As paper money has of late years confused our
ideas of values, I will in this connection give some
of the retail market prices customary about Bor-
deaux, so that the value of thirty and forty cents may
be somewhat estimated.
Beef and mutton, good cuts............0s006 20 cents.
IB OEK? tesa, teanueaesencavien ses ccces oka tees i: Bee
WOR Pel COZENs. .vesensecassuseesosessueeeesi 1236s
MGIKS DEY QUAL. cr sseresdssneroassecesihedcscnee Bre
Strong shoes, good for a year’s wear, $1 60
Wooden Shoes iii i5..0, tececoebohtaceceaen eke: 26) ess
The same with leather uppers.............. GOuyes
Our promenade extended far beyond the domains
of St. Genes, and over those of several neighboring
proprietors. Entirely new to me and to my feet was
this going from field to field, and farm to farm, as
one may do in nearly every civilized country except
Britain and America, without ever meeting fences to
be climbed, walls to be scaled, bars to let down, or
gates to open. The contrast between the orderly,
neighborly, and trustful aspect of the scene I was
studying, and the fortified look of our own cultivated
nti tit atin
9
SAINT GENES. 23
country, where at every few rods you encounter
picket, or palisade, or barricade of stone, or double
stake and ridered nine-rail worm fences, bristling
like so many abattis, all of them “pig tight, bull
strong, and stallion high,” was like the contrast be-
tween peace and war.
Returning rather late to the chateau, we could give
only a few moments to the wine-house. I was pleased
to notice a hand-mill for crushing the grapes—a good
deal nicer way than what I saw a few days later
among people less advanced than my host of St.
Genes. He told me, upon my inquiry, that the crop
of the estate the year before—an extraordinary good
one—was 500 barriques, or 30,000 gallons.
At dinner I met the ladies of the family, which,
had I done before my walk, it would have been
shorter, perhaps. M. P resides in Bordeaux,
and the family had only come out to Saint Genes to
remain through vintage. He, however, having a busi-
ness-like way of looking after his interests, is fre-
quently there.
Next day my good friends would not allow me to
go back the way I came, but drove me over to a rail-
way station some ten miles distant, the drive afford-
ing a sight of extensive vine-fields, and some most
charming scenery as well.
Q4 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHAPTER 1ff
COGNAC.
HE speed of common railway trains in France
never takes away your breath, nor whirls things
out of sight before you see them. So nothing hin-
dered my observing all we passed, on both sides of
the track, leisurely enough to get an idea of the
modes of training, and so forth, in the northern por-
tions of Aquitaine—the ancient and original—the
Aquitaine of Froissart’s Chronicles. Many a vine-
yard I saw whose fresh young shoots and foliage
covered and hid short, thick, rugged old stocks be-
low, gnarled and wrinkled with a hundred years of
fruit-bearing existence. But a century is a short
time in the history of the vine in this antique coun-
try. The Casars drank the juice of its soil and were
glad. The savage Visigoths, in their turn, we may
be sure, got beastly drunk on it. The pious Saracens
who drove out the Visigoths broke the law of the
Prophet in its honor. And from the time of William
CoG@Nnac. 25
the Conqueror down to the Methuen treaty, which
excluded it in favor of Spanish adulterations, it nour-
ished and strengthened the best blood of England, a
good deal of which same blood was again and again
poured out on this same soil, in battles fought to hold
and extend possessions which yielded to the thirsty
islanders what Nature had denied them in their prop-
er home—good wine and red.
A fanciful theorizer has said that all good English
comedies were written before the time of the Me-
thuen treaty, which was about a hundred and fifty
years ago, arguing thence that only pure wine can
inspire pure wit. It is very true that both England
and America mostly import their good plays from
France, in shape of translations or adaptations; but
I can hardly believe it was ever possible to import:
them in the form of casks of Bordeaux or bottles of
Burgundy; and think, with Sir Emerson Tennent,
that British palates have always craved what was
mixed, muddled, and strong, which, he says, is be-
cause of fogs. . If so, then so much the worse for the
British, I say, and all the more shame for us, who,
with no fogs to excuse it, have, from mere force of
example, learned to love fog medicine—port, sherry,
Madeira, whisky, and ram—which, in our dry climate,
rend us as they never do a Briton in his home—but
B
26 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
this reminds me we are on the way to the land of
brandy.
A clattering of plates and glasses called my atten-
tion to the party occupying the same compartment
with me, consisting of a gentleman and wife, two
other ladies, and two children, who were beginning
their midday breakfast. The bottles, of the size the
Bordeaux people use when they drink, but not when
they sell, held as much as one of our quarts. That
family emptied one bottle, they emptied two, they
emptied three. To tell the truth, they ate as beauti-
fully as they drank, managing to divide the contents
of their enormous lunch-basket into nine or ten
courses, and, by taking them in detail, to conquer
them all. At the end of the repast a bottle of bran-
dy was produced, and a paper of sugar in lumps. A
very little of the brandy was poured into a glass, and
each one taking a lump of sugar, soaked it in the
brandy and ate it. Still another bottle was un-
corked, and from it a tumbler was filled with water
—the first appearance of that liquid on the scene.
In the tumbler they all washed their fingers and
lips.
That is the way French people drink wine, and
that the way they drink brandy, and that the use
they make of water.
CoGNnac. 27
Leaving the cars at Angouléme, I continued my
journey in a diligence. The fancy pleased me of
traveling in the old slow coach of slow old times, as
Sterne did when he made his “sentimental journey
through France and Italy.” But sentiment was not
curled hair, and could neither cushion the hard seats
nor deaden the rattling din of the rackety concern,
and I was glad when they set me down at a snug ho-
‘ tel in the little city of Cognac.
As we entered the brandy district, the folle blanche
appeared and soon covered the whole face of the coun-
try. The soil was mostly stony, poor and thin; of no
value at all, I should think, except for grapes, and
even a grapevine, one would think, must be crazy to
live there. I could nowhere see that stakes were
needed for supports, though the souches were eight-
een inches high. Young plantations, I have been
told, need small stakes during the first two or three
years, but I noticed none.
It rained continuously. No vintaging could be
seen, and attention soon tired of the look-out at the
window of the coupé, so I looked in. Two nuns
were with me—not handsome, of course, for in
France beauty is too precious a commodity to shut
up in convents—but very jolly and talkative, and
better company than the holy women I had met in
28 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
America; and, though their ideas were limited
enough, still a seeker after wisdom could learn a
good deal from them. When I told them the great
majority of my countrywomen esteemed it a sin to
take a drop of wine, they were astonished, and one
naively asked, “Must they drink only beer, then?”
adding, “I don’t like beer.” But when told beer too
was forbidden, they fell to pitying the poor Protest-
ants, whom they had not thought were so austere. °
“To be sure,” they said, “one must do penance; it
is for the safety of the soul; but the good God does
not require his creatures to injure their health by
their abstinences.”
Abstinences! Poor girls! If a marquis with
200,000 francs of income, young, handsome, and
agreeable, were to offer himself to either of them,
she would abstain from him teetotally, with might
and main, as if on peril of perdition, yet she could
put her quart of wine daily under her corsets, and
thank God for it in her prayers; while many a pret-
ty Puritan on our side, taught from childhood to be-
lieve it “liquid poison” to body and “liquid damna-
tion to soul,” thinks it a sin and a crime to moisten
her red lips with one drop of purest Margaux, on
whose conscience a hundred warm kisses accepted
by those same lips would rest as lightly as a thistle-
down on Plymouth Rock.
Cognac. 29
Arrived at the hotel, I found a seat by the itchen
fire more agreeable than imprisonment in a bed-
room. The kitchen was large, and was, in fact, the
chief rendezvous for all the household, as well as
their guests. In my time I have stopped at many an
American country tavern, and sat in their bar-rooms
while my fellow-citizens came and went and drank
whisky. The scene I witnessed at Cognac was, quite
different. About a table in the middle of the room
were seated eight or ten peasants and town-folks, re-
freshing themselves with bread and cheese, and
strong draughts of weak wine, while amusing them-
selves with cards, conversation, pipes, and snuff. In
the adjoining room was a billiard-table, where a larger
party were engaged in playing or looking on. These,
too, had their potations. During the two hours I re-
mained below I noticed closely the conduct of all
the company, and, though there was plenty of gayety
and seemingly real enjoyment, there was nothing in
the least like drunkenness, ill temper, or ill manners.
Lager beer, so called, is an immense improvement on
rum and whisky—thanks to the good Germans who
have made us to know it—but simple wine certainly
has moral qualities far superior to beer. A merry
but decent drink, exhilarating but not infuriating, it
carries neither knife, revolver, nor slung-shot in its
30 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
pockets. To the poor work-people of ’rance it is
an inestimable blessing, as it will be to ours when it
is vouchsafed to them.
“You don’t bake your poultry, then ?” I said to the
landlady, as I saw her fix on a spit the fowl I had
called for, and then set it to turning before the fire
by means of a clumsy clock-work. “No, no; that’s
the way they will spoil your pullet in the great ho-
tels at Bordeaux, and then make you pay three prices
for it. For my part, I say, ‘Vive la broche /’” (long
live the spit!) The spit did look long-lived, rather ;
it measured good seven feet. The fowl was roasted
well enough, and ate well enough; but it was with-
out dressing, was soppy from frequent basting with
only water, to keep it from burning in the blaze of
fagot-wood, and came before me with its head and
claws on. Nobody in France roasts any better than
this.
In the morning it still rained hard, and I did not
care to make any excursion into the surrounding
country, where there would be no distilling to see,
because it was vintage-time, and no vintage, because
it was raining. A few years before I had received
a visit from young Mr. Otard, of Cognae, of the firm
of Otard, Dupuy, & Co., so thought I would look
him up; but, on calling at the place of business of
CoaGNac. 31
the firm, which I could easily see was an immense
concern, I was told the gentleman in question was
absent from town. Unfortunately, no other mem-
ber of the house was in Cognac, and the highest au-
thority to be found on the premises had no authority
to admit a stranger.
All the world have heard of the house I have men-
tioned. Its name is often used in America to christen
whisky. O., D., & Co. are not distillers, however, but,
like the other large houses of Cognac and Jarnac, are
merely merchants who buy up the liquor distilled by
the country proprietors, and gather it into their mag-
azines, where they treat it—or maltreat it—in some
dark mysterious fashion they fear to let strangers
witness, and, when it is old enough, sell it under their
own. brands.
Cognac brandy is not cheap, even in its own city,
where such as is old enough for drinking costs, from
first hands, two dollars a gallon. Brandy is made in
many other parts of France for about half that price.
It is a pity we in America must pay so excessively as
we do for French brandy, and even then be torment-
ed with doubts of the genuineness of the medicine
we take.
Good physicians say the aromatic quality of bran-
dy gives it medicinal virtues different from those of
32 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
other kinds of spirits, and, moreover, that pure liquors
are better medicines than adulterations. Whether
any one can explain why this is so or not, 1 am sure
no intelligent person would have equal faith in a
mixture of common druggists’ alcohol and water, as a
remedy for typhoid fever, as in pure Cognac. There
must, in the nature of things, be a connection between
aroma, savor, taste, and digestibility—between at-
tractiveness and usefulness. They brought me but
lately a saddle of venison from a deer that had been
chased into the river and there killed. It had utter-
ly lost all taste, and could not be eaten, or, had it
been eaten, it would have failed to afford the least
nourishment, if Liebig is right. The nervous power
had been hunted out of the poor beast, and with it
had been expelled from the flesh all that could be at-
tractive or useful to man. Against whisky, as whis-
ky, I have no objection; but as brandy, whisky is a
failure. To convert it into Cognac, they first rob it
of its corn ethers, and then replace them with con-
coctions which may cheat the palate, perhaps, but
never the stomach. The connection between the
ethereal and the substantial parts of all drinks is like
that between spirit and matter—once dissolved, it
can never be restored.
To make a gallon of Cognac brandy, seven and a
- Coa@nac. os
half gallons of wine must be distilled. No sooner
has fermentation subsided than distillation begins,
and this is often as early as the first of September.
Three qualities are made in the Charente: great
champagne, little champagne, and bois. The term
champagne comes from the resemblance of the soil °
where the wine is grown to that of the department
of the Marne, in the province of Champagne, both
being chalky limestone. The best quality is from
the poorest soil, of course. The average yield of
wine to the acre is 400 gallons. The cost of cultiva-
tion is about twenty dollars, gathering and pressing
included. Plowing is done four times a year, twice
to uncover, and twice to cover the feet of the souches.
A regular and certain return of five per cent. on his
capital contents the proprietor in the Charente, and
even this moderate rate could not be realized but for
the use made of the space of twenty feet left be-
tween the rows for raising general crops.
B2
34 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CORA PE Ria
MEDOC.
HE district named Médoc lies to the northward
of Bordeaux, with the River Gironde for its east-
ern and the ocean for its western boundary, and is a
peninsula of considerable extent. But the valuable
portion of it, called “ Haut Médoc,” is but a narrow
strip, not more than a mile and a half wide, nor more
than thirty miles long, occupying the slightly raised
middle ground between the sandy and sterile “landes”
of the sea-coast and the rich alluvial ground of the
river border. Beyond question, this narrow belt is
the most notable piece of all the earth’s surface for
growing red wine. The reader and I are going there
to-day, not for any purpose of amusement, but on the
important business of learning how to make red wine,
we and our countrymen being as yet alike lamenta-
bly ignorant of it.
Yet it is what we must needs know something
about, for the wine of our future must be red, and
MeEpoe. 35
not white. To Médoc we will go to receive our first
lesson, nor could a better school be found beneath
sun or moon.
For my part, I will emulate Pliny when he said,
“T shall discourse of wine with gravity becoming a
Roman treating of useful arts and sciences, approach-
ing my subject, not as a physician, but as a judge,
who is to pronounce on the physical and moral health
of the human race.”
A little deep-draft, narrow steamer of sea-going
model, whose small spluttering wheels turned swiftly
enough, but to wonderfully little purpose, conveyed
me down to Pauillac, and was all day about it. But
what if it did go slow? it carried me safe and re-
turned me sound. I don’t know why we should suf-
fer ourselves to feel contempt for the small craft of
European rivers and lakes. Narrow and sea-sicken-
ing as they are below deck, cramped and shelterless
as they are above, they are arks of safety to life and
limb, and an improvement on Noah’s, I dare say.
True, the two boats on which I used to go and come
between city and country home could either of them
singly do the whole business of the Upper Rhine, the
Gironde, or any Swiss lake, without drawing more
than three feet of water, yet both Boston and Bos-
tona, the one about the time I am writing of, and the
36 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
other three years before, took fire and burnt up while
under full steam, making excellent speed, and full-
freighted with passengers and goods.
But, though it took all day, the day was not lost.
There was a good deal to see. We were continually
passing inward-bound ships of every nationality, rid-
ing at anchor till the flood should come and tide
them up to the city, there to discharge their varied
cargoes and again reload, two in every three of them
with claret and cognac. One of them bore the flag
of my country, and as I gazed on its folds I knew it
would soon be waving proudly over a homeward-
bound cargo of as inferior liquor as Bordeaux could
export.
The deck was crowded with people, mostly of the
peasant class, and all of them going to vintage. The
freight piled up forward, casks, baskets, and queerly-
fashioned tubs, was going to vintage too, and every
thing spoke of festive labor. The men wore blouses,
mostly of blue linen, and the women had only caps
for bonnets; yet really both men and women seemed
to me better dressed than the working-people I had
left at home. Perhaps this was less owing to the
quality of the stuffs worn, though few were poor
enough to appear in calico, than to the fitness of the
costumes for the daily avocations of the wearers.
MEpoc. OL
Then. for their deportment—I don’t know how they
would have appeared if translated to the saloon of
fashion—awkwardly enough, perhaps; but, taken as
they were, in their habitual sphere, the manners of
those Bordelais peasants were such as our people can
never emulate, I fear. They were, in a word, respect-
ful and ceremonious, yet natural and easy; graceful,
yet simple; gay and talkative, yet quiet and reposed.
French theorists have claimed, be it known, that
although a select class of English or Russians may,
by mere dint of high breeding, become civilized and
refined, yet the masses of their fellow-countrymen,
as well as of all peoples who are without wine, must
forever remain barbarians. If there be any thing
in this theory, I would prayerfully entreat the Genius
of Civilization, or the Spirit of the Age, or god Bac-
chus, to take up bodily the whole American people,
men, women, and children, youths and misses—es-
pecially the youths and misses—and plunge us all
up to the lips in a sea of the proper liquid, therein
to soak and thereof to swallow, until politeness shall
penetrate all our joints and muscles, and refinement
enter into the texture of our bones.
There were some oysters on board—Meédoc oysters,
of great repute through France, as were their ances-
tors among the Romans. As early as the fourth cen-
38 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tury they were mentioned in somebody’s writings as
“a shell-fish as much esteemed on the tables of the
emperors as were the excellent wines brought from
Bordeaux.” I tasted them in as impartial a mood
as Pliny’s, as I afterward did the other celebrated
kind brought from Ostend, but in neither. could I
find any excuse for Roman gluttony, nor, any thing
else worth swallowing. Watery, thin, and coppery
are Europe’s best oysters, and watery and fishy are
her worst.
Near the close of the day we arrived at Pauillac,
and I found out and entered a little old inn in the
heart of a labyrinth of narrow streets, where a tough, —
chirpy old woman received me as if she had always
known and long been expecting me. She seemed to
know just what I wanted to learn, and, having shown
me the chamber where I was to lodge, and the parlor
. where I was to eat, took me to the kitchen, and dis-
played the preparations she was making for a band
of vintagers soon to come in from their work in the —
vineyards—for she was herself a proprietor, it seem-
ed. Lifting the lid of a large kettle, and letting me
smell of a savory mess within, she told me it was
the vintage broth, a dish of great antiquity. Judg-
ing from the preparations, the vintage band was a
large one ; in fact, she had a farm of no small value
MeEpoc. 39
—was rich, in fact, but it was her humor to keep
tavern. The proprietors, she said, always fed the
bands of vintagers, and gave them three repasts daily ;
the first, at eight o’clock, consisted of only bread and
grapes; the second, in the field, at noon, of soup and
soup-meat; and the last, in the evening, of soup and
a ragotit of meats. Bread and wine were supplied
“@ discretion,” which means without stint. The
wine is made of inferior grapes, gathered from
young vines usually, crushed and put into a barrel
with the head out. As soon as fermentation has
well begun, a certain quantity of water is poured in,
the cask is tapped at the foot, and the liquor placed
at the discretion of the drinkers. One franc a day is
paid to the cutters, as those are called who cut the
_ grapes from the vines, and for such as carry them to
the wagon a franc and a half. But a few years
ago wages were one fourth lower.
After my dinner I had grapes for dessert, and
they were choice bunches, and good as any I after-
ward tasted in Médoc, but I could not call them de-
licious. Nor did-I any where in France, Switzer-
land, or Germany, find any to equal the Catawbas of
the Ohio Valley in their prime.
In the evening I went to see a vintage dance at a
chateau just outside the town. Under a shed, lighted
AQ EvRoPEAN VINEYARDS.
with a single candle, twenty or thirty of the younger
vintagers were dancing in wooden shoes on the bare
ground. The figure was simply the old pantaloon
cotillon of “forward two,” “cross over,” “right hand
left,” “dos a dos,” and “ladies’ chain,” only the coup-
les were placed in two opposite rows, as in a contra
dance, and not as in a quadrille, so that the dancers
were continually in motion. Occasionally this was
varied by a few rounds in waltzing order, perform-
ed with a kind of balance step, the partners holding
hands and facing each other. They did not hug, as
fashionable people do, nor was there any rudeness,
or romping, or boisterous conduct of the men, and
far less any sign of drunkenness.
A hurdy-gurdy, played by the overseer of the
troop, was all the music they had. The overseer is
a kind of middle-man, who recruits the band in the
neighboring and poorer districts, and conducts them
from place to place while vintage lasts, sub-letting
them at a price which yields him a profit of two or
three cents daily on the labor of each person.
I had seen vintage dances before this, at the thea-
tre, but there was always a row of brilliant foot-
lights, and a large orchestra, and the dancers wore
blue and red bodices, with clean chemises, and broad
straw hats adorned with gay ribbons, and had neat
MeEpoc. 41
slippers on their feet, and pink stockings on their
legs, quite unlike any thing to be seen in the stable-
' yard at Pauillac. One of the wooden shoes, flung
from a maiden’s foot as she whirled by in a waltz,
struck my knee with centrifugal force. As the Cin-
derella who owned it kept on with her dancing, I
had time to examine the “sabot.” It was nicely
made, of good shape, and light, furnished with a
simple leather “upper” nailed to the edge of the’
sole. The cost was only seventy-five cents the pair.
Many people in France, who live in the country,
wear this kind of shoe in muddy weather from choice,
and thus avoid many a malady. An American, with
common sense enough to adopt them for himself and
family, could save sufficient between the birth and
coming of age of his oldest child to buy a farm.
“Tere is where they sleep,” said my guide, as he
stopped before an open door. I looked in, and saw
merely a large room in an out-building, the floor of
which was covered with a comfortable thickness of
clean straw, upon which straw some forty vintage
youths and maidens were to sleep that night. This,
they told me, was the usual mode of lodging the la-
borers. They seemed very happy—and why should
not they be? those trooping bands, tramping from
one merry harvest to another, seeing the world for
42 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
nothing, free for the time from home restraints, fed
and lodged in foul weather as well as fair, earning
wherewith to buy clothes for the year by light, so-
cial, and agreeable labor in the day, and enjoying a
vintage ragofit and vintage dance in the evening, eat-
ing “a discretion,” drinking “a discretion,” and sleep-
ing “a discretion.”
When I went down to breakfast the following
morning, I found madame was already up and a-field,
having left her only domestic to attend upon her only
lodger. Mathilde informed me M. Averous had been
to call on me, and had left his compliments, with the
offer of his services to conduct me to see the vintage.
It was the landlady, I learned, who had obtained for
me this polite attention. To lose no time, I waited
on myself while Mathilde ran to bring a hack.
Thanks to a soft, fair, welcoming kind of weather,
such as makes you feel at home in a strange land, I
could go in an open carriage. French towns take
small space, and in five minutes I was beyond the
outer borders of Pauillac, and going along a vine-
bordered country road, where, for leagues on either
side, nothing hindered the view. Soon we began to
pass wagons loaded with fruit on its way to the vats,
each drawn by two oxen of a most noble breed.
Their color was a tawny drab, and their horns white.
MeEpoc. 43
They seemed thoroughly trained, and moved along
in a dignified manner, as if they drew their load of
their own free will, and not from fear of the slight
rod armed with only half an inch of darning-needle,
carried, rather as a guide than a goad, by a man who
walked beside them without blasphemy or loud words
of any kind. It means something that the French
use the word “ conductor” where we say “ driver.”
Eyery ox wore a net over his face—quite a neat
thing, too—and a cloth that covered the back and
hung down to the knees, which were for protection
against insects such as swarm from the low lands of
the river border. This highly-esteemed race is the
result of kind and judicious treatment, as much as
of the rich pastures of the Gironde.
In Ohio I could never get an ox-driver to un-
dertake any heavy work without a fresh sea-grass
snapper at the end of his short-handled, rattlesnake-
looking whip, nor unless his own lungs were in good
order for swearing. In one year I received the res-
ignations of two good drivers, tendered solely be-
cause their lungs had given out. Both were good
men, and really meant nothing but business when
they swore and scourged. What breed of beast such
evil influences and rude discipline will produce the
future will reveal.
44 EuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
It was Fourier who taught that, so, soon as man-
kind shall learn to take good care and make good
use of the domestic animals they already have, the
Creator will give them others more perfect and more
useful. I don’t know what authority the philosopher
had for this promise, but am sure the ass-drivers of
Naples and ox-drivers of some parts of America will
have to wait a good while yet for the prize animals
which are to reward their humanity, while one might
fancy that in the Percheron horse and oxen such as
I have described, the French people had already re-
ceived their recompense.
The large group of cutters to which I was direct-
ed to find the Messrs. Averous evinced that those
gentlemen cultivated on no small scale. One of them
came to the carriage to receive me, and I soon found
myself at home in the busy company, and fell to eat-
ing grapes and asking questions, the first one being
why were the vine-leaves so spotted in many parts
of the field? It was verdigris, that had been sprin-
kled on the outer ranges of vines to keep away birds.
Whether it poisoned or frightened them I now for-
get; but a bird that comes fluttering about and drink-
ing, “a discretion,” wine worth a dollar the bottle,
without a cent in its pocket, is a sponge, and deserves
verdigris.
MeEpoc. AD
The organization of the vintage troop I found to
be quite systematic. First there is the rank and file,
mostly women and children, who go along between
the rows, one in each space, and gather the fruit into
tight baskets. These cut off the bunches with knives,
and are called “cutters.” J*ollowing within easy
reach of the cutters, along alleys which cross the
rows at suitable and regular distances, go the wag-
ons, each containing two short upright casks without
heads, and drawn by a yoke of oxen. Between these
and the cutters come and go men who carry on their
backs, with the help of shoulder-straps, the’ common
deep, oval tub, of size to hold five baskets, such as
the cutters carry, and called “hotte.” The hotte-
bearer has in his hand a stout walking-stick, which
serves to prop his burden so as to relieve him of its
weight while standing still waiting on the cutters.
His vessel filled, the hotte-bearer carries it to the
wagon, mounts it by a short step-ladder, dumps his
load into one of the casks by a quick inclination of
the body, and then, with his stick, stirs about the
grapes to pack them well down. Over all is the
“ commandant,” whose name implies his duties. His
insignia of office is a long slender lath, to the end of
which is fixed a willow twig. When a cutter com-
mits a fault, such as leaving a bunch ungathered, or
46 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
not properly culling out the green or decayed ber-
ries, instead of calling it to her notice by words,
which would draw the attention of the whole group
and cause a considerable loss of time, he lightly
touches her shoulder with the tip of the twig.
Every twelve cutters had two hotte-bearers and
one commandant. Such a force will in a day har-
vest a “hectare,” about two acres and a half, bear-
ing the average yield of Médoc, which is 625 gal-
lons, or 250 to the acre—a very large yield, consid-
ering the fine quality of the wine. This is good
work, but they go early to the field, and never wait
for the dew to dry from the fruit, as is common else-
where, since they do not fear it will do any harm in
the vat.
The rows were three feet apart in all the Médoc
vineyards I saw, and the vines the same distance
from each other in the rows. They stood on little
ridges flung up against them by the last of the four
plowings which they annually receive, two of which
uncover,.and the other two cover their feet.
The plow they use is of wood, except a plate of
iron in form of a long triangle with which it is shod,
and has but one handle, being, in fact, no other than
the Roman implement of Virgil’s time. It is drawn
by two oxen yoked abreast, one of which treads in
Mépoc. 47
the space between the rows where the plow is moy-
ing, and the other in the next one. The beam is
curved quite curiously to insure the proper bearing
and direction, and must of course pass above the
tops of the vines, stakes, trellis, and all; and, strange
to say, all of these are kept within the low stature
of fifteen inches for no other purpose than to allow
the plow-beam to pass over them. If there were
ever any other reasons for this Liliputian training,
this is the only one that has come down from the
remote antiquity which clouds the origin of the cus-
toms of Médoc.
One of the gentlemen took me to see the wine-
making in a large old stone building near by. On
entering the spacious and high press-room, the first
thing to see was a circle of workmen engaged in
stemming the grapes. They were standing within a
shallow box, or rather a wide platform with a low
rim, built up about three feet above the floor, very
much resembling the dish of a common wine-press,
but quite large, measuring ten feet each way, and
ealled “ pressoir.” Its bottom pitched a little on one
side, and was grooved to let the must flow freely
away; and in the rim of the lower edge was an
opening about a foot wide, beneath which was a
large tub of 200 gallons’ capacity, to receive the
48 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
” liquid, called a “gargouille.” The men were at work —
about a sort of table which stood in the centre of the
“‘pressoir,” having for a top a grating or screen made
of rods of half-inch iron, and bordered with a low
rim of wood. The rods running the shorter way
were supported in the middle by passing through a
bar one and a half inch by half an inch, but those
running the longer way were fastened only at their
ends, and rested on the others rather loosely. Close
to the pressoir was a doorway opening into the yard,
at which a wagon was being unloaded as I entered,
which was done by bringing the casks from the wag-
on directly through the door and on to the floor of
the pressoir, which last was on the same level with
the sill of the door and bed of the wagon, so that no
lifting need be done. The contents of the casks
were dumped close to the table or screen. Then,
having flung a few bushels of the grapes upon the
screen, the workmen took their places about it and
began to rub them on it with their hands, the berries
passing through the meshes, and leaying the stems
behind. Soon currents of red juice crept out from
beneath the mass of crushed grapes under the table,
and, flowing along grooves in the floor of the press-
oir, ran out through the opening in the rim and into
the gargouille beneath. It needed but a short time
—————— rl
MeEpoc. 49
to make an end of the wagon-load, and then the ta- —
‘ble was set on one side, and the heap accumulated
beneath and about it was shoveled out, by way of the
same opening which the juice went through, into
tubs made of barrels sawed in two, with sticks pass-
ing through holes bored in the staves, and projecting
on either side, for handles. As these were filled, they
were carried up to the top of the vat and flung in.
The juice accumulated in the gargouille was car-
_ ried and poured into the vat by means of the same
tubs. .
Climbing by a ladder to the level of the rims of
the long row of vats which lined one side of the
press-house, I could see that two of them were full,
and the contents already fermenting, covered with
only a thick float of stems.
The vats were of oak, iron-bound, eight feet deep,
ten feet wide at the bottom, and nine at the top. The
hoops were not riveted, but were clasped where the
ends met by short screw-bolts passing through flanges
or ears, the bolts serving to tighten the joints of the
staves when necessary. Each vat would hold four
thousand gallons.
No other crushing was given to the grapes than
what they necessarily got in being rubbed through
the meshes of the screen.
C
50 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
On taking my leave, I received valuable instruc-
tions how to shape my course in my proposed circuit
among the great houses of the canton, and also what
was very pleasant—an invitation to dinner—which I
incontinently accepted.
After quitting the Averous farm, my course lay
along a wide, gently-swelling ridge of gravelly land,
and commanding an extensive view in every direc-
tion. The face of the country was rolling, and di-
vided into long, low swells of high ground occupied
by vines, and wide intermediate flats hardly above
the level of the Gironde, partly devoted to grain and
partly abandoned to a coarse pasturage. These flats
render Médoc unhealthy, so much so that its people
are weak, indolent, and apathetic; and “ mountain-
eers,” as they call the inhabitants of the hill-country,
are employed in considerable numbers to do the
heavy work, at extra wages. Perhaps it was from
the same reason that many of the houses on the great
estates, and the grounds about them, appeared neg-
lected beyond what one would expect to see on such
valuable domains.
If I remember well, the soil along the road all the
way, or nearly all the way to St. Julien, showed little
variation, being mostly of coarse gravel—quite coarse,
the pebbles being as large as hickory and hazel nuts.
MeEpoc. . : 51
Nor could I notice much variety in the modes of
training or in the degree of care bestowed. Westerly
winds from the ocean often sweep violently over the
peninsula, and, but for the very low training, would
make havoe among high trellis or staked vines, and
possibly I have here discovered a second reason for a
custom to explain which a very high authority could
give me no other than that it was to let the plow
pass.
I noticed the shoots that had mounted above the
tops of the laths of the trellis had a close cropped
look, as if they had been trimmed like a hedge. And
the driver said it was so; that it was usual. at blos-
soming time to mow off, with a short scythe, both the
tops and sides of the vines, in order to clear the way
for the oxen and plow, which also served instead of
pinching in.
LA TOUR.
The sight near at hand of “a stern round tower
of other days” admonished me I was entering the do-
main of Chateau la Tour, one of the three reigning
houses of Haut Médoc, by decree of the Bordeaux
Chamber of Commerce and the suffrages of princely °
drinkers the world over ranking number one in a
classification of a select sixty chosen from among the
52 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
many thousand “ wgnobles” of a district where all is
choice and fine. When the Franks invaded Gaul and
first drank of the juice of its grapes, they honored
the vine that bore them with the name wigne noble
(noble vine), whence comes vignodle, the French for
vineyard. But La Tour is more than noble. It has
been crowned a king.
Surrounded by a field of little low vines, as insig-
nificant to look at as any of the others, stood a hand-
some new chateau, with press-house, store-houses, sta-
bles, ete., close by, while apart from all, and rising
from among the hop-o-my-thumb trellis was a stately
antique tower, giving dignity, character, interest, and
name to the place.
A gentleman of distinguished look, with two la-
dies, was walking toward the house as I drew near.
I saluted him, and asked permission to walk about
the property. “If Monsieur will be good enough to
wait a moment, the ‘vegisseur’ will be here and will
conduct him.” The regisseur, or steward coming up,
I was presented and turned over to him. He showed
me to the press-house. A pile of grapes, already
stemmed, was heaped in conical form on the pressoir,
and five or six men, with trowsers rolled above the
knees, were trotting about in a circle, trampling the
pile under foot, beginning at the outer circumference,
MEpoc. 5s
and gradually contracting their circuit till they met
in the middle and on the top of the cone. This they
call “fouler a pied” (crushing with feet). There
might be a cleaner way of doing the thing; I don’t
think there could be a fouler.
The regisseur made no apology for the sight, nor
did the trotters seem the least ashamed. Wherever
I went that day, except at the Averous farm and
Chateau Lafitte, this-mode of crushing was in prac-
tice. It is said no other so effectually crushes the
pulp without breaking the seed—in fact, that it is
important for the quality of the wine that it be
trodden out with naked feet. It is also said, and
very truly, that soap and water will cleanse the feet
as well as the hands.
At-one place I visited I inquired oi the workmen
if they washed their feet before trampling on the
grapes, and was told they did not. One of them en-
lightened my ignorance by explaining that wine had
the power to fling off all impurities, so that it was of
no sort of consequence how free they made with it.
No doubt there is a good deal to be said on the oth-
er side of this question of dirt. I confess that what
I saw and heard disturbed my old notions. At all
events, the Médoc vintagers acted as if quite sure of
their chemical deductions, and would walk with bare
~
54 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
feet slap dash through puddle and mud, and mount
the juicy heap with the assured tread of men firmly
grounded in their principles.
Several of the vats at La Tour were already full,
and fermentation was well under way in some of
them, but none were covered with any thing at all;
and this was the case at many other houses.
On my asking the regisseur how long he allowed
the wine to remain in the vat, he told me the period
varied from three or four days up to one month.
This astonished me. He explained that, though fer-
mentation might fully accomplish itself in a fort-
night at farthest, even when the season was bad for
ripening, yet that in such case it was needful to give
time not only for fermentation to come to an end,
but also for the greener portions of the pulp remain-
ing undecomposed and suspended in the liquid to
sink to the bottom. And that very vintage, he said
would need a month in the vat.
>
The regisseur’s account of the precautions taken
in drawing off, barreling, filling up, etc., satisfied me
the great reputation of Médoc wines was much more
the result of care and skill in “conducting” it, as they
say, from the vat to the bottle, than is generally sup-
posed. ;
When the time comes for drawing off from the
Merpoc. 55
vats and putting into barrels, they proceed as fol-
lows: a sufficient number of new “barriques” (of
nearly sixty gallons’ capacity) to contain all the first
quality of wine that has been made in all the vats
are prepared by a simple washing with tepid water,
followed by a rinsing with wine or brandy, and then
drained until quite dry, and arranged in one or more
rows on the floor of the cellar.
The vat is then tapped at the bottom, and the wine
allowed to flow into a large tub at its foot, whence
it is dipped out by means of oblong buckets, poured
into the two-man tubs with sticks for handles before
described, and carried and distributed among the
_barriques, not by entirely filling first one and then
another, but by carefully dividing the contents of
the vat equally among them all, so that when the
~ man at the faucet, seeing the liquid begin to* run
somewhat thick, turns the key and shuts off all far-
ther flow, each and every barrique shall have re-
ceived its equal share of the contents of the vat. The
same process being repeated with each of the other
vats, it follows that the wine in the barriques is uni-
form in color and quality, which is especially impor-
tant where such small receptacles are used. Thus
is made quality number one.
56 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The turbid wine left in the vat is then drawn off,
and set apart as quality number three.
The mass of skins and seeds still remaining at the
bottom, and which is called “vapé,” is then pressed
with a machine resembling circular cider - presses,
such as are now seen in use, and makes quality num-
ber four. Formerly numbers three and four were
put together.
_Number two is made from fruit grown on inferior
soils or exposures, or that is, from any cause, imper-
fectly ripened. Grapes from young vines are also
deemed unfit to mingle their juice with number one.
During the first month after the drawing off, the
bungs are allowed to rest loosely, on their holes, and
twice a week the barriques are filled up. At the
end of the month linen is wrapped about the bungs,
and they are driven home. After that the filling up
is done once a week. In March the wine is again
drawn off. This is again done in June, as well as in
October or November; but by some the June draw-
ing off is omitted. In March of the second year the
wine is again drawn off, after which the position of
the barriques is so far changed, by turning them
slightly on one side, that the bung shall always be
wet, and the air-bubble rest a few inches away from
it. From this time on, the drawing off is done only
MeEpoc. 57
twice yearly,in March and August. At the end of
three or four years the wine is ready for the bottle
and for the market. In the drier climate of our
country I am sure the term might be shortened by
one third.
Great care is taken to keep the wine from any ac-
cess of air when being drawn off. The common
way is to place the empty cask beside the full one,
connect the two with a tube of gutta-percha two
feet long, allow the contents of the full one to flow
into the other till the quantity is equal in both, ap-
ply a strong bellows to the bung-hole of the cask to
be emptied, fitting it tightly, and blow out the re-
mainder. Another plan is to place the full one im-
mediately over the empty one, and let the contents
flow into the latter through a tube reaching nearly
to the bottom, in order that there shall be as little
“churning” as possible.
The wastage from ‘all causes between the first
barreling and the final clarification for bottling is
twenty-five per cent., and the cost of producing and
conducting a gallon to the bottling stage is about
seventy cents; with interest added, it would amount
to a dollar. Considering that this estimate assumes
the yield of an acre to be 250 gallons, which is about
the average both of favorable and unfavorable soils,
C2
58 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
it shows that labor and care are needed, as well as
silicious and ferruginous gravel, and that not wholly
to luck does Médoe owe its high reputation.
It seems the climate of Médoc is too damp to per-
mit of storing wine in cellars under ground. For-
tunately, however, and perhaps from the same cause, _
it may be safely kept in store-rooms on the ground
level. During the first one or two years it is stored
in an ordinarily light but close apartment; after that
it is kept sedulously in the dark, as well as from all
access of outside air. It is deemed a sign that the
room is not dark enough if the mould which accu-
mulates largely on the casks is green ‘instead of
white.
About ten feet above the floor of the store-room
is a ceiling which forms an attic overhead. This
attic is kept as close in all weathers as the store-room
itself, and a pretty warm place it must be in mid-
summer. The safety of the wine seems to depend
on keeping the temperature, whatever it may be, as
even as possible, since it is by changes of tempera-
ture that the wine in the cask is made to swell or di-
minish, thereby respiring new air, as it were.
Wine of the vintage of 1865 was uncommonly
good, and so was the regisseur to give me some of it.
He took me into the dark and musty inner apartment
MeEpoc. 59
where it lay, and there, on the very spot of its origin,
I saw it drawn from the original package. Of course
I found it the best wine, either red or white, I had
ever tasted. Nevertheless, 1 was not dismayed, and
I turned away from the precincts of La Tour with
more hope and faith than ever in the Norton’s Vir-
ginia Seedling.
PICHON-LONGUEVILLE.
‘From La Tour I was driven to the beautiful cha-
teau of Pichon-Longueyille, owned by a baron of
that name. Looking at it, I wondered if the time
would ever come for American vine-dressers to build
houses like it from the profits of a hundred acres of
ground too poor to bear mullens. Finding my way
directly to the press-house, without troubling any one
to give me permission or show me through, I was
glad to find the workmen lounging about in the in-
terval between dining and going to work again—the
best time for getting questions answered. All was
much the same as at La Tour, except that every vat
in which fermentation had begun was covered with
matched boards, closely fitted and plastered to the
rim with clay or some kind of cement, so as to allow
no escape for gas except through a tin tube of siphon
shape, with its upper mouth submerged in a vessel
60 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
of water—an apparatus well known in this country.
Great importance is attached to the siphon and wa-
ter-dish at Pichon-Longueville, but why did I meet
with it nowhere else in Médoc ?
Outside the gateway of the chateau was a compost-
heap, to which mud from the river marshes was be-
ing hauled, as well as stable manure. They told me
the-compost thus formed and well rotted was the only
manure tolerated in Médoc, and that even this was
feared by some proprietors, who enriched their vine-
yards with mud alone, or turf, or swampy earth, at
the risk of debasing the natural soil, since large quan-
tities are required if no richer material is mingled
with these. Compost is applied in various ways. At_
Pichon-Longueville they spread it over the surface
and plow it in. Others fill with it little excavations
made around the feet of the vines, while others again
bury it in trenches midway between the rows, eight
inches wide, and deep enough to escape the plow.
The ill effects of manure on the quality of the wine
are not supposed to accrue in any direct manner, but
- to result simply from the sap and luxuriance of the
plant which it induces. Freshly-manured vines and
those newly planted are placed in the same category,
the fruit of both being deemed equally unfit for
growing wine of the first quality; but, were not ma-—
MEpDoc. 61
nuring sparingly and carefully done in Médoe, I am
sure the wine affected by it would go down at least
one step lower in the scale. There are proprietors
who do not manure their vines oftener than every
twenty years—as those of Léoville, for instance. The
greater number do it every seven, eight, nine, or ten
years, while some wait only five, and some only three.
LAFITTE.
After a pretty wide circuit, which brought within
view many celebrated estates, I made the next halt
at Chateau Lafitte. There, as at the Averous farm,
they did not dance upon the grapes, the stemming
process giving all the crushing thought necessary.
Now, through nearly every wine district of France,
they will tell you that crushing with bare feet is so
important, no considerations can be allowed to dis-
pense with it. But do they not dispense with it at
Lafitte? and is not Lafitte a chateau of the first class?
“Perhaps the omission of the ceremony there is an in-
novation of the present owner, Sir William Scott.
The British aristocracy are growing so fond of the
wines of Médoc, a good deal of its soil is getting to
be owned across the Channel ; but, naturally enough,
they like to import as little of it in solution as can be
helped.
62 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
I saw them using the small round press I have
mentioned to extract the juice of the few berries,
mostly unripe, which still adhered to the stems after
being rubbed.
A cursory observation would fail to detect in the
pebbly surface at Lafitte, any more than at La Tour,
any thing to distinguish it from a good many others
growing wines of only second, third, fourth, or fifth
class, or no class at all. But the uniformity is only
apparent, and there is nothing occult in the matter.
The ground of the Lafitte vineyards is of the fol-
lowing composition : |
Silicious pebbles, nut size............. 629.00 parts.
Mine. Sands 03. just sone seodahe we seeseacets 283.00 ‘°
IPUTE SUCK 2.0 ve sees cooncuscosensecn oder 62.20 ‘°
13 fo5 00) CHEN ssnepoaorpEemeconc oosdsormcae ace 42.80 ‘*
ALUMINA «6c. cas soapusesssncncesteacswesndes (eae
Time stesso RS ieeacomcecneees 40.00‘
POU Gaekaice vndcceshe sates Sahat eseeeeroeee 86.00 ‘
TLOSS 2is.fs°3 ccs aacusacomedsestua. saveweesaseess 4:50) £5
Such is the composition of a soil capable of pro-
ducing the very best wine. Next in excellence is a
sandy surface underlaid with quite fine silicious gray-
el. After these two comes a surface of limestone —
pebbles, immediately resting on strong beds of shelly
limestone or marly clay; and, last of all, soils where
clay predominates.
MeEpoce. 63
Iron, forming nearly nine per cent. of the choice
soil of Lafitte, is found in similar proportions in all
other choice Médoc soils of the gravelly kind, and it
is well known that it causes the wines grown upon
such to deepen in color as they grow older, instead of
fading, as is usual. The small proportion of lime,
only four per cent., will also be noticed by those curi-
ous in grape soils, as also the general poverty of the
whole mass.
Draining has long been practiced in the tenacious
alios, or hard-pan subsoil of much of the Médoc re-
gion. Tile are already in use, yet many still insist
that the old-fashioned brush-wood and broken stone
drains are better.
LEOVILLE.
The next domain I stopped at was nearly two miles
from the last, in the adjoining commune of St. Julien.
Chateau Léoville is of the second class. There, too,
the vats had only loose boards for covering. Thus
had I seen since morning vats wholly uncovered, vats
covered with closely-sealed boards, others with loose
boards, and others still with only a float of grape-
stems. When such diversity of practice is found
among skillful and practiced wine-makers, is it not
best for the American beginner to buy some book
64 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
that will instruct him in but one way of conducting
the wine through every step of its progress, and con-
fidingly follow all its teachings, without troubling
himself with running after his own facts or spinning
his own theories? I think not; and the method of
this volume is to present—as it was of my explora-
tions to collect—as many noteworthy facts as possi-
ble, let them perplex and puzzle as they may.
All the arrangements at Léoville were the best I
had any where seen, and for the grapes they gave me
I can pay them this compliment, that they were al-
most as good as I had eaten at home.
COS D’ESTOURNEL.
Another wide circuit, and I found myself driving
by a carved stone gateway showing the royal arms
of Britain as large as life. It was the entrance to
Chateau Cos d’Estournel, owned by the heirs of an
English gentleman named Martyn. Soon after pass-
ing it the driver drew up before a second chateau, be-
longing to the same family, called Pomys, and a fine
old building too. A polite old Frenchman received
me with an apology for the absence of the director,
and showed me through not only the vines and wine-
houses, but the chateau, barns, stables, ete., very well
worth seeing, and all bearing the stamp of English
MeEpoc. 65
order and neatness. But all his English associations
had failed to make an Englishman of my old con-
ductor, or he would never have declined the money I
hesitatingly offered on taking leave.
The grating upon which they were stemming
grapes in the press-room of Pomys was framed of
oak bars one inch thick on the face and two and a
half inches deep, and the meshes, or openings, were
one inch wide by eighteen long. On the grating the
fruit was rubbed by means of a rake, also of oak, the
teeth being of the same stuff and dimensions as the
bars of the grating, set edgewise to the line of the
handle, and sharpened at the ends. The handle was
long.
In this connection I will describe a utensil for
stemming grapes which I think the best I have yet
seen. It is the one used at the Longworth Wine-
house in Cincinnati.
A tub flaring at the top, three feet high and four
feet across at its greatest diameter, is fitted with a
cover made of one-inch thick white-oak board, which
rests on shoulders that sustain it 28 inches above the
bottom,.and seven inches below the top of the tub.
The cover has a strong cross-piece on the under side
to keep it from warping. It is pierced with holes of
the diameter of one inch on the upper surface, and
66 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
an inch and a half on the lower, the holes being four
inches apart, measuring from centre to centre.
Wine of Cos d’Estournel, which ranks in the see-
ond class, sells for 2500 francs per cask of four bar-
riques, called “ tonneau,” while that of its next neigh-
bor, Pomys, of no class at all, brings only 1000 franes.
The market value of the various classes will appear
in the following table, which gives the prices estab-
lished for the vintage of 1862. Each tonneau con-
taining 912 litres, and each litre being equal to
1.760773 pint imperial measure, and the franc being
equal to about 20 cents in real money, every reader
may reckon for himself.
ASHIGIBSS ech sneaceguscaaeeerameekeatrueeassat 4000 frances.
Dds Oe stp cawestan ne ceercesenraettestee 3000‘
DG ss Saka der dchnctneveatesmenccumeavesrent 2000 ‘*
TIT, 15 | a wckcchomeaniesenicentoeseonnea waned Ieee 1800‘
Btn Seek vccuanceaeve sass camareccencuceateres 1500: 35
Bourgeois supérieure..............ecceres 1400 ‘
The dinner to which I had been invited was given
in honor of the reunion of six college mates, of
whom two were the young Messrs. Averous, two were
young and very jolly priests, one was an English-
man, and the other a Bostonian. It was pleasant to
drink authentic Médoc in its very home, and equally
pleasant to witness the enjoyment of the college
MeEpoc. 67
friends. The priests were as good fellows as any of
the rest, but French priests are never required to
assume a vinegar aspect, and drink melted ice on
principle.
68 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
O TAP eas ve
SAUTERNE.
I GOT upon the boat next day, and returned to
Bordeaux once again, whence, on the following
morning, I took the cars for Agen by a route that
ascended the valley of the River Garonne. At
Langon a gentleman entered the carriage where I
was whom I found could give me full information
concerning the vine district I had just traversed in
the preceding half hour’s ride. It was the district
where is grown the fine white wines known under
the general name of Sauterne. :
He told me the soil was in some places of gravel,
in others of sand, and in others of clay mixed with
sand and underlaid with limestone. They plant
their vinés about three feet apart in both directions.
They prune them low, the two or three canes allowed
on each stock, or souche, being cut back to two eyes
each. Leaf-pruning is practised to excess. Begin-
ning early in September, they proceed with it gradu-
SAUTERNE. . 69
ally, but severely, so that before vintage, the fruit,
little by little robbed of all its natural shelter, hangs
naked to the sun’s rays.
Three gatherings are made; the first culls from
each bunch only a few excessively ripe berries, the
second takes such as have ripened to the same exces-
sive degree since the first, and the third sweeps in
all the remainder.. This protracted vintage hardly
comes to an end before November. Wine of the
first gathering is called “head wine ;” of the second,
“middle wine ;” and of the third, “tail wine.” About
ten per cent. of the whole is of the extremely pre-
cious first fruit, and about forty per cent. is of the
second quality. The average yield is about the same
as in Médoc.
They manure once in five years, plow thoroughly,
“and cultivate by hand as well, and, from what I
learned of my railway-carriage informant and from
other sources, are even more exact and: careful in
the conduct of their delicate wines than those I had
just left.
_ After the first two or three years Sauterne wine
is transferred from the barriques into very large tuns
called “foudres,” which hold nearly 2500 gallons.
While remaining in barriques, it is drawn off three
times a year, and filled up twice a week. In foudres
70 IuUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
it is drawn off twice a year, and filled up once a
week.
Haut-Sauterne is of marvelous delicacy, and is the
French rival of the white wines of the Rhinegau.
At half past eight next morning the landlord of
the hotel at Agen said, “Certainly, if the gentleman
wishes it, I will wake up the cook; but the gentle-
man will enjoy his breakfast better if he will wait
till eleven o’clock, when we have our table d’héte.”
“T will wait, certainly,” I replied, too polite by far;
and it is true I enjoyed my breakfast when I got it,
as any fool might who had waited two hours and a
half. ‘The table was lined with those knights-errant
of modern times, as Irving calls them, commercial
travelers, who overrun all civilized countries, beating
the reveille for customers. Of a truth drumming is
a hungry exercise, or else Frenchmen are better eat-
ers than I am used to see; and I here note that
Americans can not compare with Frenchmen at
trencher-play, either for quantity or rapidity. The
commercial eaters at Agen waited patiently, it is -
true, while each of the eight or ten courses was being
served, but, once started, their speed from station to
station could not be emulated by us.
LANGUEDOG fial
CHAPTER VL
LANGUEDOC.
oes Agen to Toulouse, and thence to Beziers,
I took a third-class car. The seats were hard,
with hard backs. It rained hard without, and they
smoked hard within. The stoppages were frequent,
and the speed under twelve miles an hour. It was
a hard journey; and I would warn all travelers on
the Continent who may like to study French charac-
ter, and sound the feelings of the working classes
throughout France, that they had better take good
lodgings in Paris, read carefully some book on the
subject written by an unprejudiced Englishman and
rely on its statements, instead of going bumping
about among blue blouses and wooden shoes, as I did.
After three or four hours, the rolling of the r-r-r’s
of the incoming passengers reminded me we were
entering the borders of ancient Languedoc, so named
from the old language of its people, which was not
French, but the dangue d’oc—a country of great tra-
72 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ditions—Roman and civilized, rich and enlightened,
when Paris was but a seat of barbarians—Paris,
which now scorns as provincial the rich roll of the
Languedocian tongue.
The hands and feet of the peasantry of Languedoc
are so small, it is difficult to believe them used to
hard work. They are of a superior bodily constitu-
tion—blooded animals of Greek and Roman descent ;
and centuries of labor, deprivation, oppression, perse-
cution, and ravages of war have failed to bend their
backs, hollow their chests, make their feet flat, their
hands broad, or their waists large. Their eyes are
large and black, and their teeth white and clean.
Having left behind me the Médoc and Sauterne
districts, where, as is the boast of their cultivators,
“Nature does much, but man does more,” I was ap-
proaching those happier southern regions where Na-
ture does a good deal more, and leaves man not near
so much to do; where the kindly sun, knowing how
languid the ardor of his rays renders the arm of man,
takes upon himself the greater task, and performs it
by a fuller efflux of creative power, leaving only the
lesser one for poor lazy mortals to do.
Happy, beautiful, fruitful Languedoc! I will one
day see you again, please God. .
So frequent were the stoppages and changes of
LANGUEDOC. . 3
passengers, that in the course of the day a good many
different people successively occupied the benches
neighboring to mine. With most of them I man-
aged to have some conversation, and they had a good
deal to say on the subject of vine-culture, but it all
related to vines trained “en souche-basse,” which, as
I have said, may be translated “stump,” “stock,” or
“stool.” As I looked out through the windows of
the carriage, it meant beautiful bushes, flourishing
over hill, hollow, and plain, from rail-track to hori-
zon, as good to see as corn on a prairie. Not one
brown stake or lath was there to mar the green ar-
ray. Nature, in her strength, had flung the crutch
away. /
But I was not allowed to do all the questioning,
and, after receiving my fair share of information,
was required to give some in return.
“The gentleman is from America,” I heard one
of my companions say to a woman sitting next him.
“Ask him, then,” she said, “if the men there can
have as many wives as they like.”
“Yes, madam; some of us take one, two, or as
many more as we can support, but we do it to car-
ry out our conscientious convictions—just as your
monks, from an equally high principle, refuse to
have even one wife.”
D
74 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
“ Horrible!” she cried.
“Abominable!” said a priest who had just then
turned round to listen.
“Not a bit abominable,” growled a gray old farm-
er from behind me. “Much better have too many
wives than none at all.”
The priest smiled and took snuff. Neither he nor
I had ever before heard the case put in just that
form. The woman looked down and said nothing.
Beziers, where I arrived at evening, is one of the
principal cities of the Department of L’Herault,
which produces more wine than any other in France.
The city is in view of the Mediterranean, has thirty
thousand inhabitants, and is neither very neat, or-
derly, nor beautiful. In going to Beziers I had
plunged into the very middle of things, but, as at
Pauillac, I had no clew to get at them—not so much
as the name of a single soul in all the place.
After supper I went to the theatre, and there had
the good fortune to sit beside a gentleman with
whom I soon got acquainted, and in whom I found
the very person I wanted. He gave me his card at
parting, and invited me to visit him the next day at
his country residence in the village of Boujon, some
six miles from the city. I found M. L—— at his
distillery, adjoining his cellars. The stills were of
’ LANGUEDOC. 15
the newest and most complex fashion, more expedi-
tious than the old well-known copper affairs, such as,
in our country, good whisky is made with, and made
probably no exception to the old rule regarding all
things good to eat or drink, that, to arrive at excel-
lence, we must travel in a slow coach. The liquor
made at M. L——’s is called “ trozs-six”—three-six
literally, but why, I forgot to ask or forget to re-
member. It is brandy, of course; but, for some good
reason, what they make in Languedoc, and in other
places too, is not called by that name. Some of the
wine they were distilling when I was there they of-
fered me to taste. It was the five-cent quality of
which I have spoken—not five cents per litre, but per
gallon.
In the press-house they showed me the vats, which
were great square cisterns of cement, and covered
loosely with boards. Cement is admitted to be in-
ferior to wood, but is cheaper. The cellar of M.
L— was well arranged, well kept, and very large,
there being ten great casks, each of the capacity of
about ten thousand gallons. All were not filled
with five-cent wine, however, some of them contain-
ing what was considerably better, and not intended
for distillation.
As we walked in the vineyards, I could see the
76 EvuROoPEAN VINEYARDS.
soil was mostly of good gravelly loam, and, if it was
devoted to growing such extremely cheap wine as I
have named, it was not because it could not produce
good crops of wheat. When M. L-— mentioned
that the vines of Languedoc were mostly of Spanish
varieties, introduced when that province was under
the same crown with Aragon, I recalled that those
of California, and which are trained in the same
way, and produce wine so different from what is
grown any where else in our country, were also of
Spanish origin.
M. L
elor’s home, where, cosily seated by the fire, which
took me to his house, a very snug bach-
damp weather and the approach of night rendered
comfortable, was another gentleman, who had come
from the city to be his company during vintage time.
They had been college chums together half a centu-
ry before. Now, considering that at the last vintage
gathering I had attended all the company were col-
lege classmates, perhaps I may safely state in this
place that it is a French custom for college friends
to meet at vintage instead of Christmas. With the
two old friends I tasted several kinds of the older
and better wines of the neighborhood; then, declin-
ing farther hospitality, I returned to Beziers.
I resolved I would go farther into the subject of
LANGUEDOC. ver
growing wine on the Languedoc plan. But to do
this as thoroughly as I ought would require weeks
of delay. I must, for the present, turn away from
the shores of the Mediterranean, and journey north-
ward and eastward into the great red-wine country
of Burgundy, if I would catch some of the fleeting
vintage hours before the harvest-girls have gathered
the latest, ripest clusters from the “Céte d’or”—the
hill-side of gold. The same necessity obliged me to
travel in the night-time, so that I reached Lyons
without seeing much of the important valley of the
Rhone.
The same day I pushed on to Macon, where I staid
overnight, and the following morning went on to
Beaune, a small town at the foot of the Céte d’or,
and not very far from Dijon, the old capital of Bur-
gundy.
78 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHAPTER YE
BURGUNDY AND THE COTE D’OR.
F a verity, the heritage of the old dukes was a
goodly one. To the traveler who goes through
this fair and rich province, the wonder is, that, with
such wide and fertile valleys to nourish them—such
strong, full-bodied drink to nerve them, such rivers
at their feet and mountains at their backs, the rulers
of Burgundy did not become kings of France.
I had never tasted a drop of authentic Burgundy
wine in all my life. Tew people have who live across
the seas, for it does not bear transportation, notwith-
standing its alcoholic strength, which exceeds that of
Bordeaux wine. Its market being, from the cause
just given, a limited one, it is sold cheaper than Bor-
deaux of equal quality.
Being a stranger, I made no useless attempt to ob-
tain a very choice sample, but called for a bottle of
such as bore a moderate price, and, being fatigued,
went so far as to drink a tumbler full of it. It was
very palatable and refreshing.
T had never drunk any before.
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’oR. (79
I have never drunk any since.
I shall never drink any more.
Presently I will tell you why.
At my special request, the hotel-keeper procured
for me a driver who had been a vine-dresser, and was
well informed concerning what I wanted to know
about. I think it important the drivers of public
carriages should be men of intelligence, for a deal
of information is sought of them. They hold, in
fact, the not very mean position of instructors to the
traveling world. In Paris some seven hundred ex-
priests sit upon the box and hold the reins. Maybe
it is from having educated tutors such as these that
our American young gentlemen so easily learn all
the ways of that wonderful city.
Telling the driver what I wanted, and seating my-
self beside him, I was driven first toward the village
of Bligny. The vigorous growth of the vines, as well
as the appearance of the soil, showed the great plain
across which our course lay to be a rich one. For-
merly, my guide said, there were but few vineyards
on the plain, but of late years they threatened to
crowd out every thing else, owing to the increased
demand for wine of the quality there grown.
The souches observed no order whatever. Though
at first planting they are set in regular lines five feet
80 EUROPEAN. VINEYARDS.
apart, and eighteen inches distant from each other
within the lines, the system of layering, to supply
losses or restore decaying vines, causes them soon to
break ranks and straggle hither and yon most con-
fusedly. One result of layering is, the cultivation
must be done by hand. They cultivate thoroughly
three times a year, once in March, once before blos-
soming, and again after the grapes are well formed.
I nowhere saw any trellis, but learned they were
slowly and doubtingly being introduced. They in-
volve a reconstruction of the entire vineyard where
adopted, as well as a radical change in the system of
training. Some of the vines appeared to have been
pruned very close, leaving only one or two eyes to
each cane, but reserving several canes. These were
varieties whose habit is to bear the fruit close to the
souche, or old stock. Others, with a tendency to bear
from buds farther out on the cane, had three and
four eyes.
I inquired what was the price obtained for such
wine as was commonly produced on the plain, and
learned it usually brought 65 francs the “ piece,” con-
taining 228 litres, the same as the Bordeaux barrique,
but, owing to the poorness of the present year’s crop,
resulting from hail as well as excessive rains, 120
franes was bemg demanded.
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 81
The ordinary qualities of Burgundy wine, as, in-
deed, of all other wines grown in France, are disposed
of early, and are generally consumed within one, two,
or three years, while fine qualities must be kept and
cared for during from three to six years. My guide,
mentioning this, said, for his part, he would rather
own a vineyard on the plain than on the Cote d’or.
On the plains all kinds of manure seem to be used:
stable-sweepings, oil-cake, bone-dust, guano, and rags.
I believe, though, manure is only applied in layering,
that operation being so frequent that the whole vine-
yard gets enriched by the share allotted to the layered
plants. The usual number of souches to an acre is
five thousand.
The vintage had nearly come to an end; only here
and there, at wide intervals, did we encounter the
bands at their work, or a wagon on its way to the
press-house.
“What wages do farm laborers get ?” I asked.
“Three francs a day; how much do you pay in
America ?”
“A little over five; but, aside from food, it will not
purchase as much there as three will here.”
Thope it made the victim of imperial tyranny more
contented with his lot to learn this.
Arrived at Bligny,I was set down at a large wine-
D2
82 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
house where they were pressing white wine with a
press of the old fashion, having a lever which is
worked with a screw. They showed me into the
“cave,” as underground cellars are called, where the
must was fermenting in barriques. All were over-
flowing in froth and impurities at the bung-holes,
it being the practice to insure this effect by com-
pletely filling the casks instead of leaving a void, as
we do.
_ The fruit was being crushed in a grape-mill. The
juice running without pressure was to be set aside,
and afterward mixed with a third or fourth part of
the expressed must. The workmen at Bligny stoutly
defended their old lever and screw against all new
comers in the shape of patent presses, of which Bur-
gundy is full. Its advantage seemed to lie in the
spring of the wood, but this might easily be obtained
in some less cumbersome way. In the course of the
day I saw several presses of late invention better
than any I had seen at home.
Where I next stopped red wine was being made.
They were stemming the fruit by rubbing it on
small basket-work sieves or gratings, slightly bag-
ging in the middle, resting on tubs into which the
crushed berries fell. The work was quickly done.
The vats I found to be much smaller than those
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 83
used in Médoc, and with no covers at all. A smell
of vinegar came from the “chapeau,” as the floating
mass of skin and seeds which rises to the top is
named, while swarms of little gnats, always a bad
sign, hovered above it. The foreman told me that
before putting the “rape” to press the top of the
chapeau would be carefully pared off down to where
it smelled as it should. As a precaution against ace-
tous fermentation, they sometimes sift over the top of
the chapeau a coating of plaster of Paris the third of
an inch thick. I don’t think, however, this would be
done in making fine wines, but for an ordinary qual-
ity should think it good.
When I inquired how long the wine would remain
in the vat, they told me two weeks ; but said that last
year, which was as good for ripening as the present
one was bad, only four or five days was found to be
enough.
One half the wine-makers in France stem the
grapes before putting them to ferment, and the other
half do not. In Burgundy it is not done except when
the ripening has been imperfect. The reasons given
for this by those Burgundians of whom I inquired
did not appear to me entirely reasonable, but doubt-
less the practice is founded in reason for all that.
People who inherit wise customs born of the experi-
84 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ence of a remote ancestry do not always find them-
selves in possession of the rationale of those customs.
Among the consequences of keeping the stems out
of the vat would be a disease called “ bitter,’ com-
mon in French wines, and a flat taste; the others
which were named I have forgotten. One person
told me the corrective virtue of the stems consisted
in their acidity, and another thought it lay in the
tannin. There is hardly any tannin in stems, and as
for acidity, it might be better obtained from unripe
grapes, as is done in Médoe, where juice of the folle
blanche is mixed with that of the malbec, to correct
the flatness of the latter.
Grape-mills are coming into fashion in Burgundy,
but crushing with feet is still the general practice.
It is usual to keep red wine above ground until March
following the vintage, and after that in “ caves,”
which are most commonly arched. There is no mys-
tery in the fact that wine will keep above ground in
the intense summer heat of Languedoc, while in the
cold climate of Burgundy it must go below or spoil,
for the wines of the south are remarkably free of
acids.
At the “Hospice,” the property of an endowed
hospital in Beaune, I found the arrangements excel-
lent. The foreman, or one who seemed such, ex-
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 85
plained things like one who understood what he was
talking about. The vats, which.are constructed like
those of Médoc, only lower and wider in proportion
to their height, hold about a thousand gallons each.
They usually have no covers, but sometimes a false
top is adjusted below the level of the surface of the
must to keep the chapeau always submerged. Often
it is necessary to resort to artificial heat in aid of the
fermentation. One way is to heat a portion of the
must to the boiling point and then return it to the
vat. .A good temperature for the must to show when
a thermometer is introduced is from 80° to 90° Fah-
renheit. The experiment has been tried of adding
a quantity of white wine, itself in an active state of
fermentation, to serve as a kind of yeast.
So long as things work well in the vats, nothing of
the kind is needed. But there is another mode of
rousing up the slackening process, and at the same
time bringing the skins and seeds which have settled
to the bottom into: contact with the new-made alco-
hol, so that the latter may combine well with the col-
oring matter they contain. This consists in stirring
up the whole mass from bottom to top. It is done
twice during the process of fermentation. It needs
a good one hour’s hard work each time. It is done
by men. It takes four men to do it well. They all
86 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
strip naked—naked as Adam when he was good—
and then they go in—into the wine-vat—chin-deep
they go in, and there, with feet and hands, fingers
and toes, turn over, stir about, and mix the liquid
that was getting clear with the pomace that was de-
positing itself, and
‘* Make the gruel thick and slab,
And like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
The nice, sweet Bordelais man only puts his foot
in it, but the Burgundian goes the whole figure.
It is done to give the wine a full body.
They call it fermenting on the skin.
He who explained all this to my astonished mind
avowed it with the simple frankness of a Feejee:
cannibal who admits his fondness for what he calls
“long pork.” But the Feejee people are only hea-
thens.
In Lamartine’s letter written to justify the Em-
peror’s expedition to Mexico, to set up an empire
there which should hold the American Union in
check—in which letter the author earned for him-
self‘a good pension—rests his case on the sole
ground that our peoples’ manners are bad. It is
true, our manners are bad, and maybe Napoleon
did right to punish us for them as he did. Cer-
tainly we can not dance as well as Frenchmen; but
es
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’orR. 87
oh, Lamartine, owner of many vineyards! can worse
dancing be done than in a vat-of wine? or worse
manners possibly be than afterward offering it to be
drunk ?
At the Hospice I first heard of this strange cus-
tom, but repeated inquiry afterward confirmed the
story. Nor is the custom confined to Burgundy
alone, or to France alone. “Once,” say they, “our
wines fermented on the skin only one or two days,
and were light in color and taste; but the consum-
ers of late years demand a deeper color and richer
taste, so in we go.”
Stirring up with poles they tried, but the warmth
of the human body was wanting, and the result,
they say, was not good. Besides, it was hard work.
To prove, however, that no good reason exists for
the practice, the Vicomte de Vergnette Lamotte tells
us he succeeds perfectly in obtaining the deepest
color, and even more alcohol than fermentation in
open vats can give, without stirring up ( Souler) of
any sort, simply by using a large cask, with an open-
ing twelve inches by eight at the place for the bung.
In such a vessel he has allowed the must to work
for twenty-two days—quite beyond any period that
would be safe with an open vat in Burgundy.
But does this amount to any thing more than par-
88 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tially covering the common open-mouthed vat? For
the benefit, however, of any who may choose to try
the Vicomte’s plan, I will add that the lower door,
or man-hole, through which the mare or “rape” must
be withdrawn after the wine has run off, is fitted on
the outside, and held with two bolts. Closing from
the inside, it could not be opened, owing to the press-
ure of the mare against it.
From 60° to 70° Fahrenheit is thought a favorable
temperature for the fermenting-room. Doctor Gall,
the German writer, thinks differently, and recom-
mends to heat up gradually, by means of a stove, to
about 80°, and keep it so. I think I have heard
stoves were sometimes used in the fermenting-rooms
in Champagne.
A good proportion to observe in the form of open
vats is one that will give the liquid the same depth
as diameter. New casks are preferred in Burgundy
as well as in Médoc. Pains are taken to keep them
full, and they draw off frequently.
I was disappointed to find, on leaving the Hos-
pice, that I had so badly reckoned the time a visit to
the celebrated “Clos Vougeot” had become impossi-
ble. Those travelers in Europe who visit sites of
ancient monasteries may observe that by a special
providence, as it were, they are usually found in the
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’orR. 89
midst of the most fertile meadows, the fattest grain-
fields, the richest fisheries, and most golden hill-sides.
One of these last, “Clos Vougeot” by name, found
itself included among the broad possessions of a
house of holy men—having been moved there, doubt-
less, by their meritorious faith—and for many long,
tranquil centuries its nectarean flow refreshed the
piety of an uninterrupted succession of jovial saints,
and elevated their souls almost to the ecstasy of gods
—heathen gods I mean.
So long as those good men possessed the Clos Vou-
geot, no impure admixture was allowed to taint its
virginal soil, nor was any layering done, or other
means practiced to force the yield of its old patri-
archal vines, which were allowed to attain the incred-
ible age of four or five hundred years, and the whole
plantation of eighty acres required to give only about
twelve hundred gallons yearly.
But the French Revolution came, and Jacobins,
Republicans, and sinners drove out the monks and
usurped their domain. Now see what’ followed.
The good wine soon ceased to flow for the impious
dispossessors, on whose lips the grapes, playing the
old trick of the apples of Sodom, turned to sour cider
instead. Was it that a miracle of divine wrath had
blighted the soil and its fruit, to punish the sacrilege?
90 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
No, only this: the secular owners had rooted up all
the old growth, and planted new vines, which re-
sponded to their avaricious exactions with a yearly
yield measuring eighteen thousand gallons in guan-
tity—but in quality, oh how inferior! It sells at
present for about the price of fifth-class Médoc. Yet
Clos Vougeot is the king of the Cote d’or.
Within limits, a law of Nature ordains that fine
things shall not come in gross bulk. Diamonds and
emeralds are not found in massive beds, like granite
and limestone. Sable and ermine furs do not grow
on the backs of buffaloes, neither can a lioness, how-
ever she may try, compete with a rabbit in the busi-
ness of reproduction; and whoever hopes that a
given vine-plant will bear one or two thousand gal-
lons of choice wine to the acre, hopes against law—
and hopes in vain. 150 gallons for the mean yield
of the choicest and best; 250 for the mean yield of
the totality of Médoc, the Céte d’or, and the Rhine-
gau; and for what comes after them, 500, 1000, 2000,
and even 3000, very much according to quality—
quantity according to quality, and quality according
to quantity—this is the law as applied to the subject
in hand.
The last portion of my drive that day was along
the Céte d’or, and among vineyards of the delicate, —
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’orR. 91
slender “pinot” variety. These, like those of the
plain, were set without regularity, and so closely that
it took 9000 of them to cover an acre. On the hills
they prune to only one cane, and on that one allow
from two to four eyes, and this notwithstanding the
disposition of the pinot to carry its fruit on the upper
buds. The souches were rather high, little pains be-
ing taken to keep them low. But there is a reason
for this: the fruit grown on a high souche is better,
for the same reason, probably, that on old vines is
better—namely, because the sap grows richer by
mounting slowly through hard and twisted stocks of
old wood. To leave, as we do in America, eight,
ten, or even twelve eyes to a cane, would be thought
murderous treatment in Burgundy, insuring a speedy
end to the victims; and, indeed, I don’t know in
what part of France they would not think so. It is
to be seriously considered whether our plan of long
canes, bent in circles or bows, is not in the end ruin-
ous—has not, in fact, ruined many a vineyard. True,
M. Guyot, of whose system so much has lately been
said in France, claims to have obtained great results
‘by leaving nine or ten buds on one cane, which cane
he extends along and close to the ground, and ties,
at the end, to a peg. But among the many objec-
tions brought against it is this, that, despite the free
92 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
use of manure which he advises, the vines yield poor
fruit, and soon wear out. And, apropos to our own
mode of bow-training, one of his opponents cites a
case where a vineyard was ruined by that very meth-
od, which, he declares, is nothing else than Guyot’s,
only the cane is bent in one case, and kept horizontal
in the other, the effect on the circulation being in
both very much the same. Leaving on a given
souche three or four canes, each of them trimmed to
two or three eyes, is not considered by any means
bad practice with prolific varieties, on rich ground ;
yet to select a single cane, and leave on it as many
as eight eyes, would be. The reason is, eyes remote
from the souche will generally bear more than those
near it. The habits of plants differ in this respect.
Some bear more fully on the lower eyes, and with
them long pruning would of course be safer.
The pinots on the poverty-stricken flanks of the
Céte Vor hardly looked able to yield an average of
150 gallons to the acre, which is, I think, the mean
product of the more celebrated vineyards there,
though, as in Médoc, 250 is the general average of
the whole hill. The Cdte has a varied soil and sub-
soil. On low hills at the base, resting on alluvion, and
formed into elevations by the washing out of ravines
and other accidental depressions, the composition is
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’orR. 93
clayey, but with large portions of lime andiron. On
friable magnesian limestone another soil is formed,
unmistakably reddened with a large admixture of
iron. The harder oolitic ledges, outcropping along
the hill and sustaining a broad bench of gentle
slope, give a surface soil containing iron and silex
in large quantities. Another kind has a subsoil of
limey marl. All of these yield the very highest
qualities of wine. Here is an analysis of two kinds
of soil and subsoil as made by a distinguished chem-
ist :
Large and small gravel of limey nature......... 30.10 29.15
CATON ate Of MMe x ari .meescasasscekesiccneed esse cwvis 12.95
t 17.20
Garbonate Of Magnesia. ...\.hswavescn-scee. cece dace 3.98
Oxides Of ION. 22s cece. Matt einige tends eNeec cans 12.72 10.50
MMUUEERER Meise cial elcclejssteeisesisecisisctesecsanecsocine 5.93 (oil
SU Caceseae sceesscccecesssincssscesamdcaccsoss reson 28.93 32.98
OTSANICHSUDSEANGES! 2. caves vcrsins horescssestuvesten 5.39 3.00
While the corresponding subsoils showed
@arhonate sor qin’, «cn e02-5 cassie saeeccea espe ses aps 88.00 78.00
ATPINACEOUS, SUDSEANCES, ....ccscecocssscccnceceoees 12.00 22.00
100.00 100.00
It will be noticed that one of these analyses shows
about thirteen per cent. of iron, and the other be-
tween ten and eleven. The Lafitte soil in Médoc
contained, it will be remembered, between eight and
94 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
nine per cent. Perhaps we have yet to learn how
important to the production of fine qualities of wine
is the presence of iron.
On estates growing fine wines, they apply manure
only when necessary to save the life of the vines; but
they periodically haul from the bottom of the hill
and restore to the soil*its loss from washing, and the
effect of this is said to be remarkable.
Though the soil of the hill seemed to be of an im-
permeable nature, I could not learn that the ground
was ever dug up very deeply. To prepare it for
planting, they dig, along the slope and following the
course of the hill, trenches fourteen inches deep and
twelve inches wide. Crosswise on the bottom of a
trench the rooted plant is laid, with its top resting
for support against one of the sides. It is covered
with six inches of earth well pressed down. The top
is made to rise above the soil to the same height as
in the nursery. At the end of the winter, or, if the
planting is in spring, then in a fortnight after plant-
_ing, the side of the trench against which the plant
leaned is pared away, so that the bank which served
in winter to shelter from the cold shall not any lon-
ger exclude the sunshine.
And this seems to be the only preparation the soil
receives for a new plantation. I had a vineyard
:
.
.
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’orR. 95
once planted in this way by a Burgundian, and the
vines took root uncommonly well, forcing their way
downward and sidewise into the tough clay subsoil
far deeper than they could have done if planted in
the common mode on ground trenched ever so deep.
The trenches were kept free of weeds, and only
gradually filled up. They were not entirely filled
until the end of two years, or maybe three.
This is not very expensive, costing per acre, by
contract, 100 frances, which represent thirty - three
and a third days’ work if the summer wages of three
franes are allowed; but, as it is probably done at a
time when wages are lower, we may call the labor-
cost fifty days. The cost of manure and of the
plants or cuttings are omitted.
The outlay of labor for cultivation is equally mod-
erate—surprisingly so if we consider that 5000 or
9000 staked vines, standing in confounded confu-
sion, are to be hoed by hand thrice in a season.
It is usually done by contract, for sixty dollars the
hectare, or about twenty-four dollars per acre, repre-
senting forty days’ labor. This covers all the work
but harvesting, and includes laying down some 560
“provins,” as they are called, which is the average
yearly number of vines to be layered.
Why is this done?
96°. * EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
To reinvigorate sickly plants or replace dead ones.
But why do as many as eleven per cent. get sick
or die every year ?
Because, where they are crowded together at the
rate of 5000 or 9000 to the acre, they are suffocated
and starved.
But why are they set so closely as to suffocate and
starve each other ?
In order to improve the quality and hasten the
ripening of the grapes—wood and foliage being sac-
rificed to product.
{ will recur to this system of “provignage” when
I come to the vine-culture of Champagne, and de-
scribe how it is practiced. It does not necessarily
exclude trellis-training or cultivating with a plow.
Burgundy has as yet known but little of the oidi-
um; the Cote d’or has absolutely escaped. Cham-
pagne is almost equally fortunate. Some have said
the climates of those districts were too cold for the
pestilent parasite to live there, but I found it in the
Rhine vineyards, and it thrives in those of the Bor-
delais districts, quite as cold, I think, as the others.
It is known that young vines seldom have the dis-
ease. Now the system of “provignage”’ common to
both Burgundy and Champagne rejuvenates the
plants and keeps them always young, and on that
BurGuNDY AND THE COTE D’oR. 97
very account has been objected to as tending to de-
teriorate the quality of the crop, since good wine re-
quires old vines to produce it.
Thus it may be that provignage keeps off the oidi-
um by keeping the vines always in a state of in-
fancy.
I well remember a vine-dresser from Champagne,
who, having purchased a decayed and rot-ravaged
hill-side of Catawbas, near Cincinnati, about the year
1856, layered them all, and for years afterward con-
tinued to gather good crops, while all around him
were being ruined by the scourge.
It is in view of the possibility that layering may
be found a sufficient remedy for oidium, as well as a
means of restoring vines made sickly by its repeated
attacks, that I have given the cost of cultivating by
hand on the Burgundy plan.
I have said that in former times the Burgundians
let the must ferment on the skins but one or two
days, which gave only a light tint to the wine. They
do the same, I understand, in Missouri, and the re-
sult is a white wine, properly so called, pinkish in
tint, but not; for that reason, correctly termed red. I~
am sorry to learn that the Germans of Herman, who
first taught me the value of the Norton’s Virginia
Seedling, and from whom we obtained roots to plant
| E
98 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
the two first Norton vineyards in the Ohio Valley,
should thus abuse its noble fruit. Mr. Hussman,
in his book lately published, tells us they do it be-
cause a complete fermentation would render the wine
too astringent. If this be so in his state, we must
deny his claim to the plant, as a Missourian by adop-
tion, based on the assumption that it succeeds better
there than with us of this valley, for we have made
a veritable fourteen-day red wine from it that none
can say has any harsh quality, and which was re-
ceived with respect by good tasters in France, and
spoken of with praise in their first journal of viti-
culture.
Red wine and white differ materially, and in essen-
tial respects.
The Vicount de Vergnette Lamotte says, “ White
wines of the same year and of similar growth ex-
hibit from the beginning a perfect identity; red
wines, under analogous circumstances, often show
very distinctly-marked differences.
“White wines, and wines from red grapes, but
which have not fermented on the skin, are not sub-
ject to the same disease as true red wines, or yellow
wines made of white grapes fermented on the skin.
“White wines are richer in alcohol and in acid
salts than red wines of analagous growths. These
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 99
last, on the other hand, contain a stronger proportion
of tannin and extractive matter.”
Doctor Guyot, at the same time physician, wine-
grower, and author, says :
“White wines are generally diffusive stimulants
of the nervous system; if they are light, they act rap-
idly on the organization, whereof they exalt all the
functions. It seems they escape just as rapidly by
the excreting organs of the skin and mucous surface,
especially by the urinary ways; their action is, then,
of short duration.
“On the contrary, red wines are tonic, and contin-
uing stimulants of the nerves, the muscles, and di-
gestive functions; their organic action, being slower,
continues longer; they do not increase the perspira-
tion nor the excretions, and their general action is
astringent, persistent, and concentrated.”
Doctor Ludwig Gall, physician and chemist, says:
“The greater amount of tannin in red wines fer-
mented together with stalks, skins, and seeds, or even
skins and seeds alone, seems to be the reason why
they are generally preferred as a common beverage
in Southern wine-growing countries to the white
wines containing a greater amount of tartar.
“The effect of the high temperature of those coun-
tries in relaxing the muscles would become greater
100 EvuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
by the frequent use of a beverage containing much
tartar and of a laxative character, while tannin tends
to produce a greater contraction of the muscular sys-
tem than any other substance in daily use.
“The Northern man, on the contrary, whose ten-
sion of muscles is naturally much greater, requires in
his drink something that quickens his blood and pro-
motes its circulation, rather than an astringent; and
this is done by the alcohol in its diluted state, such
as is found in good wines.”
For the purposes of this last paragraph, ninety
Americans in a hundred are of Southern constitu-
tion, and need a tonic rather than a stimulant.
A Parisian physician, prescribing for a delicate
American patient, will nine times in ten order red
wine. “I am cured of my dyspepsy,” said one of
these to me. “Did the red wine do it? I asked.
“No; I think it is the variety of courses at the table
Whéte. I think I shall give up the wine, being op-
posed to it on principle.” Poor, inconsequential tee-
totaler! He could believe in the digestibility of soup,
salmon, radishes, fried beans, cutlets, salad and chick-
en, cauliflower fricassee, salmi, blanquette, cheese,
custard, pudding, tarts, syllabubs, raisins and almonds,
cucumbers and melons, all jumbled into one meal,
rather than in so simple a thing as red wine.
=
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 101
That self-devoted apostle and missionary, Professor
Babrius, of Bordeaux, discoursing in 1840 on the in-
fluence of wine on civilization, speaks of the effect of
French wines (red, of course) on the French people
thus: “So long as wine was honored by all classes,
the French people remained, in virtue of their bril-
liant qualities, the first of modern peoples. Courage,
loyal and generous, gayety and vivacity of mind, pat-
riotism, eloquence, an exquisite sentiment of personal
dignity joined to an excessive politeness, an irresist-
ible longing for a sweet sociability, were the princi-
pal traits of their character. When coffee, tea, and
tobacco successively took their place among our hab-
itudes, each of these agents, more or less deleterious,
impressed a sensible alteration on this beautiful as-
semblage of distinguished traits.”
_And there was a good deal of ground for this
self-laudation. The deep-thinking Babrius goes on
to say:
“ What distinguishes wine from all other drinks is
its general action on the bodily economy. In mod-
erate quantities it increases the energy of all the fac-
ulties. The heart, the brain, the organs of secretion,
the muscular system, each acquire by its use a sensi-
ble augmentation of vitality.
“Wine acts generously on all our functions, forti-
102 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
fying and exciting them in harmony with each oth-
er, while other liquors act like those medicaments
which expend their force on a single organ merely.
Far from increasing the harmony of the system, their
action can not fail to trouble it.
“ Coffee, like wine, excites the vitality, but it stim-
ulates only those portions of the brain which are the
seat of the intellect, properly so called, and the
speech. Its special property is to cause a flow of
language, clear, lively, and facile, that is never troub-
led by the emotions of a warm conviction. Under
the action of coffee the heart remains perfectly calm.
It is the drinkers of coffee who have said you must
not feel a sentiment if you would express it well.
The decoction of coffee is the liquor of men of the
world; it is the provocative to counterfeits of the
truth, to cold and piercing sallies of wit, to speciops
argumentation—in fact, to all which makes up the
charm of the elegant and blasé world of the saloons.
“Tea addresses itself directly neither to the heart
nor the head. Its stimulation goes to the glands of
the abdomen. The liver and reins respond strongly
to its action. This explains why tea facilitates the
digestion of indolent stomachs, and why its drinkers
are inclined to moods of melancholy. They are cold,
and talk little. Tea impresses on individuals and _
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 103
on nations which use it a slight tinge of hypochon-
dria.”
But as tea and coffee still hold only a subordinate
place on the tables of the French, Babrius thinks
that, though they may alter and distort French civil-
ization, and turn it aside from its true end, it will not
perish from their influence. What he fears will en-
ervate, confuse, corrupt, and finally abolish us all, is
tobacco.
The American people is in want of a drink. A
nation has transplanted itself, but not its vines, from
one hemisphere to another, and is thirsty. It is as
important what we drink should be adapted to our
climate, our temperament and institutions, as it is we
should hold correct opinions on this, that, and the
other subject. In fine, the liquor to mix daily in
our blood, to act on our nerves, nourish our tissues,
and qualify the vitality of every part of us, will con-
trol our destiny as much, at least, as what we learn
in schools, read in newspapers, or hear from pulpits.
What shall we drink ?
It will not answer in these days, with the deplorable
results we have before us of the evils of water-drink-
ing on one hand, and the evils of spirit-drinking on
the other, to point to the springs and brooks, rivers
and lakes, saying, “Share with the frogs and fishes,
104 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
and four-footed beasts, the abundant washings of the
earth’s surface; there is enough for all.”
We live in a dry climate, and under moral condi-
tions exciting and exhausting to body, brain, ‘and
nerve. That climate and those conditions have al-
ready, in the absence of any proper corrective, cre-
ated a national temperament that responds with ex-
cessive sensibility to every exciting cause. The pale,
bony woman, who paralyzes her insides with unstint-
ed draughts of liquid ice, and the restless, nervous
man who consumes his with draughts equally un-
stinted of liquid fire, are types alike of our wretched
condition as a people. Dilution will not save us.
, “A low dew-
point (dry air) and Republican institutions are incon-
Says my scientific friend, Doctor
sistent with the long duration of our race.”
Now we don’t want to pull down Republican in-
stitutions, nor can we raise up the too low dew-point.
We must raise red wine, then; and this can be done,
I will endeavor to prove, as easily and cheaply as in
Burgundy, where it is to be had of good quality for
four, five, and six cents a bottle.
Taken in the quantity of a quart daily for every
adult, and a pint daily for each child, we may expect
the following effects: It will slightly stupefy, and
thereby soothe and quiet; gently elevate, and there-
BuRGUNDY AND THE COTE D’or. 105
by promote gayety, and chase anxiety and care;
warm the heart, and at the same time stimulate the
flow of ideas, whence will come sociability, and with
sociability, politeness and toleration, elegance and
good taste. It will prevent and cure dyspepsy, the
most American and the least French of all diseases
that scourge the world—in fine, by virtue of its
tonic and stimulating properties, touch every weak-
ness for which tonics and stimulants are prescribed
—not, however, as a medicine, to lose its power with
use, or be followed by reaction, but as a continuing
condition—a habitual alimentation, like pure air,
nourishing food, exercise, and proper clothing.
E 2
106 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHAPTER VII
EPERNAY.
I TURNED aside from my intended visit to Cham-
pagne on learning vintage was ended in that
province, and went on to Paris. Two months later
Tran over to Epernay, one of the chief seats of the
commerce in sparkling wines, and presented myself
to my old correspondent, M. Girbal, who received mee
like a brother, and very soon put me in the way of
seeing all worth seeing in the neighborhood. There
are two cities at Epernay—one above ground, of
buildings two and three stories high, and another
under ground, of cellars two and three stories deep.
This last, however, is not, like the Catacombs be-
neath Paris, a city of the dead, a receptacle of skulls
and cross-bones, but a store-house of well-corked
and wired bottles, full of pent-up life and sparkle,
laughter and noise. The caves I visited, and which
took the whole day to explore, were those of Moet
and Chandon, Piper and Co., Ruinart, and Roussillon.
The first of these I found the most extensive, and the
EPERNAY. 107
last the most interesting; for these M. Roussillon him-
self showed me through, and voluntarily gave such
full and frank explanations as stripped of nearly all
,its mystery an art whose few professors in America
seem to keep it as close a secret as if it were alchemy.
Very little masonry is seen in the cellars of Cham-
pagne. Except an occasional patch of brick or stone
to fill up a fault in the natural formation, all was
hewn out of the solid chalk. Easily cut as this is,
it is nevertheless abundantly strong, and durable as
rock, while its chemical quality seems to render the
atmosphere of its chambers singularly pure and dry.
A. two-story cellar is common, and some are eyen
three deep. Mad. Pommery, of Rheims, is making
one, I am told, of which the floor of the wpper story
will be eighty feet below the surface of the ground.
Were it not for the ease with which Champagne bot-
tlers can burrow in the earth, their wine could not be
afforded so cheap as it is. To construct of stone or
brick cayes as vast as those, for instance, of Moet and
Chandon, would require so great a fortune that upon
the interest of it both Moet and Chandon might live
like princes.
The wine grown in Champagne is a natural spark-
ler. With Catawba, Burgundy, Hock, and all other
sparkling wines known to commerce, the fermenta-
108 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tion which ensues immediately on the first bottling
having done its work in developing the gas and de-
positing a sediment subsides, and is never heard from |
again; but with true Champagne new fermentations,
repeatedly occur, each one depositing its sediment, to
be got rid of by a fresh tabling and shaking. For
instance, M. Roussillon showed me a stack of fine Still
Sillery bottled, not to sparkle, but to keep quiet, and
therefore without any addition of sugar, yet it had
fretted and fumed within the glass during six or seven”
years before it would be Still Sillery. Two and often
three disgorgings and recorkings are needed before it
is safe to send out for sale. By reason of this foamy
quality it is that makers of Sparkling in other parts
of France often use a certain portion of wine grown
in Champagne to mix with that of their own districts.
Iam inclined to think, from my experiments with it,
that the Scuppernong, produced in North Carolina, is
as good a natural sparkler as we need.
Usually at least three qualities, growths of differ-
ent places in the province, are mixed together, which
is done toward the end of December following vint-
age; but the finer kinds are never mixed. And my
entertainer, M. Girbal, out of consideration for his
health, puts up what he needs for table use wholly
unmixed, although not using, he said, raw wine of
EPERNAY. 109
very high quality. I can say for it, however, that it
was good, and had a fresh and free taste, more like
Sparkling Catawba than any Champagne I had drunk.
They make four kinds of Sparkling—high spark-
ling, common sparkling, half sparkling, or crémant,
and tisane. The half sparkling is best, and the tisane
the most inferior. . But better than all, and the true
type of Champagne, is that which does not sparkle at
all, being entirely free of sugar or other admixture,
and bottled when new merely in order that while ri-
pening it may keep its fresh and delicate flavor. And
this is the original of bottled Champagne. The plan
of forcing a sparkling fermentation only gradually
grew out of the ancient practice, which did not aim
at producing foam and noise, but only at preserving
purity, delicacy, and grape-blossom bouquet, that they
might become united to maturity and fineness, like a
wedding of youth, innocence, and beauty with expe-
rience and wisdom. Of such is Still Sillery, and I
can testify that some M. Roussillon gave me was del-
icacy itself and purity itself.
For Sparkling wine an early vintage is considered
important. The fruit is put to press soon as may be
after being gathered, with no crushing whatever, and
in as solid a condition as the necessary handling and
transportation will permit. The juice reposes in large
110 EvRoOPEAN VINEYARDS:
casks or vats from twelve to twenty-four hours, to
deposit its coarse lees, after which it goes into new
casks of moderate size. These they prepare first
with a washing of hot water, and then, after drying
them, with a fumigation of burning sulphur, or, what
I prefer, of burning brandy, flung into the cask in the
proportion of a gill to every barfel of capacity, and
lighted with a wisp of paper. Late in December the
mixing takes place, which is made the subject of
much deep study and discussion—this sort being put
in for sparkle, this for body, this for bouquet, this to
prickle the tongue, and this for quantity. After the
mixing comes the clarifying, performed by stirring
in isinglass dissolved in older wine. Russian isin-
glass is the best. Then comes a medication with nut-
gall and alum in no small doses (dose is the French
word for all the doctoring wine receives). Toward
the end of March or early in April a second drawing-
off takes place, accompanied with filtering through a
sieve having two bottoms, one of hair and the other
of silk. Soon afterward the bottling, which must be
accomplished before the first of September, may
begin.
A body of wine, to the quantity usually of many
thousand gallons, is brought together in one or more
large casks. About two thirds of the whole is new,
EPERNAY. ab le
and one third old. At this stage the decomposition
of the sugar contained in the must ought to have ex-
hausted three fourths of it. Of the natural sugar
thus remaining, and what is afterward to be added
in the form of rock-candy, the wine should contain,
when it goes into bottle, the quantity of 7 pounds to
every 225 bottles. To ascertain the true proportion
to add, the following is an approved method:
Take fifteen pints of the wine, and slowly and care-
fully boil it down to two pints and a half. Twenty-
four hours afterward test it with the gluco-wnomeétre,
as they call the wine-scale. If 5° below zero of the
scale is indicated, it will not sparkle even at from 68°
to 77° of Fahrenheit. In such case add, in the way
hereafter described, 7 pounds of white rock-candy for
every 225 bottles. Should the wine show 6° on the
scale, then add, in the same way, 6 pounds of candy ;
if it shows 7°, add 5 pounds; if 8°, then 4 pounds; if
9°, 8 pounds; if 10°, only 2 pounds are needed; 1
pound for 11°, and for 12° nothing at all.
A simpler plan was devised by a peddler of wine-
scales: Float the scale in a quart of the wine, and if
it falls below zero, add sugar, carefully measured and
mixed, until you bring it up to zero. This gives the
proportion needed.
The sirup, called “liqueur,” is composed as follows:
112 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
For a sixty-gallon cask of sirup, take 300 pounds of
white rock-candy, as pure as can be had, and 23 gal-
— lons of fine Cognac brandy, and fill up with wine
more than a year old. Every day, for twenty days,
roll the cask well, so as to dissolve the candy; then
filter and bottle, to keep till needed for use. The
sirup is mixed with the wine eight days before the
latter is bottled.
Once got into bottles, and corked and twined, the
“wine is allowed to remain on the ground floor, where
the temperature should be from 68° to 77° Fahren-
heit until the fermentation has got headway enough
to break the glass merrily, when it is removed to an
arched cellar, where the temperature ought to be
from 50° to 52° Fahrenheit, there to remain till next
year, when it is brought up and stored in an inter-
mediate cellar, whence again, before going into mar-
ket, it must be removed to a store-room above ground,
to become tempered to the exposures it is to undergo.
The bottle fermentation, in consuming the sugar,
develops carbonic acid gas and alcohol, and deposits
a sediment. To get rid of this last, the bottles are
placed in racks, in which are holes to receive the neck
and support the shoulder, and so formed as to allow
them to take any position, from one nearly horizontal
to one nearly perpendicular. Every day they are
EPERNAY. 113
shaken with a twisting movement, designed to gently
detach the crust of sediment without troubling the
liquid ; and at every shaking are changed in position,
till from one nearly horizontal they are gradually
brought to one nearly upright, bottom upward. By
this time the sediment is entirely gone from the side,
and rests against the cork. This operation requires
from fifteen to twenty-one days, and can usually be
performed at any time after February of the first
year.
When it becomes necessary to prepare the wine
for market, the operation of dégorgement takes place.
Holding the bottle carefully, the workman, with an
instrument half hook, half knife, cuts the lacing; the
cork, sometimes coaxed a little with the thumb, flies
out, followed by a gush of sediment and froth. Wine
would flow but that the neck is raised in the nick of
time. Then, tapping the butt lightly with his hook,
he starts a further outpourifig of froth, and, as it
comes, rubs with a finger the inside of the neck, to
help the foam wash away all adhering sediment—
and the problem is solved, that might have puzzled a
conjuror, of how to remove the sediment from under-
neath the wine without disturbing it.
Then, if the wine is deemed fit to market, comes
the last dosing of sirup, intended to give the proper
114 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
taste. If there is nothing wrong about the wine,
nothing to be helped, nothing to be masked, the
sirup I have described is all that is needed for the
last, as well as first sweetening. But a good deal
more is usually added, and it is the composition of
this last dose which is the secret and mystery of
Champagne. Here is one recipe for wine intended
for the English market:
Port wine, Cream of tartar,
Cognac spirit, Sugar,
Cognac brandy, Kirsch,
Brown Cognac, Raspberry extract,
Elder-berry juice, Madeira wine.
The sirup having been carefully dosed in even
quantity to every bottle, new and better corks are
driven in and wired down, the bottles are moved or
waved about in a way that mixes well the contents,
but can not be called shaking, and in a few weeks,
more or less, may be sent off.
I was more than ever convinced, by what I saw at
Epernay, that 1f we would make Sparkling wine in
America, we must first make the makers of it, and
not import them ready-made from abroad. What
chef de cave from Rheims or Epernay, for instance,
to whom you might give 1000 gallons of Catawba to
bottle, would not begin by preparing it with nut-gall,
Ss Se Le
EPERNAY. 115
tannin, and alum, to correct a disease called graisse,
which I never yet knew the Catawba or any other of
our wines to have, and which, in consequence of its
excess of tartar, 1 am sure it is impossible for it to
have.
If he were very sapient, he would also undertake
to mingle different kinds, a thing quite unnecessary,
and, as regards effect on the health, more or less per-
nicious, though in time we shall probably come to it.
He would be pretty certain to add to the new wine
a certain proportion of old, for he would not know
that wine ripens here faster than in France, hence
that no such mixture is either necessary or proper.
(For my part, I consider it highly injurious, where
Catawba is the wine, and would be slow to believe it
good for any.)
Then he would have his secret recipe for the sweet-
ening sirups, which he would as carefully conceal
from his employer as if it were actually the philoso-
pher’s stone; but which, could he be induced to re-
yeal it, would prove to be something like that I have ©
just given, and which, especially designed for John
Bull’s palate, sweetens his posset with Port, Madeira,
and Cognac, Cognac, Cognae, ete., whereas, in fact and
in truth, so far as relates to bottling wine grown in
the Ohio Valley, every drop of spirit added is a posi-
116 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tive injury, and, except perhaps what» little may be
required to preserve the sirup until needed for use,
has, after full trial, been abandoned.
By discarding these dosings and mixings, we may
thus get rid of the most troublesome and complicated
part of the business; very little seems to remain that
we may not learn for ourselves. In the beginning
we shall blunder, it is true; but a Champagne or
Hochheim professor would blunder worse. We shall
have to learn; they would have to unlearn as well.
One great obstacle in our way is the difficulty of
obtaining good, reliable bottles and corks.
The reason why 1 have not gone more fully into
details is that the Sparkling wine business is so haz-
ardous, and the capital that must be hazarded is so
large, I shrink from the responsibility of helping any
one to embark in it. Besides, any who might under-
take it would find it quite as easy to obtain from
abroad all the best treatises on the subject, both Ger-
man and French, as to buy and import reliable bot-
tles and corks, and the latest and best machines. I
have only been trying to clear away, for the benefit
of beginners, some of the cobwebs of mystery woven
‘in the cellars of Champagne, and which my visit
there helped me to see were only cobwebs.
The Americans love pop, foam, and noise, and will
EPERNAY. 117
always consume largely of gaseous drinks. They have
in the Catawba a wine capable of great things. Let
but the product be large enough to allow the bottler
to select only the choicest specimens, and of the best
vintages, and those who follow the business properly,
and especially those who secure good corks, need fear
no competition from any thing lzkely to be sent over
here, however it might be if the comparison were
with those princely qualities found only on the great
tables of Europe. There are those who think the day
of the Catawba has gone by, but I am not one of
them. Its wine has qualities which peculiarly fit it
_ to combine with sugar, either in the bottle or the
“cobbler.” The last, made of new and sufficiently
acid wine, such as is easily found in the West, but
seldom or never in the East, is a summer drink of
unsurpassed excellence. Certainly there is nothing
in Europe to match it. Many an American traveler
would be glad if there were, and be glad, too, if he
could exchange the best grapes of foreign fruit-mar-
kets for the clusters he loved at home. In its place I
will consider the question whether there is danger of
this valuable variety being destroyed by the oidium.
We will visit Champagne again when the leaves
are green on the vines, and bestow our time, not on
the dark, deep cellars, but on prettier objects above
and outside of them.
118 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHAPTER WES
PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION.
GREAT Exhibition was that of Paris in 1867
—gerand and magnificent as a battle—and a
battle indeed it was, wherein not two, nor three, but
all the nations of the round world met in the con-
test, and mingled in the display
‘¢ Their rival scarfs of rich embroidery.”
Worthy was it to be remembered by all who bore
part in it, as a soldier remembers he was present and
fit for duty when some proud day of war was won.
In the three months and a half during which I
was an almost daily attendant in the Champ de
Mars, I saw a good deal of liquor consumed. Every
country had its restaurant, where the drinks native
to its soil were drunk by the natives of others—a
pleasanter way, that, of tasting the soils of distant
lands by sample, as it were, than of acquiring a
knowledge of them by dint of locomotion.
The American restaurant dispensed soda - water
PaRIs AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 119
and iced drinks — exclusively American I believe
they all are—which not only astonished, but delight-
ed multitudes, who took the first glass from curiosi-
ty, but the second from appreciation. An English-
man who had carried either his curiosity or appreci-
ation as far as the tenth glass, said,“ Your people
ought to excel in compounding drinks, for, taken by
themselves, your liquors are infamous.” “ Yes,” I
answered, “necessity was probably the mother of
their invention. Nature having thus far denied to
us those more natural drinks with which other peo-
ple are blessed, we have been forced to imitate them
with what materials were at hand. ‘Cobblers,’ ‘ju-
leps, and ‘ cocktails,’ ‘ stone fences,’ ‘ hail-storms,’ and
‘smiles, are but so many different kinds of Ameri-
can wines. There is spirits for strength, sugar for
taste, lemon-peel or mint for bouquet, and powder of
ice for quantity.”
And why are they not wines? and why should we
take the trouble to grow wines when the bar-keeper
can so easily and deftly make them for us? Is tan-
nin wanted? nut-gall is cheap; or, Is color desired ?
elder-berries and logwood are still cheaper. If the
disciples of Chaptal are right, who say their imita-
- tions effected by fermenting quantities of sugared
water on a few grape-skins and seeds, or mixed with
120 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
a certain portion of true grape-juice, are.really wines,
then those who bring together in the tumbler spirits,
sugar, water, and an aromatic, without going through
any manceuyres at all of viticulture or vinification,
are likewise wine-makers, and we, God bless us! are
a nation of wine-drinkers.
But are these imitations really wines to all chem-
ical intents and purposes? or, if they be, are they
likewise so to a// intents and purposes, and all effects
and consequences as well? Chaptal, who was min-
ister of the interior under Napoleon the First, and
was, moreover, a great chemist, did not push his
theory farther, I think, than to recommend additions
of water and sugar to the must of imperfectly ri-
pened fruit, and that to no greater extent than would
make three barrels out of two. But Doctor Ludwig
Gall, of Germany, whose recipes for falsification our
government has taken pains to promulgate, through
the Patent Office Report of 1860, goes farther, and
obtains a double product. His theories seem to be
well reasoned out, and his results have become so ac-
ceptable in Germany that, as he informs us, falsifi-
cation has been for many years in general practice
there. These theories, having again been made
known and advocated in the lately published work
of Mr. G. Hussman, of Missouri, who, as disciples
PaRIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 121
are apt to do, goes farther than his master, the time
has come for accepting or refuting them.
Gall finds the useful element of wine to be diluted
alcohol (and in warm countries tannin also), and its
attractive elements to be bouquet matter and flavor-
ing matter derivable from grape acids; and he makes
little or no account of any thing else.
In fully ripened grapes he finds from 28 to 30 per
cent. of sugar, which is just enough to give the right
proportion of alcohol — about 64 thousandths of —
acids, which is just enough to give the right propor-
tion of flavor, and just enough bouquet matter to
give the right proportion of aroma.
In unripe grapes he finds too much acid, too little
sugar, and either too little bouquet matter, or none
at all.
To make a good middling wine equal in all things
except bouquet to any obtainable from fully ripe
grapes, he dilutes the must with water till the-acid
is reduced to the true proportion of 64 thousandths,
and then adds sugar until the whole quantity of
sugar is increased to the true proportion of 28 or 30
per cent. Bouquet he does not attempt to supply.
Making the quantity of acids found in his must
his base, and having by tests ascertained what that
quantity is, he is no more at a loss for his other in-
ir
122 EuvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
gredients than Dr. Sangrado was, who cured every
thing with warm water and the lancet: he brings
both pump and sugar-hogshead into requisition, and
makes sure of full a thousand pounds of wine for
every 64 pounds of acid, which is often twice as
much as his grapes could have made in the natural
way, thus producing more wine in a bad year than
in a good one. Such a vine-dresser needs little of
the smiles of god. Bacchus—who was the original
Sol, I think—but should rather pray to him for
clouds and rain, that quantity may be abundant
and quality middling. And, could he find a grape
that would never ripen at all, his fortune would be
assured. I don’t know why the grape acids might
not be manufactured from some cheap substance,
as the grape-sugar Gall uses is from potatoes; and
then the vine and its fruit might be dispensed with ~
altogether, and science triumph !
Gall goes further. Finding a good deal of acid
substance remaining in the pomace after pressing, he
obtains all of it he can by soaking in water, estab-
lishes the true proportion of 64 thousandths or less,
fills in sugar to the quantity of 16 per cent., fer- -
ments, then adds of spirits obtained from grape-
sugar, that was once potato starch, eight per cent.,
and has a wine as good as the other, and even a bet-
tiie
ParRis AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 123
ter, if the grapes were ripe, for the pomace affords
not merely acid, but bouquet as well.
In the larger part of the American vine districts
grapes usually ripen too well to furnish the excuse,
and, at the same time, the foundation that Gall and
his friends in Germany enjoy, namely, excess of
acids. So his disciple here, Mr. Hussman, finds a
new foundation in the excess of bouquet matter with
which most of our grapes are afflicted, as well in
good as in bad seasons. Making bouquet matter,
then, his base, and paying little attention to the
acids, he estimates the quantity of dilution it will
bear, and manfully pours in common water and
cane-sugar till he runs his product up to a point be-
yond what even his teacher dared aim at. He, too,
insists his wine is as good as the original; yes, and
better too. Less discreet than his neighbors in Her-
mann and its vicinity, who, he thinks, will blame
him “ for letting the cat out of the bag,” they pre-
ferring to devote themselves in secret to the pursuit
of the new science, he glories in the discovery and
its results. Let him be heard.
“But let us glance for a moment at the probable
influence this discovery will have on American grape-
culture. It can not be otherwise than in the highest
degree beneficial ; for when we simply look at grape-
124 EvuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
culture as it was ten years ago, with the simple pro-
duct of the Catawba as its basis, a variety which
would only yield an average of say 200 gallons to
the acre—often very inferior wine—and look at it
to-day, with such varieties as the Concord, yielding
an average of from 1000 to 1500 gallons to the acre,
which we can yet easily double by Gallizing, thus, in
reality, yielding an average of 2500 gallons to the
acre of uniformly good wine, can we be surprised if
every body talks and thinks of raising grapes? Truly
the time is not far distant—of which we hardly
dared to dream ten years ago, and which we then
thought we would never live to see—when every
American citizen can indulge in a daily glass of that
glorious gift of God to man, pure light wine, and
the American nation shall become a really temper-
ate people.”
“And there is room for all. Let every one fur-
ther the cause of grape-culture. The laborer, by
producing the grapes and wine; the mechanic, by in-
ventions ; the lawgiver, by making laws furthering its
culture and the consumption of it; and ad, by drink-
ing wine, in wise moderation of course.”—Page 172
of “Graprs AND Wrne.”
Truly our German friend has large notions of what
he terms drinking in moderation. Let us see how
PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 125
large that daily glass of the American citizen must
be to hold all that is about to be poured into it.
On page 22 of the book we learn that at the
time it was written there had already been planted
2,000,000 of acres of vineyard, or two fifths of the
area devoted to vines'in France. These, when in full
bearing, as they will be in 1870, should, according to
his lowest estimate, yield 2,000,000,000 gallons of nat-
ural wine, about twice the product of France, from
which, by Gallizing, we shall obtain 5,000,000,000
gallons. Excluding children too young to drink,
there should be in the whole country some 25,000,000
able-bodied drinkers, the share of each of whom in
the yearly vintage would be 200 gallons, something
over three bottles a day. Then there are the tee-
totalers—they might object to drink their share ;
but I suppose we might funnel the teetotalers.
When Mr. Hussman wrote, American wines were
selling at wholesale for $2 50 per gallon; but since
then, from increasing production, they have fallen to
about $1 25, though consumers have to pay at least
$2. The yearly crop, therefore, which we are led to
hope for, will cost the drinkers of it $10,000,000,000,
or sixteen times as much as we have of green money,
plentiful though it be as forest leaves. With such a
volume of wine to “carry,” however, it is no wonder
126 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
there are people who think we still have ‘too little of
that foliage of the root of all evil.
Of a truth we are ruined!
But both Gall and Hussman must give way to an
enterprising Frenchman, M. Petiot, who, for the last
ten years, has been working the same rich vein.
Gall makes as much wine as his acids will flavor.
Hussman makes as much as his bouquet matter will
odorize. Petiot, taking a collective view of things,
assumes the must to contain 99 per cent. of water
and sugar, and only one per cent. of all other sub-
stances—tartar, tannin, resin, coloring matter, essen-
tial oils, and all. “It is this one hundredth part,”
says he, “ to tell the truth, which constitutes the wine,
which distinguishes it from other liquids, and which
principally gives the distinctive qualities and fixes
the price.”
Having brought his wine matter into this small
compass of one per cent., he strikes out boldly, and
does not stop till he has attained a five-fold result,
having made, as he assures us, out of a quantity of
grapes, sufficient to give only fifteen hundred gallons
of natural wine, seven thousand gallons of the chemi-
cal article; all of it, he asseverates, better than the
original, and with a better bouquet.
One thing is strange. Chaptal flourished sixty
Paris AND THE GREAT ExuiBiTion. 127
years ago. Gall and Petiot have been illuminating
their respective countrymen some twelve years or
more, and yet the plantation of the vine is every
where extending, the natural product augmenting,
and, at the same time, the price yearly rising. I
knew great truths made their way slowly, but did
not know great falsifications did.
Graft Petiot on Hussman, and our crop in 1870
will be something like 12,000,000,000 gallons, oblig-
ing each of us to swallow eight bottles a day, and to
pay for it the very pretty figure of $24,000,000,000 ;
and where is that money to come from, one would
like to know ?
And enthusiastic Hussman calls on us to persevere
in the good work, and extend the culture more and
more! Surely ;
** A Dutchman’s drink must be
Deep as the roaring Zuyder Zee.”
Gall has offered a premium to any chemist who
will detect in his brewage any thing hurtful to health,
and cites high chemical authority to the effect “that
no substance conducive to health is removed from the
wine by an addition of sugar and water before the
commencement of fermentation.” The others are
equally certain there is nothing unhealthy contained
that chemistry can detect.
128 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
This is precisely the claim of those who feed cows
on distillery slops concerning the milk they sell. And
chemists find nothing in it but the water, sugar, but-
ter, caseine, and salts proper to the milk of all cows,
only they are combined in somewhat different pro-
- portions; and yet the children die of it, many and
fast. There is a limit to the authority of chemistry
in regard to aliments. Who would like, for instance,
to eat a chemically-compounded egg, having every
quality of the hen-laid article which analysis could
detect? But is it true these simulated wines are
chemically identical with ‘the real thing ?
The sum of the theory would seem to be that wine
is diluted alcohol agreeably flavored to the taste, and
sometimes perfumed also—a fair definition of a mint
julep. .
Here are, ist, alcohol; 2d, acids; 3d, bouquet mat-
ter; and, 4th, water. All these exist in real wine,
and all exist in the false as well. Admitting, for the
moment, these to be all the ingredients contained in
either, let us look at them separately. ;
1. Alcohol. Not only do they produce this ele-
ment by fermenting sugared water, but where none
of the must is used, and all the wine matter is ex-
tracted from the pomace, Gall enjoins adding distilled
spirits in the proportion of eight per cent.
.
PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 129
Concerning such adulteration with spirits, Mr. E.
Delarue says: ‘Take some of the wine to be tested
in a porcelain capsule, which place over an alcohol
lamp. Float in the wine a nut-shell filled with oil,
in which put a floating taper. Ballast the nut-shell
with shot till its edges are brought even with the sur-
face of the surrounding liquid. Light the lamp and
the taper. Now, if you place a thermometer in the
bowl, you will see that at 45 degrees of Centigrade,
alcoholic vapors will rise from the wine and catch
fire, forming round the taper a reddish halo. Repeat
the experiment with natural wine, and the vapors
will not show themselves until the wine has reached
90° of Centigrade, almost boiling point. In the first
place, the alcohol was in the condition of a simple
mixture; in the second, it was in a state of com-
bination, or, we may say, timate incorporation,
and retained by a cohesive force not to be broken ex-
cept by a high degree of heat.”
The true thing, then, adheres till the heat reaches
90° of Centigrade, almost boiling point, while the im-
itated thing lets go at 45°, going off at just “ half’
cock.” Now the normal temperature of the stomach
is from 98° to 100° Fahrenheit, only 13 to 15 de-
grees below the point at which distilled alcohol sep-
arates itself from other ingredients with which it
F2
130 EvuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
may be mixed. Must it not, then, when taken into
the stomach, almost immediately explode upon the
nerves of that organ the whole of its stimulating
power, to be as rapidly communicated to the brain ?
while undistilled alcohol, on the other hand, as it ex-
ists in true wine, bound to its associates by the hand
of Nature, and not stirred in with a stick, requires
twice as much compulsion to make it part company,
works but slowly while in the stomach, passes out of
it in a combined, qualified, and modified form, and
so, entering into circulation, expends its force gen-
tly and slowly (may we not presume) upon each and
every part in such way as that all are equally ex-
alted, thus preserving equilibrium instead of disturb-
ing it, as every agent must which exhausts itself upon
only one or two organs.
It is a fact that a person whose stomach is sensi-
tive can easily detect the presence of distilled alco-
hol in wine by the burning which he feels after
drinking it.
This may be the proper connection for suggesting
that the slower effects of red wines as compared with
those of white may be due to the enveloping, so to
speak, of a considerable portion of the alcohol by the
coloring matter, which, being a resin, will dissolve in
alcohol, but not in water.
Paris AND THE GREAT ExuHiBiTIon. 131
Liebig says: “ Owing to its volatility, and the ease
with which its vapor permeates animal membranes
and tissues, aleohol can spread throughout the body
in all directions.”
Evidently the quickness or slowness with which so
volatile a liquid passes to the state of an all-perme-
ating vapor, to flash like thought from part to part,
are most important when we are judging of the qual-
ities of alcoholic drinks.
Spirits and water, whether in form called cocktail,
julep, or punch, are, in this respect, just like Dr. Gall’s
brandied wines. If, by reason of the earlier decom-
position of their alcohol and its too sudden and neces-
sarily unbalanced action on the organs, juleps, cock-
tails, and punches are hurtful to health, happiness,
and morals—if their tendency is to breed in the nerv-
ous system a disease called the drunkard’s thirst,
which true wine rarely does, then Gall’s wines, hold-
ing eight per cent. of added alcohol, are, for the same
cause and in the same measure, injurious to health,
happiness, and morals, and equally productive of the
drunkard’s thirst. And, since nothing in a compound
can be called a good ingredient unless it combines
properly, an ingredient that goes loose at precisely
the time when it should not, must be esteemed a bad
one.
132 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
Chemists like Gall and his supporters, if he has
any among chemists, who take no account of the
manner in which the ingredients of wine combine
with each other, as influencing their effects on health,
are of small value as judges of another question now
arising, which is, Do wines made of a certain quan-
tity of grape-juice, mixed with a large body of sug-
ared water, but with no addition of distilled alcohol,
contain ingredients hurtful to health? Of this we
are certainly at liberty to judge for ourselves, though
I am as yet unable to indicate any chemical test
bearing directly upon it. A presumption against al-
cohol developed by fermenting sugar and water arises
from this, that, as in the case of distilled alcohol,
which we have just been considering, the intruding
ingredient comes in form of something artificially
separated from matters with which it was once natu-
rally combined. | If the wine with which Mr. Delarue
experimented held its brandy but feebly in combina-
tion for the reason that it had been separated by dis-
~ tillation from other wine to which it was native—and
we can imagine no other reason—then, by analogy,
we may infer that spirits developed by fermenting
in water grape-sugar, extracted from starch that was —
itself extracted from potatoes, will be held as feebly
by the water, etc.,in whose company it happens to
7
PARIS AND THE GREAT ExuiBiTion. 133
find itself, as the distilled alcohol of Delarue’s ex-
periment was by the wine into which it had been
stirred. Extracts and mixtures naturally provoke
suspicion. The sugar which ferments in juice of the
ripe grape was always there. It and the watery par-
ticles of that juice can hardly be called sugar and
water. They are one—born of one root, and kindred
. of one sap. Sap is thicker than water.
We have seen that Gall finds the true mother of
wine to be its acids; that Hussman thinks bouquet
matter is the real quintessence, though without ex-
pressly discarding the acids ; and that Petiot puts all
virtue and wine power within the compass of the
zisth part, and dilutes it “a discretion.”
Do these materials, one, any, or all of them, prop-
erly combine with pump-water? Especially do they
combine as intimately in the imitation wines as they
do in natural ones ?
Tartaric acid, in which German as well as most
American wines abound, is said never to be present
as a free acid in French wines. But it is used in
France to adulterate with. To detect its presence,
Mr. Delarne gives us the following test:
“Mix some of the wine with twice its volume of
chloride of potash, saturated at the temperature of
15° Centigrade. Stir well with a glass rod, and if
134 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
in seven or eight minutes a crystalline powder of bi-
tartrate of potash is precipitated, the tartaric acid has
been added. If it were natural to the wine, it would
not precipitate itself wnder several hours of stirring.”
Here we see the want of cohesion even more strik-
ingly indicated than in the case of the intrusive alco-
hol. In place of stirrmg in some pounds of erystal-
lized tartaric acid, Gall and his believers collect a
mass of grape-skins and seeds, and stir them in, or
they bring together grape-juice in which the acids
already exist, and sweetened pump-water, set the two
to ferment in company, and ask the wine to share
half its quality with the water. And they mix, it is
true, but how? Why, in the same loose way as the
tartaric acid of ‘Delarue’s experiment did, to separate
ten or twenty times earlier and easier than acids natu-
rally present would.
As regards the effect on health, would this be ten
or twenty times too soon? Yes, if the substance
mixed with the sugared water by fermenting it on
erape-husks or with grape-juice play any part beyond
merely pleasing the palate. They may be, and prob-
ably are, designed to qualify the action of the alco-
hol, of the water, and of each other, while passing
through the channels of circulation. In such case, we
may reasonably suppose, it is as important for them
PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 135
to combine well as to combine at all. If they have
uses to perform together, they should remain togeth-
er until those uses are performed. If they have uses
to perform separately, they should separate soon
enough to perform them. <A drink composed for the
use of man, and destined to circulate and decompose
within his body, should not merely contain good in-
eredients, but they should hold together just long
enough, and separate-at just the right moment.
These considerations go to all those substances
found in Petiot’s ;4,5th part of pure wine, and which
he says “ constitutes the wine,”
including of course
Gall’s and Hussman’s acids and bouquet matter.
Judging by Mr. Delarue’s test, they are as easily
shaken from the rest of the fluid they are designed
to disguise as the lion’s skin was from the shoulders
of the ass, and for the same reason—they did not
grow there.
And the water: has chemistry found nothing in
the pump-water wines which can injure health, or
which pure wine should not contain? It has found
there precisely what was in the well from which the
water was pumped—lime, magnesia, clay, and what-
ever other impurities the earth through which it came
could supply. Whatever impurities of this kind find
their way into orape-juice are in a short time almost
136 EvRoPEAN VINEYARDS.
entirely flung down., But their quantity is never
very considerable in pure wine, as appears from the
comparatively small precipitate deposited when it is
brought in contact with oxalate of ammonia.
It is true, distilled water may be used, but it is
not, and will not be—that’s all. Nor will very much
sugared water be fermented to produce the alcohol
required, though sugar for sweetening will no doubt
be put in. Whisky, or neutralized whisky, will be
found cheaper and readier.
It seems plain that these gentlemen have no other
idea of wine than as a diluted alcohol flavored with
grape acid, and sometimes, too, colored with grape-
skins. Will such a drink wean us from whisky and
rum, and make us a sober people, as wine-drinking
peoples mostly are? Neither the one nor the other,
I think. It is repugnant to common sense that men
can learn to love a mere chemical product as they
can a natural one. Cocktails, cobblers, juleps, and
punches are sweeter in the mouth than imitation
Catawba or Concord can possibly be made. And if
the copious supply of water with which we adulter-
ate our whisky and rum has thus far failed to anti-
dote the drunkard’s thirst, the whole volume of the
Missouri or the Rhine, mingled with spirits from
cane or potato sugar, in however nicely adjusted pro-
portions, will equally fail. ,
‘
'
:
.
PaRIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 137
We are now yearly consuming, and being con-
sumed by, 80 million gallons of whisky, mixed with
a reasonable proportion of water; and, though mil-
lions of our people take the mixture regularly and
copiously, it is precisely they who are either actually
drunkards, or going to be drunkards, or in great
danger of being drunkards. Even the teetotalers
seem in a better way to keep sober.
Fortunately, sugar costs something. Hussman es-
timates the expense of making Gallized wine at 60
cents a gallon; a good deal more, strange to say,
_ than he does the outlay for growing real wine the
natural way. In the south of France Gallization is
never dreamed of, for they grow their alcohol cheap-
er on the vine than they could brew it from sugar of
any kind. And, when our countrymen shall learn
to produce good, pure, wholesome wines at a cost of
ten cents the gallon, there will be no need for my
writing homilies at this prosy length upon the vir-
tues of purity and truth.
AMERICAN WINES ABROAD.
Our Sparkling wines found greater fayor on the
palates of the jury which tried them than did the
others with that which judged of them, which has
helped me to believe in the excellence of the Ca-
*
138 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tawba in the sparkling form. It was rather too
much to ask of the French members especially, to
fall in love with what seemed to them new and
“ sauvage” aromas and flavors. The German mem-
bers appreciated them higher, and more justly, I am
sure. The Norton Seedling, red and not pink, fully
fermented on the skin, was received with decided
respect, and complimented on its comparative neat-
ness on the tongue and palate. .
We presented to the juries some 90 different sam-
ples. Most of the Sparkling received honorable men-
tion, the others no mention at all. I hope we shall
make a better show next time.
The magnificent displays of the French, Bavarian,
Austrian, Portuguese, and other departments afford-
ed me an opportunity to make acquaintance with the
products of the great world of vines in all its dis-
tricts. The loss of a memorandum-book, however,
prevents my giving some statistics in this connection
that would be interesting.
PORT WINE.
I had read in the London Times a communica-
tion, to which a conspicuous place was given, which
argued that Port wine, as produced in Portugal for
the British market, was brandied up to the very high
PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 139
point of 26 per cent. of pure alcohol, for the sole
purpose of making it keep. While tasting Portu-
guese wines, I asked the commissioner if this was
true. He answered no. The addition of brandy
was to make it palatable and strong. To make Port
as the British people love it, the fruit is first flung
into an enormous tub or shallow vat, where as many
as ten, twenty, thirty, and even sometimes sixty men,
with trowsers rolled up above the knees, trample on
it during from twelve to forty-eight hours, and until
it is reduced to a thick mush. After this it is set to
ferment, but at a certain point fermentation is ar-
rested by adding brandy, which is done to preserve a
portion of the richness of the grapes. Afterward
the tendency to ferment is kept in check by repeat-
ed additions of spirit, until, from containing a mod-
erate amount of alcohol, it becomes about as strong
‘as brandy and water—half and half. The fourteen
years required to ripen this mixture is needed, not
for the wine, but for the spirit, which, it seems, wants
more age in mixture than when pure.
VIENNA BEER AND PARIS WATER.
How the French took to the Vienna beer on
draught in the Austrian restaurant! Well they
might. No water in reach of Paris could make
140 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
such as that. Paris beer is not fit to,drink. The
Europeans have the best excuse for abstaining from,
water. You rarely find a drop that you can take
without present disgust and future trouble. From
this cause it is that water is drunk usually in the
form called soda-water, of Seltzer-water, which is, in
fact, only the evil fluid of the Thames or Seine,
crammed with carbonic acid gas. By far the best
drink for an unfortunate teetotaler I found to be Eau
de St. Galmier, brought from some distance, and
costing four cents a bottle without the bottle. It
has no impurities, except a good quantity of natural-
ly incorporated carbonic acid gas, which, when sugar
is added, makes it quite agreeable. The modes of
supplying the cities are as defective as the quality
supplied. The Seine water is filtered and sold by
the bucket—which means that some of it is filtered,
and a good deal sold by the bucket that is not filter-
ed, but merely drawn from the hydrant in the court-
yard. You pay for the pure article, but get the Gall-
ized one, the concierge and your own domestics con-
spiring often to cheat you not merely in quality, but
in quantity also. Now Seine water is notoriously
impure. To attempt filtering away its impurity, so
as to present it as a drinkable fluid, is a cruel joke.
In London it is no better than in Paris. The water-
1
;
:
PaRiIs AND THE GREAT EXuisBiTion. 141
works of our American cities are a national glory,
and their outflow, bright and pure, goes far to keep
us in the sad habits of the Rechabites, Mohammed-
ans, and Teetotalers. In the day when red wine
shall come, their crystal wealth will still be useful at
table to dilute table-wine for such as like it diluted.
The first of July drew near, and I was still in
Paris. The long, slow, pea-green spring had passed
into a beautiful summer of fair weather, warm days,
and rather dusty breezes. I knew well enough the
vine-blossoms had come and gone, and the fruit was
swelling in the clusters, and that I ought to be
among them. But the Great Exhibition was in
Paris, and to it and Paris the four quarters of the
world were being gathered in. One, finding himself
there in those days, found it easy to remain.
The great day of all the seven months was the
first day of July, when seventeen thousand of all
races and nations assembled to witness the distribu-
tion of the rewards of merit at the Palace of Indus-
try. On entering, I looked about to see where the
fresh air was to come from, and found only a few
port-hole openings beneath the vast sky-light, enough
perhaps to ventilate a beer-hall, and they only half
opened. The weather was hot, and yet the people
lived. The Continentals know little of ventilation.
142 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The only other fact left me to chronicle by the all-
reporting press concerning the doings of the day is
that, when the imperial party, in their tour of the
hall, came opposite the American benches, there was
a hurrah many times louder than had greeted them
from those of any other nation, though the Ameri-
cans were but few, which proves how much they
love the great man, or else how much they love to
hear themselves shout.
I admit I occupied a good deal of the time in
looking with a field-glass at the imperial, and royal,
and princely people on the stage, almost opposite to
where I had the good fortune to sit, and especially
in noticing the empress, as she bestowed on each
one who mounted the steps to receive his medal
at the emperor’s hands an imperial bow and a Eu-
génean smile. Wonderful smile! as sunny-bright
and honey-sweet as a landscape of Claude Lorrain,
and, like it, a work of art too. She had just heard
of poor Maximilian’s death, but must for the day
keep it a secret; and heavy as the bullet in his
buried heart was the hidden burden she carried in
her own, all the while she smiled and smiled.
Paris AND THE GREAT ExuiBiITIon. 143
PASTEUR AND HIS DISCOVERY.
I heard an unusual clapping of hands. Looking
for the object of the applause, I saw mount the steps
a gentleman whose embroidered coat showed him to
be a member of the Institute. It was M. Pasteur,
taking his great gold medal for having found a way
to cure wine of all its diseases, and make it keep in-
definitely long. With Pasteur was H. Marés, of
Montpellier, who, better than any one else, I think,
has taught us how to cure the oidium and keep it
cured. Ihave, since then, been so happy as to make
M. Marés’ acquaintance,.and, when I come to re-
count my visit to Montpellier, I will introduce him
to the reader.
M. Pasteur has published a large volume on the
subject of his discovery. The important part of the
work for the practical vintner to know is the instruc-
tions how to conduct the process of heating the wine,
in which the remedy consists, and these I have tried
to condense in what follows.
After explaining at length the nature of the vari-
ous wine diseases, acidity, bitterness, etc., tracing
them to vegetable parasites, and detaling his experi-
ments in search of an agent to destroy the parasites,
M. Pasteur arrives at the conclusion that they are
144 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
effectively destroyed by heating the liquid up to a
point between fifty and sixty-five degrees of Centi-
grade, which would be from 122° to 149° of Fahren-
heit. This can be done in a “bain marie,” that is,
by placing the bottle or cask in a vessel of water,
and heating the water; or by hot-air closets, or by
steam-pipes introduced into the casks. The heating
should be carefully and gradually done.
The following is in the*words of the book: “The
bottle being corked, either with the needle or other-
wise, by machine or by hand, and the corks tied on
like those of Champagne bottles, they are placed in a
vessel of water; to handle.them easily, they are set
in an iron bottle-basket. The water should rise as
high as the ring about the neck of the bottle. I
have never yet completely submerged them, but do
not think there would be any inconvenience in do-
ing so, provided there be no partial cooling during
the heating up, which might cause the admission of
a little water into the bottle. One of the bottles is
filled with water, into the lower part of which the
bowl of a thermometer is plunged. When this
marks the degree of heat desired, 149° of Fahren-
heit, for instance, the basket is withdrawn. It will
not do to put in another immediately, as the too
warm water might break the bottles. To reduce
PaRIS AND THE GREAT ExnuisiTion. 145
the temperature to a safe point, a portion of the
heated water is taken out and replaced with cold, or,
better still, the bottles of the second basket may be
prepared by warming, so as to be put in as soon as
the first comes out. The expansion of the wine dur-
ing the heating process tends to force out the cork,
but the twine or wire holds it in, and the wine finds
a vent between the neck and the cork. During the
cooling of the bottles, the volume of the wine having
diminished, the corks should be hammered in far-
ther. - The tying is taken off, and the wine is put in
the cellar, or on the ground floor, or in the second
story, in the shade, or in the sun. There is no fear
that any of these different modes of keeping it will
render it diseased ; they will have no influence ex-
cept on its mode of maturing, on its color, ete. It
will always be useful to keep a few bottles of the
same kind without heating it, so as to compare it, at
long intervals, with what has been heated. The bot-
tle may be kept in an upright position; no mould
will form, but perhaps the wine may lose a little of
its fineness under such conditions, if the cork gets
dry and air is allowed too freely to enter.”
M. Pasteur affirms that he has exposed casks of
wine thus treated to the open air, on a terrace with
G
146 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
a northern exposure, from April to December, with-
out any injury resulting.
Wine in cask may be heated by introducing a tin
pipe through the bung-hole, which shall descend in
coils nearly to the bottom, and return in a straight
line, and through this pipe passing steam. If, after
being thus once heated, there is such exposure to air,
by racking or bottling, for instance, as to admit a
fresh introduction of parasites, the disease may again
be cured in the same way as at first.
M. Pasteur’s theory, or practice rather, is well re-
ceived in France; so well, in fact, that, though it was
first made known in 1865, already, at the time of
which I write, others had begun seriously to contest
his claims to original discovery. The Vicount de la
Vergnette-Lamotte, of Burgundy, insists that it is no
other than his own method of storing wine during
July and August in a garret, where the temperature
might mount to 90° Fahrenheit, but perhaps not high-
er, while Pasteur heats up to 122° at least. It is said,
too, that an unscientific person who lived in the last
generation used to heat his wine to preserve it; and
in the south of France they have a custom of expos-
ing wine to the rays of the sun on the roof. A valu-
able invention is always attacked.
M. Pasteur’s book has a very full report in favor
PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 147
of his system, made by a committee of the Wine Mer-
chants’ Association of Paris. But all certificates are
dispensed with by such a scene as I have described,
where the value of the discovery is certified, and the
discoverer rewarded by a great round first prize gold
medal from Napoleon’s hand, and a smile from Eu-
génie’s lips.
148 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CPAP TH hs
RHEIMS.
ae fifteenth day of July, 1867, found me lodged
at an agreeable little hotel in the old city of
Rheims, capital of the ancient province of Cham-
pagne, and next door to the great cathedral of cor-
onation fame. I like such kitchens as that of the
little hotel, close to the main hall and opening on it,
where the cook is always present and ready to re-
ceive your orders direct, dressed in fresh white linen,
with a white cap on his head, and surrounded by
dozens of brilliant copper saucepans, while on the
milk-white dresser is piled the provision for the day
—chops, steaks, and joints. Snch a sight prepares
one to be pleased with his dinner in advance. He
was as dignified—the white cook in question—as a
chemist in his laboratory, and a great deal cleaner.
My old friend F., for ten years our chef de cave in
Cincinnati, had returned some two years before with
a snug fortune acquired in America, and was living
RaAEIMS. 149
at his ease in his native Rheims, or trying to do so.
I had looked him up the evening of my arrival, and
the next morning he called early, and arranged to
take me a tour among the estates best worth seeing
in the neighborhood. Soon after breakfast we drove
out. As we left the town, the broad valley of the
limpid and sage-green Marne lay before us, the fore-
ground of the vine-covered hills, or rather mountains,
rising with gentle slopes beyond.
“Ts the soil of the plain rich?” I asked.
“No; it will bear tolerable crops, but needs enor-
mous manuring. It is of chalk, like the hills; alf
about here is chalk.”
A chalk soil is always pure, owing to its slow de-
composition, I suppose. It is also fine. Champagne
wine is born on chalk hills, and grows old in chalk
cellars. The same formation as that I found at:
Rheims I had last seen in the form of the white
cliffs of Albion, and before then in the South Downs,
where the finest of mutton sheep graze on its short
grass, and take their quality from its fineness and
sweetness. The old rule was in force in the Marne
Valley, as elsewhere—poor soil, rich product; great
wine in little quantity.
Crossing the river and the level ground of its val-
ley, the road conducted us with an easy rise up the
150 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
base of the mountain of Rheims, and soon we found
ourselves among fields of the most stunted and close-
ly-set vines ever seen, cultivated with unwearied pains,
and enjoying the choicest soil and best exposure —
vines of quality they. Higglety-pigglety the vines
of quality stood, each one with its little stake to help
it hold up its small offspring of fruit. They were
crowded much closer than those on the Cote dor,
some plantations being set so thickly as to hold
25,000 to the acre. The object of this close plant-
ing in the one district, as well as the other, being to
“force the ripening, by dint of suffocation and starva-
tion, at the expense of vigor.
A long drive among such fields brought us, at
length, to the quiet little village of Saint Thierry.
It was as still, in fact, as a deserted village. The
men were at work, the children at school, and the
girls and women were gathered about an old stone
fountain of abundant delivery, where, under wide-
spreading trees, they washed their linen sociably.
Under the trees we alighted, and went and looked
up the curé of Saint Thierry, to ask his services in
gaining us admission within the walled inclosure of
a great estate near by. The good man, after offer-
ing us wine, conducted us through the close-walled
and silent lanes, till we reached a great oaken gate,
RuEIMsS. 151
which he soon got somebody to open. Entering, we
found the grounds to be of most respectable aspect,
tolerably kept, but pervaded by a lonesome, solemn,
monkish air, easily accounted for when they told me
it had been a convent once. Here was another for-
tunate coincidence. Did the good sisters choose this
spot whereon to build their house of earthly tribula-
tion because the earth about it grew so excellent a
wine to moisten their clay, or was the good wine-soil
brought to their doors because of their many virtues,
and to reward their many abstinences? Ihave read
that some of the nuns of Charlemagne’s time had to
be restrained from not very pretty habits, into which,
in that rude age, they had fallen. He was a rough
old fellow, and bad; but, like other old bad fellows,
had a fine sense of maidenly propriety. He said he
would be if his nuns should not be made to be-
have like decent women, and no longer stroll through
the towns, haunt taverns, get drunk, and lie about in
wayside ditches. How he shut them up, and how he
punished them,I don’t know. I can’t think, however,
that the vestals of Saint Thierry ever needed the em-
peror’s rough discipline for over-draughts of the pure
and sparkling wine grown within their own domain.
It may sometimes have elevated their souls a little
too near the skies, but could never have brought
their bodies to the gutter.
152 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS. °
From the walk to the chateau, I was attracted to-
ward a balustered terrace on the left, flanked by two
handsome flights of stone steps, from which there was
a charming view. While enjoying it, a gentleman of
good mien approached, and was introduced as M.
Camus, the proprietor of the chateau of Saint Thier-
ry, a resident proprietor, and not a Paris-haunting
absentee, like too many in France. |
Under his guidance, I took a long stroll through
the vines, which was rendered very instructive by his
conversation as we went. His vines were planted
close enough to put 16,000 within an acre. They
were all layered every year, and in the following
manner: A trench is dug, usually nine inches deep
at the foot of the plant, and extending from it to a
point which the cane chosen for the purpose will
reach after being pruned. Usually it branches to-
ward the end, and the two branches, each cut back
to two eyes, show above the soil, after they are laid
down and covered up, like two slender and short
twigs. Vines thus trained are called Jow.
There is also a custom of layering only once in
seven or eight years, but then at such period all are
layered. The practice of doing it only as plants
grow sickly, or dead ones need replacing, which ob-
tains in Burgundy, is not known in Champagne, I
RuHEIMS. 153
think. Vines laid down every seven or eight years
are called high.
These need, of course, a trench to lie in suited to
their larger size, and considerably deeper than nine
inches—from sixteen to twenty, perhaps. Such vines
are not set so thickly as low vines are.
Tasked M. Camus if such frequent renewals, keep-
ing the plants in perpetual youth, as it were, with no
ancient and wrinkled stock to break the impetuous
flow of sap, did not hurt the quality of the product.
And I told him, in the same connection, of the old
vines of the Cdte d’or, and that in Médoc the juice
of young ones was not allowed to class as quality
No. 1.
He told me in reply that when new plants were
set out upon the finer hill soils, which came from
lower and inferior grounds, it needed some twelve
years for them to acquire “the quality of the hill ;”
but as to vines that had acquired this quality, he did
not think their yearly renewal affected injuriously
their fruit. High vines were renewed only at each
seventh or eighth year, and yet it was usually the
low vines that produced the best wine. He thought
old vines, though ever so often layered, remained old
vines still, and were not rejuvenated to any purpose
that could affect the quality of their fruit. Possibly
G 2
154 EvRoPEAN VINEYARDS.
he was right; but what becomes, then, of the facts that
look directly the other way? Such contradictions
are puzzling. Maybe old vines bear sweet fruit, not
because they are wrinkled, or crooked, or ugly, but
by virtue of some other quality, as yet unknown, that
comes with age.
“You have but little oidium in Champagne ?” I ob-
served.
“We have enough of it, though, and it has to be
treated with remedies. My vines are never troubled
with it, however. They would be if not frequently
layered, I am sure.” He then gave me details and
reasons which convinced me he was right in this in-
ference.
Like nearly all the proprietors of the district, M.
Camus did no bottling, but sold his crop soon after it
was made. He informed me that for twenty years,
or thereabout, he had disposed of every crop to one
house, always leaving it to the purchaser to fix a
price. I regret that in losing my memorandum-book
I lost some details obtained from M. C. of the cost
of production, the average product, and prices ob-
tained.
A view of uncommon extent and beauty was al-
ways before the eye at the chateau. The house,
through portions of which they were good enough to
RuHEIMS. 155
show us, still preserved traces of the old convent. It
was quaint, and yet rather grand too, inspiring a re-
spect for its inmates. It would be as hard to repro-
duce as an avenue of old oaks. “All the modern
conveniences” are convenient enough, I know, but
they certainly don’t impress the casual visitor with
such a desire to stay and be at home as does the
peculiar, stately, unpurchasable aspect of a house
like that of St. Thierry.
The dwellers in such a home are to be envied,
especially by a Western American vine-dresser, re-
siding as they do in the midst of their possessions
and effects—their wealth of vines about them and of
wine beneath them—with enough to do and plenty
to do it with—enjoying a farmer’s freedom without
his rusticity, and an aristocrat’s luxury and comfort
without his ennui. In America, to be a gentleman
farmer requires a fortune at interest. Maybe the
time will come when vine-dressing shall be so well
understood and reliable for income—which it is not
yet by a good deal—as that the owner of a hundred
acres in grapes can sit under his own vines and trees
in lordly independence and republican ease. As yet,
however, chateau life is with us quite too near an im-
possibility, except in a suburban and imitation way.
For the present, our fate is to be either rough-and-
tumble farmers, or cits. .
156 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The next drive took us among high vines, which
appeared, as to culture and training, much like those
Isaw in Burgundy. Both white and red grapes are
grown, but, with slight exception, all are converted
into white wine, and that is bottled for Sparkling.
The white grape wine has more of the true Cham-
pagne quality, delicacy, lightness, and sparkle than
what is obtained from red grapes, and is usually
mixed with the latter in the proportion of one eighth,
or one fourth.
The chalk or chalky rock of the vineyards is cov-
ered with but a thin layer of soil, which consists of
about four parts of carbonate of lime and one part
of silica and clay, which proportions are sometimes
varied by the presence of oxide of iron. |
At first planting the roots are not set very close,
the distances being from three feet three inches be-
tween the lines by two feet ten inches within the
lines, to three feet by one foot eight inches. Before
planting, the soil is broken up to the depth of twen-
ty inches or a little more. Two and three year old
plants are preferred. Composted manure is flung
in about the roots on setting out. The first year
they are four times weeded ; the second, they are cut
back to one or two eyes, are hoed in March, and aft-
erward weeded three times.
RuHEIMS. 157
In April or May of the following year, a sufficient
number of the most vigorous shoots are laid down to
fill one third of the unoccupied space between the
vines as they stand in their rows. The next year
another third of the space is in the same way filled,
and another year’s layering completes the plantation
with an utter rout (déroute) of the original ranks.
At each of these layerings compost is freely used.
Pruning is done in February or March. From
the middle of May to the middle of June they again
stir the ground to the depth of about three inches.
After blossoming, which usually comes about the
24th of June, the shoots are tied up, and buds not
wanted are rubbed off. After this comes pinch-
ing in and another hoeing. Often there is a last
pinching in as late as September, followed by a su-
perficial hoeing, so managed as to remove from be-
neath any bunches touching the ground enough soil
to let the fruit hang free.
Vintage often begins as early as the 15th of Sep-
tember, but the first week of October is oftener the
time. The bunches are carefully examined by the
“cutters,” and all bad berries removed.
These details, which to some may seem inapplica-
ble in our country, are given for the benefit of the
colder portions of it, where grapes of desirable vari-
/
158 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
eties do not ripen well, as at present cultivated. In
the Marne, which lies on the northern verge of the
European vine zone, fine and valuable wines could
be produced in no other way. To the peculiar meth-
od just described the world owes the joy of that won-
drous and sensational drink called Champagne.
If it is objected that American vines are of too
rank growth to bear such dwarfing, let it be consid-
ered that the treatment is only for such as grow on
meagre soils; that with more vigorous growers some-
what wider planting might do, until, by dint of con-
tinued dwarfing, they become smaller. I confess I
would like to see the Delaware—choice little queen
‘of pigmies—close set as above on the right soil and
exposure.
The cost of cultivation need not be so great as
many would suppose.
In some parts of the Marne a black earth contain-
ing sulphur is hauled upon the vineyards to improve
the soil, but I did not happen to see it. They think
it prevents oidium. If there be sulphur enough, it
is a good preventive; still, I would rather believe in
layering, which, beyond doubt, is, when often enough
repeated, a remedy of itself.
This reminds me that the remarkable success of
grape-growing along the borders of Lake Erie is now
RuHEIMs. 159
attributed by some to the presence in the soil of the
bituminous shale of the Hamilton group, such as is
found in the Pennsylvania oil regions. This shale
is said to contain, besides iron and sulphur, a large
quantity of potash. It is recommended by some to
be hauled upon sandy lands, as a manure to vines
planted there, and which are found to be much less
favorable to the grape than clayey lands, which, in
the region in question, abound in the shale.
The same Hamilton shale crops out in vast beds
on both sides of the Ohio River, from a little way
below Portsmouth down to about the mouth of
Brush Creek, in Adams County. I shall this year
try the experiment of spreading a layer of it over
a portion of my vineyard.
In many of the vineyards about Rheims sulphur
is in regular use. If layering be a perfect prevent-
ive on all soils, then the vines ;which need sulphur
must be high vines, laid down only every seven or
eight years. I am sorry to say I did not think to
ascertain this point.
In the garden of the house where Mr. F. lived
I was shown a large vine trained to cover a high
wall. One half of it was in good condition, laden
with fruit, and covered with dark green, healthy
leaves. The other half, on the contrary, had but lit-
160 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tle fruit, and its foliage, faded to a yellowish hue,
was already falling. Said F., “I tried, last year, an
‘experiment on that vine, by sulphuring well only
the half you see so healthy now, letting the disease
have its way with the other. I did this to learn if
my neighbors in America were right, who say oidium
can not be cured.”
Evidently the result showed, first, that the oidium
can rage in the Department of the Marne as well as
elsewhere ; and, secondly, that it is perfectly curable.
They apply sulphur three times in the course of the
season, and with a bellows and dredging-box. All
with whom I spoke thought it important to make the
application early enough in the day for the sulphur
to adhere to the dew on the lower side of the leaves.
F’, had been a practical vine-dresser on an Ohio River
hill-side, and had seen the disease there in its worst
form. So his opinion was worth heeding, that with
thorough and judicious sulphur treatment it may be
conquered.
After another day spent in seeing the cathedral
and visiting the principal cellars in Rheims, I took a —
train for the north, and, crossing first the ultimate
boundary of the vine zone and then the Belgian
frontier, was soon far away from gay France, and
Ruerms. 161
among a people whose language is French, but whose
temperament is not, for they produce no wine.
I was a few days, too, in Holland, where, though
water abounds, it has nevertheless so evil a quality,
the people abstain from it almost totally, and drink
instead a clear liquid looking much like it, called
gin; being, in fact, a wine after Gall’s recipe, name-
ly, diluted alcohol flavored with juniper-berries. Not-
withstanding, however, their abstinence and their an-
tidote, so humid is the atmosphere, much water en-
ters by the lungs and pores, rendering them lymphat-
ic, hepatic, splenetic, and heavy.
Finding my way out of Holland by the Rhine Val-
ley, I entered Germany, and slept for the first night
in the ancient city of Cologne, where the traveler
finds a grand cathedral, a sweet perfume, and some
uncommonly offensive odors.
162 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHAPTER AL
THE RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG.
O ascend the Rhine, I took passage on a small
boat, called a Mississippi steamer because she
had a little saloon under the quarter-deck and even
with the main-deck, for shelter from the weather and
to eat in. In this craft, comfortably enough, we
worked up stream, going slowly, as we ought when
a double line of curious and beautiful objects is to
be seen, enjoyed, and committed to memory.-
The vineyards terraced on the stone sides of the
steep hills were very well worth seeing—the hard
- handiwork of a determined people, resolved on get-
ting wine to drink, even if they must smite the rock
for it, as Moses did for water. This hardscrabble sort
of vine-culture is one of the attractions of the Rhine,
and, like Drachenfels, “The Cats,” “The Mice,” and
other well-kept and beautiful ruins, serves to draw
yearly crowds of tourists, whose plunder is more val-
uable to the inhabitants than was formerly that of
Tur RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 163
the travelers and pilgrims upon whom the nobility
and gentry—original builders of the towers and cas-
tles now in ruins—used to swoop down like eagles of
prey, as they were. The region of steep, terraced hills,
however, is not the Rhinegau, where are Rudesheim,
Steinberg, and Johannisberg. The wines wrung with
so much toil from those surfaces of basalt is mostly
sour and hard, like our own Catawba grown on strong
ground, abounding, like it, in tartaric acid, which Lie-
big says is good for gout, gravel, and stone—by ho-
mceopathic rule of contraries, maybe. It is the base
of much Gallization.
The Grand Turk, returning from a visit to Napo-
leon, happened to need our comfortable “ Mississip-
pi,” and so at Coblentz we were put upon a still
smaller craft—an ‘ Ohio,” perhaps—in whose close
hold the entire company of passengers had to pack
themselves for shelter from a hard storm of rain,
and so we went by the celebrated district without
seeing it. I blamed myself, on reaching Mayence,
for not getting off at Coblentz, to come on the day
after, so as to see the Rhinegau in clear weather ;
but, had I so planned it, the memorable things which
happened to me on that day—a day to be marked in
my calendar with a white stone—yea, with a pearl—
would have been missed forever.
164 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
JOHANNISBERG.
The cliffs of basalt that close in on the Rhine as
you pass Coblentz in going up stream, and which,
according to a habit that hardest of rocks has for al-
ways reposing on the softest, lies on a bed of sand-
stone, give way after you pass Bingen, allowing the
sandstone to appear and occupy the surface, which it
does in a series of gentle swells and hills. The course
of the river is here from east to west, which brings
the right bank to face directly south. The zone
called the Rhinegau extends from Wallauf, a little
below Mayence, down to Rudesheim, a distance of
12 or 15 miles, with a breadth of three or four.
The most conspicuous of its hills is one of mound-
like shape and individuality, on whose southern ex-
posure are some fifty or sixty acres in vines, while
the top is crowned by the castle or palace of Johan-
nisberg, which is, however, no great things as either
palace or castle—no great things, I mean, consider-
ing how precious is the ground it stands on.
Every body has heard of it, and knows how it came
to the great Metternich on the downfall of the first
Napoleonic empire, and is now owned by his de-
scendant, the present Prince Metternich, and Aus-
trian embassador at the court of the Tuileries.
——--
Tur RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 165
The claims of its rivals to the contrary notwith-
standing, there is no doubt Johannisberg is the most
famous vineyard in the world—a very Mecca or Je-
rusalem to the vine-grower or wine-drinker on his
pilgrimage—and pleasanter to visit, I should think,
than either of those musty, holy cities of the past.
The day after the rain-storm was all could be wished,
and I devoted it to the Rhinegau and Johannisberg. _
Going on board a down-river steamer, from her deck
I enjoyed a survey of the entire land of promise from
Wallauf to Rudesheim, and even unto Bingen, for
the boat did not stop at Rudesheim.
Crossing to the Rudesheim side in a small boat, I
found myself still about a mile from the town, which
distance I must go afoot. ‘rom the uneven shore-
path I strayed upon the well-graveled track of a rail-
way that conveniently led in the direction I was go-
ing, but a rough official drove me off with shouts
and gestures. In Germany grown people are watch-
ed as tenderly as we do children in America, and
every convenient place for getting crushed, or drown-
ed, or breaking your neck is as thoroughly policed as
if one had not the right to quit when he pleases a
world which wise men have long ago pronounced a
failure.
A German professor remarked to a friend of mine
166 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
that he had heard our American police allowed any
one who fancied it to take an unlicensed leap over
Niagara Falls! It is true they do, and Blondin and
Sam Patch are but living and dying examples of
what free institutions will do for a man.
At the railway station I found a hack, which, get-
ting in, I told the driver, “Schloss Johannisberg,”
which was all I knew how to tell him, seeing I spoke
no German. A drive of four or five miles, the last
of it up a gentle rise, overcoming a perpendicular
height of about three hundred feet, I should think,
brought me round to a little village at the back of
the castle, and then through a gateway into the court-
yard. If I had looked at the castle instead of the
vines on the way up, I should have noticed, what I
did not, the dark Austrian flag flying from the staff
on the roof. I saw it only after the carriage had
stopped before the principal entrance, and the pres-
ence of several servants round the door, the yard
fresh covered with yellow sand, and green-house
plants ranged along the walls, made me look about.
The family were at the castle.
A servant came to the carria’e who understood no
French. He went and brought another who under-
stood very little, for, after receiving my card, with
request that he take it to the director, M. Herz-
Tue RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 167
mansky, whose name, furnished by the waiter at the
hotel in Mayence, was absolutely the only clew I
possessed to Johannisberg, he went in, but returned
in a minute to ask me to alight and enter, while he
went to find the princess, who was walking on the
terrace.
“Madame the Princess! Pardon me, I only want
to see M. Herzmansky on business.” Had I told this
to the driver when I took the carriage, he would have
stopped at the door of the business-oftice. But, when
M. Herzmansky came, the little difficulty of lan-
guage again occurred. He spoke no French. It
was while I was endeavoring, by help of the servant,
to explain why I asked of his courtesy admission to
whatever it was proper I should see, that a gentleman
approached, whose magnificent appearance, more than
the general lifting of hats, showed him to be of some
distinction. It was Count Edmund Zechy, of Hun-
gary. By his politeness, I was very soon put in prop-
er relation with the director, who, conducting me to
his office, asked me to be seated, while his son, just
returned from the University, was sent for to be our
translator.
His first effort was the doing into French a message
from the princess that at four o’clock she would take
coffee in the cellar with some friends, and inviting me
168 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
to be present. To take coffee with a princess would
be something ; to take coffee with the Princess Met-
ternich was a great deal. To take that coffee with
such a princess in the grottoes of Johannisberg was
more of good fortune than often falls to one’s lot of
a summer’s day. I accepted; who would have de-
clined ?
This was about two o’clock, so there was still
abundant time for a walk through the vineyards.
Yet there was no more than time, since the good
Herzmansky was so pains-taking an instructor, and
his replies so full, and he made the tour about the
hill so extensive, that when it was ended four o’clock
had come.
Those who may be familiar with the strongly-col-
ored red sandstone or sand-shale earth seen about
Newark and elsewhere in New Jersey, or with the
soils of similar appearance and constitution near
New Haven and at other places in Connecticut,
would recognize in that of Johannisberg an old ac-
quaintance. The entire hill was of the same; nor
did I see any other in any of the Rhinegau vine-
yards, though I was told there was some slate in
places. As the deep color could be due to nothing
else than iron, that element must have been present
in good large proportion; considering which, I recall-
—s-
Tut RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 169
ed that the Médoe soil abounded in iron, that it was
even stronger on the Cote dor, and was not wanting
in Champagne. I recalled also that the places in
New Jersey and Connecticut where the like appear-
ance is seen are noted for good fruit and sweet veg-
etables. It was not,as I should think, by any means
a rich ground, and the grain of it was coarse.
Pausing at the steepest part of the hill, which is
immediately below the castle, M. Herzmansky call-
ed my attention to it as being the place from which
the best, wine came. There was nothing to distin-
guish it from the neighboring parts except its steep-
ness, which was so great I inquired why its soil seem-
ed so little washed away after so heavy a rain as had
just fallen? He replied that it was because of deep
and frequent tillage; but that would not have saved
it, 1 am sure, were it not for its coarse, and loose, and
maybe shaly texture. He added that, to compen-
sate for what washing did occur, he hauled on to the
higher parts, from time to time, good earth from the
north side of the hill, which, slowly descending under
the action of rains, not only replenished the substance
of the ground, but improved its quality.
The two-forked hoe the laborers were using I no-
ticed to be one half longer in the bit than any I had
ever before seen, and that such a tool could be sunk
H
170 EvUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
up to the hub at each blow, as I saw the stout-armed
fellows doing, showed the ground to be of extraor-
dinary lightness. The hoeing is done four times a
year.
Stakes were the only supports. Trellis might be
used to advantage, no doubt; but, as with other kings
and rulers, the réle of the Johannisberg vines is to
be conservative, and let well enough carefully alone.
When I asked M. H. if he had heard of M. Liebig’s
recommendation to ferment wine, like Bavarian beer
(our lager), in open vats and at a low temperature, he
answered that Liebig had spent some weeks at Jo-
hannisberg, and had, while there, suggested that very
thing, which he (M. H.) thought might do very well,
but he also thought experiments should first be tried
on less valuable grape-must than what his vines gave.
The vines were of good size, and spaced, I believe,
like nearly all I saw in Germany, about three feet
apart. Care had been taken not to overcharge them
with fruit.
Surprised to see a square piece of what seemed as
good vine-ground as the rest covered with only a crop
of clover, I asked the reason. It seemed the piece in
question had lately accomplished its fiftieth year of
grape-bearing, and, according to the traditional usages
of the place, had been liberated from its vines, which
Tue RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 1%1
had been thoroughly extirpated, and was now in clo-
« ver, keeping its jubilee of three years, at the end of
which time it would be planted again, after receiving
an overturning to the depth of three feet.
Vintage, which is delayed as long as possible, is
conducted somewhat as in the Sauterne district, the
fruit being gathered as it ripens, and selected berry
by berry, so that the ground is three and four times
gone over before all is done, which carries them often
well into November. These late vintages and suc-
cessive gatherings are, of late years, the general usage
throughout Germany. Dry weather is thought essen-
tial for the gathering, and, before pressing, the grapes
are often spread out-to dry during from twelve to
‘twenty-four hours. I am pretty sure they told me
they pressed without allowing any previous fermen-
tation on the skin.
So rich in sugar is Johannisberger that its final
maturity and clarification is the work of about seven
years, during which, from time to time, it repeats, as
it were, its second fermentation. All great wine ri-
pens slowly, I have noticed, and from the same cause,
I suppose. The casks hold, as I should guess, near
200 gallons. One of them, called “the bride of the
cellar,” contains the best wine in store, and is kept in
reserve till its mate in excellence is found, to which
172 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
it then gives place. The Germans are full of such
pretty fancies.
From the character of the soil and appearance of
the vines, I judged manure was used, and asked if
it were so. M.Herzmansky replied that it was, and
after we had done the vines he showed me a large
stable of admirable arrangement, where a number of
cows were kept and “soiled.” Others, to the number
of forty in all, were let out to the work-people on
condition to be similarly kept, and the manure deliy-
ered as rent for their use. No other kind than this
was used, and of it a good deal was applied. M. H.
insisted that no injury to quality resulted, and even
thought it improved the bouquet. It may be so;
judges often differ. Many men have many minds.
Circumstances alter cases. What’s one man’s meat
is another man’s poison. The monks of old Vougeot
let their vines stand 500 years, while those of old Jo-
hannisberg uprooted theirs every fifty years. |
The monks once owned Johannisberg, then? To
be sure they did—the monks of St. John—only an-
other coincidence, miracle, or special providence.
Should all the good things in this world go to the
share of the sinners or of the saints, I would like to
know?
But then the saints drank up al? the good wine.
Tuer RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 173
The poor sinners, destined to so hard a fate in the
end, needed some little consolation in the way of
present creature comforts.
But the monks had no wives or sweethearts.
Poor fellows—more to be pitied than the poor sin-
ners—it was right to let them have the wine!
“ Here is an American vine,” said young M. Herz-
mausky as we left the stables, and, sure enough, there
was an Isabella, trained to a wall, and growing well.
They surprised me by remarking that its fruit had
too rank a flavor. Returning to the office, the di-
rector showed me his labels, and, at my request, gave
me a sample of each kind, signed with his name, as
is that of every bottle sent from the cellar, and also
a list of prices. Here is a copy of it, the prices being
per bottle :
Flor. Kreut.
TSH CADINEH WiNCrccccececesececesocaeese seal 4
i Se CoN necks oe oe
1858, of Lame Seat See aRd sciences Co ee]
“ Es nr! PN eee deogeetinpias altelaiales Nh
Ge pe Oe PEE Rac CAAE Berto escend ue
Hy ce CON na ctegeeacediscaersaeet on fos 2h 30
1859, ae LOR dacateveesaeten acess co 20
1862, “ Oe Reo ante eets Sovadoseiices a Ue
66 6c ar a3
Sidirenteseticsiacsteaieiseie alesis 10
weer meee teen eeeerersee
seer eer e cere teen eeeees
174 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The florin is equal to forty cents, and sixty kreut-
zers make a florin. It seems the administration, in
which M. Ebenhéch is associated with M. Herzman-
sky, receive and fill orders addressed directly to them
at Schloss Johannisberg, authenticating every bottle,
as I said, with the signature of the director, M. Joh.
Herzmansky. I need not say the chances are poor
for obtaining the genuine thing through the ordinary
channels of commerce. It will be seen that, except
for the very highest grades, which are only to be
tasted on great occasions, the prices are not by any
means extravagant.
Many years ago an old man of the neighborhood -
came to the castle and offered his services, sO goes
the story, without compensation, to oversee the labor
in the vineyards. His offer was accepted, and for a
long time he performed the duties he had assumed
from love of them. It was worth something to be
chief vine-dresser on the slopes of Olympus.
Four o’clock had come, and the gods were assem-
bling—that is to say, a party of ladies and gentlemen
were descending the steps of a door at the side of the
castle, and were about entering that of the cellars
which opened close by it. One of them, a lady of
the Hungarian type of face, cloaked and hooded for
Tue RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 175
the descent into the lower regions, met me as I drew
near, and addressed me in perfect English.
I told her why I had come to Johannisberg, add-
ing that, had I known, however, of her being there, I
should not have taken the liberty.
“But why not?’ she said. “I’m sure I feel very
much obliged to you for taking the trouble.”
Which made me feel I was no intruder.
The cellars were right under the schloss. As we
entered, I could perceive that it was wide and high,
arched overhead, and remarkably dry and clean.
Numerous candles lighted it brilliantly. At the up-
per end was a sort of stage scene formed of green-
house trees, shrubs, and flowers, and other ornaments,
having quite a pretty effect.
It seemed it was a wine-tasting party, composed of
people assembled from the neighborhood, and some
friends then on a visit to the princess. And on
that day of all others, when wine was to rain down,
it was my fortune to be there with my goblet held
up!
After making a tour of the alleys, we reached a
place where a table was spread and chairs arranged,
around which the company seated themselves. After
an explanation from M. Herzmansky that, though her
highness had ordered coffee, yet, as it was inconsist-
*
176 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ent with that perfect equilibrium of the senses and
freshness of the organs of taste required where his
nectar was to be received, he had taken the liberty
of suppressing it, and would at once proceed to place
before us samples of different vintages in the order
of their merit, beginning with one of the lower
grades (all which was explained to me by Count
Zechy, next whom I sat), the wine was then served
in green Hock glasses of good capacity. The first,
and least good of the eight or ten different sorts, was
much the best white wine I had ever tasted. It was
followed by a better, and then a better, and then a
better still, mounting in scale of graduated excel-
lence—the enthusiasm rising, too, in like measure—
until the best was reached in form of a cask twenty-
one years old—just come to its majority, in the sip-
ping of which one could only exclaim, Wonderful!
wonderful! “The bride of the cellar” was yet to
come; and she came, radiant and delightful as star-
crowned Ariadne, bride of Bacchus.
Is it expected I should describe these upper Johan-
nisbergers? Kpithets, comparatives, and superlatives
gave out in exhaustion a long way down the ladder.
“ Richness,” “fineness,” “softness,” “ body,” “ vinos-
ity,” “flavor,” “ bouquet,” terms of commerce and of
table small-talk, all apply to wine, and are limited in
’
*
Tor RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 177
meaning by the finite qualities of their subject. But
Tam writing of JoHANNISBERGER.
Shall I talk poetry to it,and try to compass its ex-
cellence with figures and flowers of speech? Or shall
I quote, where I dare not originate, and make the
Great Master of the lyre speak for me? Let us see.
He has done his tersest and best when he tells us
Ulysses took with him to the isle of the Cyclops wine
that was
“Rich, unadulterate, and fit for gods to drink.”
But would the gods themselves be fit
For drink so rich and pure as it?
“Look there!” said Count Zechy. I looked up, and
saw the scene I have named, at the other end of the
grotto, slowly rise in the air, floating among clouds
of violet and rose, through which shone rays of every
iris tint—the scene itself. changing, as it moved, into
a celestial landscape. For a long while it remained
in view. Now it approached and now receded, all
the time rising, and so, gently coming and going, and
slowly mounting upward, it passed away.
Was it “the bride of the cellar” had made us see
this beautiful thing?
No; it was M. Herzmansky burning Bengal lights
among the green-house plants.
As, in the course of the tasting, I had taken to the
H 2
178 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
quantity of two or three glasses, or maybe more, it
is proper I should say something of the effects of
those high Johannisbergers.
To begin, the first effect was the same as poor
Proserpine felt when, having tasted the juice of
pomegranates grown in Pluto’s dominions, she want-
ed to live there through all eternity. So felt I, in
those lower regions of Johannisberg. After partak-
ing of the charmed fruit, I was spell-bound, and tore
myself not easily away.
Coffee excites the brain, and tea the liver, with an
unbalanced action. Hasheesh and opium are lars
which cheat the senses with: unreal objects, born of
the vapors of the brain they disorder. But wine acts
honestly on the real, and, while exalting the action of
every part within us, and the effect of every object
without us, works only with the actual and the true.
Accordingly, as I drove down hill, the working of the
spell that lay in the kiss upon my lips the cellar’s
bride gave glorified all the wide Rhineland, already
glorious with the sunset, gving to the waters a bright-
er sparkle, and deepening the purple of the shadowy
hills. By the same power, every event since the
morning came over the mind again and again, with
repeated titillations of memory’s chord, multiplying
that one delightful day into many. I was contented
Tuer RHINE AND J OHANNISBERG. 179
with all things and all events, for all had treated me
well. The river and the hills had pleased me; the
air and skies had been amiable; the people I had
met had been polite and kind; and I realized most
vividly—what was true most really—that the heav-
ens were good, and the earth was good, and the fruits
of it passing description—that this was the best pos- .
sible of worlds, and the queen of its queens the
Princess Metternich.
180 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHAPTER RS!
SWISS VINEYARDS.
ri eee SIT across Germany to Salzburg by rail,
and thence through the Alps of the Salzkam-
mergut, a two days’ carriage drive, brought me to
Bad-Gastein, without any thing occurring by the
way with a bearing on the object of this book, un-
less it be that the more I saw of wine-drinking South
Germany, the more was I charmed with the manners
of the people. In respect to manners, which are the
flower and fragrance of benevolence, the Austrian
Germans are, in my opinion, no way behind the
French. Indeed, what I saw of Austria made me
more than ever a believer in the theory of Babrius .
concerning the influence of wine upon civilization.
Like the French, they have exquisite taste. When
they shall have become fully possessed of themselves,
as will soon happen, through the development of free-
dom under the rule of Van Beust, great things may
be expected of the Austrians.
Swiss VINEYARDS. 181
That great man was at Gastein while I was there,
and the daily sight of him was good for the eyes.
Let me predict he will do more for his people by
working on their better nature than his now triumph-
ant rival, Bismarck, ever can for his through appeals
to their bad passions, party violence, and the use of
force.
But what has all this to do with white wine or red ?
Very little, I confess.
The tour I afterward took in Switzerland made
me, of course, familiar with Swiss vineyards, for ey-
ery canton but two contains them. The last week of
September and the first of October I spent at Glion,
sur Montreua, in the heart of the vine region of
Lake Geneva, the most important of all. In that
lovely cove, formed by the head of the lake, there
are a hundred hotels and boarding-houses, where in-
valids resort in the autumn to cure themselves by
eating grapes “by the quantity.” I tasted often of
the best in the neighborhood, and found them nei-
ther sweet nor well-flavored.
I have not yet heard of the grape-cure in Amer-
ica; but Catawbas wld cure, though. They will
cure, for instance, summer complaint and autumnal
dysentery, and, if Liebig is right, will also eradicate
gout and caleulus—all by virtue of the tartar they ~
182 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
contain, to say nothing of what their other constitu-
ents may be good for.
I could account for the insipidity of the Vaudois
grapes, as well as the poor reputation of the wine
made from them, when I learned that by dint of
heavy manuring the vine-dressers of the Canton Vaud
had carried the yearly average yield per acre up to ©
about a thousand gallons. They are most thorough-
going cultivators, and no doubt understand their own
interest in pushing their vines as they do. At the
same time, they produce two or three qualities of
good repute. The soil about Montreux is basaltic,
and so is that of a large portion of the region about
the lake. On the way northward from there, along
the western border of Switzerland, where the vine
abounds, the formation is almost wholly of a soft,
light gray sandstone. Here we have basalt and
sandstone in abundance, but no very good wine.
But the sandstone is not red, and is probably with-
out admixture of iron; nor could I see that it was
shaly at all.
DURKHEIM. 183
CHAP TE Ry Ere
DURKHEIM.
N my way to a second visit among the vine-
yards of the Rhine, I found myself, on the 12th
of October, at Freiburg, in Breisgau, in the upper
valley of that river. There is a great hill back of
the town where wine of some repute is grown, but
there the vintage had not yet begun. In the low
grounds it was well advanced. The first sight I met,
in walking among these last, was a boy standing, or
rather dancing, in a tubful of grapes, which rested
on an upright cask with the head out, into which the
juice flowed from numerous auger-holes in the bot-
tom of the tub. There was also a trap in the same
bottom, which was lifted from time to time to let
the crushed remainder of skins, seeds, stems, ete.,
fall through. This seemed to be the fashion of the
neighborhood, and an old fashion it was too, having
been brought from Persia, whence came to Europe
(as is generally believed) the grape and the art of
‘making wine, and where, to this day, they express
184 EvRoPEAN VINEYARDS.
the juice in the above manner. The grapes were
white. They were to be allowed a twenty - four
hours’ fermentation on the skins after crushing, in
order to improve the bouquet, it is said, and then
put under the press.
Keeping down the valley, I arrived at Durkheim,
in Rhenish Bavaria, a central point in the important
vine region which includes the towns of Forst and
Deidesheim. Though it was already the middle of
October, vintage had not yet begun, and I learned,
what I ought to have known before, that of late
years they let the fruit hang on the stem till almost
ready to fall. The hotel was a coarse old concern,
whose rooms were either comfortless from absence
of fire, or uncomfortable from the presence of stoves
and the smoke-nuisance. Many of the guests were
come to eat grapes as medicine, like those I had just
left on Lake Geneva. But the Durkheim medicine
was not by any means so bad to take as was that of
the other place. In fact, the grapes were excellent,
and by far the best I found in Europe.
I suppose Brillat Savarin, were he alive, would ob-
ject to take this grape-medicine ; for once, when some
one offered him grapes to eat, he declined, saying,
“Je ne prends pas mon vin en pillules” (I don’t
take my wine in pills). :
DURKHEIM. 185
There are hills in the neighborhood of Durkheim,
but the soil to which the characteristic quality and
value of its wines and those of Forst and Deides-
heim are due is found on the surface of a wide and
level area of gravelly deposit, so permeable, and con-
sequently so poor, that a soil has to be made for it,
and kept continually renewed, by hauling upon it
basaltic earth and clay, together with large quanti-
ties of cow manure, which last the first two serve
to retain, so it shall not be washed too freely through
the sieve-like foundation beneath.
I found no difficulty in obtaining the guidance of
a young gentleman, who was the son of a large pro-
proprietor, and who was good enough to devote the
whole day to me. Beyond question, the Rhenish
Bayarians are the first vine-dressers of the world.
Their vines are wide-spaced enough for plowing, yet
all is done by hand; and how often in a season,
think you, do those sturdy fellows stir the soil? Nine
and ten times! On each acre they yearly bestow a
hundred and forty days of hard labor. From dis-
tances of many miles they haul basaltic earth in such
quantities as in time visibly to elevate the surface
of the vineyards above surrounding fields. To this
earth they seemed to attach more value than I did,
after what I had seen on Lake Geneva. Its good
186 EuvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
properties seemed only to be manifest when it was
spread on other ground, and may have consisted
merely in the attraction its dark color has for the
sun’s rays and its retentiveness of manure.
The wines thus produced are uncommonly fine,
and mostly rich in bouquet—very different from
what could be expected with such heavy manuring
bestowed on a clayey or even a basalt soil.
The vines are of good stature, and trained on wire
trellis. The oidium is not an uncommon visitor, but
is successfully met with sulphur treatment. Obsery-
ing a sprinkling of whitewash on the vine-leaves
along the outer border, and recalling the verdigris
sprinkling noticed in Médoe, I asked the reason of it,
but could get none better than that it rendered the
ripening fruit unattractive—not to birds, but to boys.
In the cellar of the father of young —— I saw
the casks had received a good coat of coal tar, the
object being, they said, to retain the freshness of the
wine as early bottling will do. I think it was but
an experiment, and not an established usage. It
would certainly need to be very carefully done, and
the odor should be well dried away before putting
the casks in use.
Quitting the Rhine by the valley of the Maine, I
had a glimpse of the vineyards producing the cele-
DURKHEIM. 187
brated Stein wine, which they put up in big-bellied
bottles that look generous and honest, and are so,
certainly, in comparison with the slim, long-necked
flasks we cheat with at home, and yet they are them-
selves very short-comers in contrast with the full
quart flasks sometimes seen in France, which last, I
hope, will long be preserved as monuments of de-
parted honesty.
Bow pruning seems to be a favorite in Rhenish
Germany. Probably the strong manuring the vines
receive in that country enables them to bear what it
is insisted would be ruinous in France. And it may
be that manure can be more freely used, without in-
jury to the vine, on the extremely porous, gravelly
plains, or well-drained, terraced mountain sides of
the Lower Rhine, than on French soils. Guyot, we
have seen, accompanies his recommendation of long
pruning with the requirement of high manuring.
Undoubtedly the tendency in our day is to culti-
vate for quantity rather than quality, just as in cook-
ery it is to sacrifice taste to convenience or economy.
. We invent no new dishes, but only quick, cheap, and
easy ways of spoiling old ones. Modern improve-
ments in the kitchen consist in neutralizing the flavor
of our vegetables by boiling them with soda ; raising
bread with chemicals instead of yeast, and baking it
188 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
with a cast-iron heat instead of the gentler radiation
of a clay surface; and as to joints and poultry, in
thrusting them into the oven with a dripping-pan
full of water, and there “ soddening with water,”
against the express prohibition of the Bible, instead
of “roasting with fire,” as it expressly commands.
And S¢ience and Invention are spoiling our dinners
for us as well as our wines.
ee
Vienna, and Beer, anv Toxay. 189
CH AP EER. x ENV.
VIENNA, AND BEER, AND TOKAY.
TENNA, where I remained three weeks, beats
the world, and even Paris, for bread, beer, and
boots. I found the best beer, not where the Straus-
ches perform, but in a cellar near the Opera-feuse,
where, thirty feet under ground, a deal of deep drink-
ing is done, and the new luxury of political discus-
sion enjoyed.
If, as wise Babrius tells us, every drink has its pe-
culiar effect, that of beer must be metaphysical, dis-
putatious, over-refining. It must be so, for something
has split German philosophy into half hairs, and Ger-
man nationality into a hundred or more states. It
could not have been wine, which is a unifier; so it
must have been beer. All the world knows that
German freedom and unity could have been secured
in 1848 if the Frankfort Convention had not lost its
head in a fog of abstractions, and spent six months
over a bill of Rights preliminary to a Constitution, al-
lowing the kings to take courage, gather strength,
190 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
and drive the abstractionists out of the windows by
the practical pricking of bayonets behind, in the thir-
teenth month of their incubation.
A few years ago, while yet the Glossners brewed
beer as good as the best at their cellar in Cincinnati,
I happened to be conversing there with some intelli-
gent Germans—a judge, a lawyer, and an editor—
about free trade and protection. They talked ra-
tionally enough till the question arose, in the course
of the discussion—but how, I can’t imagine—wheth-
er light was positive and darkness negative, or wheth-
er it was the reverse. With an apology to me, they
soon plunged into very excited German talk, re-
plenishing their glasses frequently. After each had
drunk his quart, I rose to take leave, but they beg-
ged me to remain, promising they would soon con-
clude their metaphysics, and return to common sense
and the English language.
“ But what have light and darkness to do with dry
goods, hardware, and groceries, and their importa-
tion?” I asked.
They assured me they could not possibly get on
with the main question until the other was settled,
and at it again they went. I left them at the end
of another quart, wrangling as positively and nega-
tively as in the beginning.
VIENNA, AND Beer, anv Toxay. 191
While at Vienna I had an’ interview with Count
Henri Zechy (cousin of the Count Zechy I met at
Johannisberg), to whom I had been recommended
to apply as one of the best-informed of the Hunga-
rian wine - growers, and whom, when he called, I
recognized as one of the Austrian commissioners at
the Paris Exhibition, where he was, I think, chief of
a group. He resides near Odenburg, in the north-
ern part of Hungary, which is in the region where
Tokay wine is made.
He told me they made all their good wines from
soils good for nothing else. Little manure is used
except in layering, which they practice to supply
failures. They think it injtres the quality. On
steep hill-sides they heap up ridges and mounds to
retard the running away of the rains, thus retaining
enough to supply the roots, and, at the same time,
preventing loss by washing. Cultivation, always by
hand, is done three times in a season. In the Tokay ©
region and other northern vine districts they cover
up in winter by laying the vines on the ground, and
then spreading straw over them, and afterward earth
over the straw.
No oidium is known in Hungary, unless we may
recognize as such something believed there to be the
sting of an insect, which appears on the young grapes
192 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
when no larger than shot, arresting their growth, and
causing -them to fall off.
The sweet wine known as Tokay can only be
made when the season will permit more or less of
the fruit to dry while yet hanging on the vines. I,
during October, there are white frosts in the morn-
ings, followed by clear and dry days, by the end of
that month a portion of the berries will be found to
have shriveled almost like a Malaga raisin, and be-
come blue. In such ease, the berries thus dried are
carefully picked by themselves and reserved for a
special treatment, the remainder being afterward
gathered and pressed in the usual way.
If the selected grapes are in sufficient quantity to ex-
press any portion of juice by their mere weight when
flung into a vat, such juice, called “ essence,” is kept
by itself, and, when sold separately, brings extrava-
gant prices. After this, or without it, if the quantity
will not suffice for a flow of “essence,” the dried
grapes are put into sacks, and trodden with feet until
reduced to a perfect marmalade. The juice flowing
in the course of this operation being, like the “ es-
sence,” kept apart, becomes Tokay wine of the first
class. The “marmalade” remaining in the sacks is
then pressed, to yield a Tokay of the second class.
These products, namely, the essence, and first and
VIENNA, AND BEER, anv ToxKay. 193
second class wines, are afterward mixed with what is
made from the fruit which did not dry, in the pro-
portion of 1 to 10, 2 to 10, 8 to 10, or 4 to 10, and
the qualities of sweet wine thus compounded are
named, and rank accordingly.
If the weather has not been propitious, of course
there can be no sweet wine made. JBirds are very
troublesome, as might be expected, where such sweet
fruit hangs out of doors so long, and have to be
abated with guns, or frightened away with machines
contrived to make a noise.
Not over one per cent. of the wines of Hungary
are sweet. To eke out this small supply, they make,
at Odenburg, an imitation Tokay, by mashing up
Greek currants and Malaga raisins, which is apt,
however, to spoil within a year or two.
A simpler way of making the Tokay would be to
gather both the dried and undried fruit without cull-
ing, and press all together, but this would not give
such regular and certain results. Besides, without a
thorough mashing in the bag, but little juice could be
obtained from grapes so dry, as, mingled with the
others, they would almost escape pressure.
Count Zechy told me the average of alcohol in
Hungarian wines was about ten per cent. He re-
marked that they contained a perceptible proportion
I
194 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
of phosphorus. I have heard the Burgundy wines also
contain it, and to its presence is attributed, by some,
the greater ‘‘headiness” of Burgundy as compared
with Bordeaux, phosphorus—as it is known, having a
close similarity to the substance of the brain. The
grape soils of Hungary are of different kinds—lime-
stone, chalk, sandstone, and basalt. I should call the
weather Count Zechy described as being good for
making sweet Tokay excellent for ripening persim-
mons and pawpaws, and attribute as much virtue to
the morning frosts as to the dry days. We have in
many parts of America so much of this autumnal
weather, I dare say we might try the making of
sweet wines with good hopes of success. “Straw
wines,” as they are called, are made by drying the
gathered grapes for several weeks under cover, usual-
ly on straw, whence comes the name. I remember
tasting some Catawba which had been made in this
way by a gentleman who lived near Cincinnati, and
that it was quite strong and Madeira-like, though not
very sweet, and had kept well without having ever
been below ground. But if it be possible for some
of us in America to emulate the Tokay, it is certain
none in Europe outside of the chosen region can do
so, as many failures have proved. Something of the
sort is made, however, at the Cape of Good Hope.
VIENNA, AND BerErR, anpd Tokay. 195
The American palate would take kindly to a good
sweet wine. In Champagne they know this, and
sweeten wines for our market as they do no others
except what are sent to Russia, remarking of the two
great peoples in question, “ Barbarians love sugay.”
196 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CTA TER Bove
ITALY.
VER the Somering, and into Italy, Venice,
Florence, Rome, Naples, where Vesuvius, in a
ferment, overflows with her ruddy and well-sulphur-
ed wines, and we come to Sorrento, on the south side
of the Bay of Naples, even unto Villa Rispoli and
its orange-groves, and there rest.
I am sure the “ Lachryma Christi” they gave at
the villa was not genuine, for it was no great things,
which every body says the true wine is.
I had heard in France, and also encountered in my
reading, so much in disparagement of Italian modes
of vine-culture, that I had really paid little attention
to it until what I saw during a three weeks’ sojourn:
at Sorrento made me think somewhat on the subject ;
and reflecting that even in the lazy province of Na-
ples all the people could not be drones, much less
fools, and that men whose palates were discriminating
and whose fingers were cunning in cookery must
ITALy. 197
know how to make wine, I made a few turns in the
vineyards of the neighborhood, and afterward spent
an evening in conversing on the subject with my host,
whom I invited to my room for that purpose. His
description of the modes of culture in vogue about
the Bay—of gathering, fermenting, and keeping —
though not applicable, I think, in our own country,
and so not worth detailing here, seemed reasonable
and proper enough.
For the custom of high training, either on trees or
trellis, he could give me no reason; but he might
have given this—that in so hot a climate, and on such
rich, dark, volcanic soil, grapes grown on low-trained
vines would either dry up to a raisin or fall off with-
out ripening. Notwithstanding all said against their
methods, I think the Italians know what they are
about; and as to their keeping the wine in demi-
johns and flasks, corked with ollve oil floating in the
neck, there may be good reasons for that too. An
exceptional soil and climate may very well produce
exceptional wines, needing exceptional treatment.
Going among the vineyards near Sorrento, and
noticing the vine-dressers at their work, I could see
that they were careful and thorough in all they did.
The trellis were very high, and were made by driv-
ing tall stakes in the ground, and tying to them cross-
198 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
pieces of cane. Certainly the form was not con-
trived to favor laziness.
The ground was free of weeds. The space for
admitting sun and air was about what it should be.
The pruning was being carefully done, according to
their system, whatever it was; and by what right
could I tell them it was all wrong?
They never vintage until after the autumnal rains
have come to swell the fruit, giving for reason that
the wine would spoil if they did. This certainly
would not be a reason in France, and yet it may be
a good one in Southern Italy, for all that.
I remember meeting, while in Naples, a Polish
lady who owned vineyards near Florence, and who
told me she was determined to adopt the French sys-
tem of training and pruning, notwithstanding her
Italian neighbors warned her it would never do. I
remember, too, that a few days afterward, another
lady told me her father, a Frenchman, had, in fact,
tried the experiment on an Italian vineyard, with the
loss of his vines as the result. No one would con-
tend, I think, that the method, so successful in Cham-
pagne, of crowding 25,000 plants within the com-
pass of an acre, could possibly do on the warm, rich
soil of Naples.
I had heard of the wine of the island of Capri
ITALY. 199
as excellent, and of the blue grotto there as beauti-
ful, so sailed over to it one day. But the high sea
kept us out of the grotto, and the wine was not good,
but bad, from the effects of the sulphur cure, they
said. There is a remedy for the bad effect in ques-
tion, which is itself a sulphur cure, and which may
not yet be as well known in Italy as it is in France.
At any rate, the “ lazy Neapolitans” have done what
no Americans have yet had the patience to do—they
have cured the oidium.
We remained two days at Capri, where we en-
joyed the society of some English artists, who had
gone there to paint from living models, whose per-
fection of form was beyond any thing to be found
in England—at reasonable rates. The hotel had been
a monastery once, which accounts. for the excellence
of the wine formerly grown on the island. The prog-
ress of the age has expelled the monks, and the prog-
ress of the oidium has spoiled the wine—a judgment,
no doubt.
Here comes the question, Were those ages during
which monasteries flourished the most, dark ages be-
cause good and learned men secluded themselves
from the world, hiding in cloisters that wisdom which
should have enlightened it, and in cellars the bottled-
up quintessence of civilization which should have re-
200 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
fined it? or was it because of the dark and evil times
mild and good men were forced to shelter themselves
in cells, and keep their liquor under lock and key ?
However it may be, those cowled, good fellows
had a good time of it. Safe and sure, tranquil and
content, they: fermented good wine, and brewed bad
metaphysics; the wine they kept to themselves, but
the metaphysics they let loose in the world to bother
mankind, and deepen still more the darkness of the
ages.
Soon after leaving Capri, I spent several weeks at
the neighboring island of Ischia. At both places the
vine-culture was substantially the same as at Sorren-
to, and at both places they cured oidium unfailingly.
At Rome, a gentleman, whose father was a large
owner of vineyards, gave me several kinds of wine
to taste. All were decidedly pleasant, and the Ali-
atico delicious, but most of them having any age
were more or less pricked. This gentleman, in giv-
ing some details of their modes of cultivation in the
Roman territory, remarked that, for heavy work—
trenching three feet deep, for instance—the most re-
liable laborers were from the province of Naples, de-
scribing them as strong, willing, and of excellent
conduct.
From Rome I traveled northward into Tuscany,
Iraty. 201
where cultivation in all branches is thorough, system-
atic, and careful, and there I found no vines trained
either on stake or trellis; all were clambering in
tree-tops. Twenty-five feet was usually the distance
between the trees on level ground, and fifteen feet
on hills. Two or three vines were planted at the foot
of each tree. This system is not confined to Italy
alone ; it is practiced in portions of France also. In
the north of Italy it is common to prune the trees,
so as to let in air and sunshine, while in parts of
the south care is taken to keep them shaded. We
often hear of vines grown upon trees in our own
country, which, for some reason, escape disease, and
from such facts an argument is drawn in favor of
long and high training; but the immunity is prob-
ably due to the shelter from radiation which the fo-
liage of the tree affords. M. Du Brieuil tells us vines
trained upon trees in France suffer more than those
on stakes. I learned the same thing to be true of
trellis-grown vines in Burgundy. We know that in
Italy neither trees nor trellis avail aught, and we
shall find that in Southern France the lowest vines
are least afflicted, and the highest suffer the most.
I left Italy by a wondrous road which skirts the
Maritime Alps on one hand, and the Mediterranean
on the other, and is called “ Riviera” at one end, and
12
202 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
“Cornice” at the other, traveling in a carriage hired
for the whole journey at Spezzia, where it begins.
It is a journey of six days, but so varied and so
beautiful in all its ups and downs, ins and outs, that
when it ends one is tempted to turn about and go
back over it again. Now we descended to the very
edge of the sea, and traveled for long reaches on its
pebbly or sandy beach; now, mounting high, were
whirled at a gallop along the verge of a precipice ;
now we rounded a rocky cape, on whose bleak sides
no plant could stand, and now turned into a cove lux-
uriant with olive-trees and vines. Those who love
the blue Mediterranean may thus, curving about her
shores, embrace her, as it were, in a delightful week
of prolonged leave-taking, and part from her at last
more in love than ever. For nearly the whole dis-
tance the abrupt sides of the mountains were ter-
raced with walls of stone, almost from foot to crown,
and the soil thus secured planted in vineyards and
olive-orchards. Much as we praise the Hollanders
for building the dikes which keep back the sea from
coming in upon their lands, the Italians deserve
scarcely less credit for those dikes of stone which
keep theirs from tumbling down into the water. As
to the terrace-work of the Rhinelanders, it is as noth-
mg im comparison.
Tuer SoutH or FRANCE. 208
CHAPTER XVE
THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
AC Nice I entered on the great vine-country of
Southern France, where an enormous quantity
of common, and a moderate quantity of superior
wines are produced. In this region— namely, at
Nice, Nismes, Montpellier, Cette, and other places—I
remained about six weeks, with two subjects of in-
quiry in view—one, the vine disease, and the other,
training en souche. What I learned on these points
elsewhere I have mainly reserved for this place in
my book, because in Southern France it is that the
disease has been the most virulent and been most
triumphantly subdued, and there it is that from time
immemorial all the vines have been kept en souche
basse (on low stocks).
The vine region in question extends from Nice in
the east to Leucate in the west, and lies mostly be-
tween the 48d and 44th degrees of latitude, though
extending as far down as below the 43d degree on the
204 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
western wing, and, where the valley of the Rhone is
included, going nearly as far northward as the 45th.
It reaches from the Alps to the Pyrenees, and in-
cludes the entire French Mediterranean coast. It is
sheltered from the winds of winter by a line of
mountains that bound its whole northern border,
and from whose bases the whole surface slopes grad-
ually down to the shores of the sea. Composed of
portions of ancient Languedoc and Provence, it in-
cludes the present departments of Dréme, Ardéche,
Vaucluse, Basses-Alps, Var, Bouches-du-Rhone, Gard,
Herault, Aude, and Pyrenées-Orientales. Of its en-
tire tillable surface, fully one fourth is in vines—
namely, a million and a half of acres, and the cul-
ture is continually extending.
The formation is generally limestone. The soils
are various. On the poor slopes at the base of the
mountains very superior wine is grown. Below
them, at different stages of. elevation, but mostly of
level or slightly-inclined surface, are strong, but not
over-rich soils, clayey, limy, and sandy in different
proportions, capable of yielding large crops of strong,
sound wine, which sells, when new, at from ten to
twenty-five cents a gallon. Here and there on the
level ground are found pebbly deposits whose pro-
duct, like that of the poor hill-sides, is of a high or-
THe Souta or FRANCE. 205
der. Finally, the rich alluvial borders of the rivers
have been known to produce, per acre, in a favorable
season, as much as 4000 gallons of weak wine, con-
taining only six per cent. of alcohol, formerly des-
tined for the still, but of late years used to compound
with other sorts in making cheap wines of commerce.
Observations taken at Montpellier show the cli-
mate of the region I am trying to describe to be
marked by strong peculiarities. The mercury rises
above 86° Fahrenheit, on an average, 34 times in a
year. There are, in a year, 174 fair days (at Paris
there are only 56). The mean number of rainy days
in a year is 81. The yearly rain-fall averages 924
millimetres, about 36 inches. Rain often comes in
torrents, as it does in America, but does not any
where else in France. But little rain usually falls
between the middle of June and the middle of Octo-
ber, an advantage which is somewhat compensated
for by the heavy rains in the last half of October.
For the reason that the large average rain-fall of
36 inches is poured down in comparatively few rainy
days, and the farther one that the prevailing winds
are mostly violent and drying, the climate is a very
dry one.
Although the mountains on the north are a shel-
ter against cold winds coming from beyond them,
206 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
they themselves give forth the frequent, sudden, vio-
lent, persistent, and biting cold “ mzstrall.”
Thus we find in the south of France intense sum-
mer heat, sudden and rude changes of temperature,
high winds, heavy rains, and great dryness of amos-
phere, making up a climate’ very much resembling
our own, and very little resembling that of any other
part of France or of Germany.
When I first visited Languedoc, all its broad fields
were in the plenitude of their autumnal array, the
vines wearing their green, their purple, and their
pearls displayed on outspreading and low-trailing
branches, as if each one were a belle or a bay-tree.
The next time I saw them, which was in March, and
after winter-pruning, nothing met the eye but little,
low brown stocks ten inches high, with all their
branches cropped to two or three inches. Crinoline
had given place to fact.
THE OIDIUM.
Maybe rhany of my readers will think the pages
given to this subject contain nothing important for
them to know. Let them not be too sure of this.
There may be regions in America, as there are in
Europe, where the scourge has not yet come, and may
never come, but such will be exceptional, and we can
Tue SouraH or FRANOE 207
not yet know them. Cold latitudes are not propitious
to the growth of the parasitic plant we call oidium,,.
and accordingly we find the more northern limits of
our vine zone have thus far been most free from it.
The disease has more than one form, and has been
often mistaken for a mere leaf-blight by those who
think themselves far beyond reach of the oidium.
New vines are generally strong enough to fling off
all ailments which beset them for the first few years
after they come into bearing. During those years
they will commonly thrive and produce well, so that
results obtained from such often lead us into error as
to the value of soils, varieties, and modes of cultiva-
tion, as Mr. Sanders very well remarks in one of his
late publications.
I have three vineyards of Catawbas which came
into bearing in 1860, and continued to do well and
showed no sign of disease until 1864, when the dis-
ease destroyed about one tenth of their fruit. The
next year there was a clean sweep, and the next, and
next. . .
As with new plantations, so it is with new varie-
ties. The Norton’s Virginia Seedling, the Concord,
and the Ives Seedling are the three which have been
most confidently relied on and most loudly praised
for their invulnerability. My own Nortons, that had
208 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
remained safe and sound since I first planted them
in 1857, had the disease last year (1868), not merely
in the form of “gray rot,” but also in that of “7ed-
leaf,” the most terrible of all its manifestations. In
the month of September of that same 1868; I saw, in
a four-year old vineyard at M‘Arthur, Vinton County,
Ohio, as pretty a rotting going on as one who had
foretold it would wish to see, while close beside was
a vineyard of three-year old plants loaded with fruit
and in perfect health. The same season, the Con-
cords of one of my neighbors on the banks of the
Ohio suffered badly and for the first time. Then, for
the Ives, what meeting of the Cincinnati Horticul-
tural Society or Wine-growers’ Association has there
been since August, 1868, when Mr. Howarth has not
risen in his place to declare that it does rot, and offer
to prove it? The Dianas, Rogers No. 15, and other
Rogers plants, have also given way before the ad-
vancing pest, and the Delaware too.
The Catawba, that has been made a scapegoat and
abandoned as hopelessly doomed, is, in fact, remark-
ably hardy in resisting the disease. This has been
repeatedly noted in France, where it is grown ex-
perimentally. On the Lake islands and Lake shore
in Ohio it withstood the invasion year after year, and
fortunes were made from its fruit before it suc-
Tuer Soutu or FRANCE. 209
-cumbed. If their Concords or Ives’s hold out as long,
I shall be surprised. In my opinion, the Catawba is
better proof against the attempts of the destroyer
than almost any variety we have while, of those
whose hardiness so many have been willing to vouch
for, the toughest can only hope to be reserved for the
honor of being /as¢ devoured.
It better behooves our vine-dressers to examine
into the disease, learn the remedy, and prepare to ap-
ply it, than hug themselves in an illusory security, or
fly in a panic from one variety to another, or from
one place to another. But mildew, rot, and red-leaf
—in other words, oidium—can be cured and kept
down. It has been done in Europe, where its march
was far more rapid and sweeping than here, and here
we can do it too. The evening after I arrived in
Nice I bought the pamphlet of Mr. H. Marés, whom
I have already mentioned as having received, at the
distribution of prizes at the Paris Exhibition, a med-
al and a smile. I took the brochure home, and did
not sleep till I had read it through. Here it is, and
the reader must read it too, every word of it, that he
may the better understand what is to follow it.
Rul
P
i.
MANUAL
FOR THE
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES,
AND
RESULTS.
—_———
By H. H. Marts, Monrretrier.
5 =
we
PAbLE OF CONTENTS.
Page
Kzplanation of the) Wipures of the) Plates.) <2 .c. <0 1-0 «cic cee nies cisininisiels 214
Preface to the Third Edition........: May veya elsvarotolaie/ciajstetarelisleteteteisiacie aerators 217
MANUAL FOR THE SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES, AND RESULTS.
HT REROL SU DINU T AUS MULT COUS ate: mralerayalefeie eiele oistersielainve =male oleicia’= eislejeternicielsiaferstatsie 220
Mevelopmentiof the Vine Diseases. -idec .. sas «vets eve deecces cakes cintice 226
MIB ATACHEMISLICS Ome? VANe) DISEASE). js ters ci Pe cistave ,cisialaialetars efeiets avols sipistarsiem a 228
SEEN ORT UCKOLH 6: a5a%0. aco] s\eicie c)oveloln #rs's aisieleie leis, olevol aio aia (6%s'e)sieis 1012) isle s(s\cieis aiate 230
Different Opinions on the Vine Disease. ......0...0c--tcercessccccscecces 234
Conditions to fulfill in order to combat the Disease..................245 236
EMO EHUC OL SUN UNea nie ste ctorercre\sjctotaice\slaia'etelovel sisiole siaje:cicts|o's excretere/oleievarereisi eto 238
ACMON LOL SULPHULION! LHe OGUMS «7 5.<<'001e12 «in\cleioiolaisinjeisieleiale eaca siecle nance 239
MTL TTT OV URISOASSULW ANIC s/uiara accsie terete ciercis, ferebeslal aiotste aaj ererelinra.b area eters 242
Mode of scattering Sulphur on the Vines—Instruments most suitable for
EVSUEA IIT TOBE etetetetese cielale’sisv che cialeree ciovinimtyevevsiewicn ©.cere s sietectet a sieie nietosstare Seqce VEY
Concerning the Epoch when Sulphur should be applied................. 251
SE terre © ATI MATS sesorerercts/arara(e\ Saisie taleset «.csoieinia,e-isieve' afore ciciejovsieisieysievoievereiels 254
Ui PAT AMONG ctersactleltaer ts eisiotenicte soa ae ace ise welcleisia norecis ates el ootes 257
ce Alipantes ASpirang, (6tGs. majcisce ctociecuiet dese cece monead ecleisien 259
SE TPORTe LSM stave oieisia nore tia}ois)Sintasa isis ists. ctele sletaisisisielaretors/oeameters klsieltos 260
ROM POATINO LLORES we siosei cia/cisiossicie:steisis'eiovejalers eieieioiejaisiavaisselecuselcieisie eine cieteiste 261
Wines Smiphured the precedin py VSAM ies: smin'<ta'sn/e\eruis.s wcieys ee sei slerelcisiefeieie)als 264
PLELEpLS ON Apply oO, SUL MUPE « pirrex.cicic sseyovels,cla’vtelnic’s sin\cie + oe/aiscoieieisiois «aisles 266
Ofithe quantity Of Sulphur Necessaryec. si... oc ce once eves vecccsenie scccec se 270
Ofthe Vegetation of Sulphured Vines..........ceccecvccccccsescccscceces 271
Review of Chapters relating to the use of Sulphur and its Action on the ~
AVALTLOH rctet cetatelsltelvtelareieisirsisicicie’s iets clatsieieler= ays ote] cTeletateyelereimintelelatals wisiei-Verefelata so0g0 CAs
EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES OF THE
PLATE.
Fig. 1. Reproductive spore or germ of the Oidium Tuckert, largely
magnified.
Fig. 2. Oidium Tuckeri, largely magnified. m,m, m. Creeping fil-
aments, or mycelium. c, c. ‘‘ Crampons” (clamps, anchors) of the
mycelium. 4¢, t, ¢. ‘* Zigelles,” or erect filaments bearing the spores
placed end to end. s, s, s. Spores on the “‘ Tigelles.”
Fig. 3. The Oidium Tuckeri in full vegetation on the skin of a
grape, appearing to the naked eye as merely a white efflorescence.
Fig. 4. Spore of the Oidium Tuckeri beginning to germinate.
Fig. 5. Fragment of the skin attacked by Otdiwm, on which flour
of sulphur has been scattered. /, f, f. Grains of flour of sulphur.
Fig. 6. m, m, m. Fragments of mycelium broken and deformed.
s, s, 8, Spores shrunk and distorted. The greater part have disap-
peared; only a small number are seen.
Fig. 7. Flour of sulphur, magnified.
Fig. 8. Fine sleet of sulphur, largely magnified.
Fig. 10. Triturated sulphur reduced to an impalpable powder, mag-
nified to the same degree as the flour of sulphur in Fig. 7. Common
triturated sulphur has nearly the same forms, but the fragments are
much more voluminous.
Fig. 11. The Vergnes Bellows. ¢. Nozzle by which the air enters
and is blown out again, charged with the sulphur-dust. m. Wire
gauze with large meshes to sift the sulphur. c. Cavity of the bel-
lows, serving as reservoir for the sulphur. 6. Stopper to the orifice
in the upper wood, by which the sulphur is introduced.
Fig. 12. Box with a tuft.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
When the first edition of this tract was published,
in the month of May, 1856, sulphur had been em-
ployed against the vine malady by only a small num-
ber of vine-dressers, the others doubting or contest-
ing its efficacy. To-day it is no longer so; sulphur-
ing of diseased vines is generally adopted in prac-
tice. Thus it enters on a new phase, as any other
fact does that has been subjected to rational observa-
tion, and borne the tests of criticism and experience.
To have thus quickly overcome the general resist-
ance which new processes always encounter before
being adopted in practice, it was necessary, on the
one hand, that the knowledge of good methods should
be diffused, in order that the operation should not be
left to the hazard of empirical processes; and, on the
other hand, that the reappearance and intensity of
the disease should be general in the south of France,
and put every where in evidence through all that re-
gion the enormous differences between the results
given by vines methodically sulphured and _ those
which were not.
K
218 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The public experiments that the Agricultural So-
cicty of the Department of the Herault made in sul-
phuring vines in 1856 have demonstrated the exact-
itude of the principles I have indicated. The con-
tinuity of rains, which, by retarding the warming of
the soil by the atmosphere, retarded also the general
invasion of the disease, has proved how insufficient:
were the pretended preventive sulphurings, as well as
how costly and dangerous the employment of empir-
ical methods could become. I have therefore be-
lieved it would be useful to have printed a new edi-
tion of these instructions on the sulphuring of vines.
Moreover, no other practical method has yet been dis-
covered to supersede the use of sulphur, and to it
must we still have recourse to defend our vines from
the attacks of the oidium.
This little work, having no other object than to-
throw light on the practice of sulphuring vines, can
not be considered as a treatise on the vine-disease.
As regards that, I have entered into the details and
developments belonging to the subject in my “ Mé-
moire sur la maladie de la vigne:” it can not find
place in this pamphlet, where all is subordinated to
the practical. If I have devoted a few pages to giv-
ing the ideas which are now entertained concerning
the causes of the disease, it is simply to facilitate a
PREFACE. 219
comprehension of the means described, and of the
method which should be followed in applying the sul-
phur understandingly and economically. We know,
moreover, that it is useful to familiarize ourselves
with new things, and to try and comprehend matters
which must frequently recur, as the sulphuring of the
vine must still continue to do, to the greater part of
our vine-dressers.
The importance which the sale of powdered sul-
phur has attained in the vine-regions of the south of
France has determined me to devote a whole chap-
ter to the examination of those various powders sold
under the names of flour of sulphur and ground (or
triturated) sulphur, according to their origin—to the
study of the conditions they must fulfill, and to the
proper means for ascertaining their degrees of purity
and fineness. I have also insisted, with more detail
than before, on the effects which sulphur in powder
produces on the vegetation of the vine and a large
number of other cultivated plants.
The means which I describe in this work have all
been subjected to the provings of a daily experience,
from which Lhave each year obtained the most com-
plete and satisfactory results. I hope the cultivator .
will find in the whole a guide to show him a method
of operation at the same time easy and sure, and to
220 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
give him useful indications in every contingency
which may arise. This is the end I have striven to
obtain, and I shall be happy to have succeeded.
MANUAL FOR THE SULPHURING OF DIS-
EASED VINES, AND RESULTS.
THE EMPLOYMENT OF SULPHUR, AND ITS EFFECTS.
The disease of the vine was for the first time ob-
served during the year 1845, on some stocks grown on
trellis in a hot-house at Margate, a sea-port in the
southeast of England. It is, therefore, only thirteen
years that its appearance has been well authenticated.
It is in vain that the researches of the learned have
sought a description or a designation of that strange
malady in the texts of ancient authors, especially in
those of Theophrastus and Pliny.* The reading of
those texts, on the contrary, shows that the authors
treated only of particular ailments to which vines
* Theophrastus lived in Greece about three centuries before Christ.
Pliny lived in Italy in the first century.*
1T see, however, that Mr. Strong, in his work on the grape, claims to have
found a description of the disease in the writings of Theophrastus, and an
account of its nature in those of Felix Fontana, who wrote about a hundred
years ago.
SuLPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 221
were subject in the climates they inhabited, or in
analogous ones; for instance, the “ charbon,” which
causes a general falling off of the blossom (described
by MM. Esprit Fabre and Dunal under the name of
anthraconose), and the scalding of the grapes by the
burning heat of the August sun. Nothing authorizes
us to infer that those authors wanted to describe the
disease now causing so much injury in our vines.
Researches in modern authors have been no less
barren.
The characteristics of the vine-disease are so clear-
ly and sharply definable, and every where present
themselves with such a uniformity, that one could
never mistake a description of it. Then, again, its
ravages have been so great that it would in any age
have fixed the attention of historians, of naturalists,
and agriculturists. We should have found, then, in
the authors of former centuries, positive records of a
fact of such high importanee, if it had presented it-
self. Thus we are authorized at the present time in
considering the disease of the vine as a fact wholly
new, whose obstinacy and extent call for the serious
attention of agriculturists and naturalists.
Issuing from the hot-houses of England, the dis-
ease has little by little invaded the whole European
Continent where the yine is cultivated, as well as
299 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
the basin of the Mediterranean and the isles of the
ocean. It was in 1851 that its appearance was posi-
tively known in the Department of the Herault, and
the greater part of the French and Italian shores of
the Mediterranean. Since then it has not ceased to
propagate itself and work the greatest ravages.
Spain and Portugal, invaded one or two years aft-
er the eastern vineyards of Southern France and of
Italy, are to-day just as badly treated.
In 1856 the product of the French vines was gen-
erally bad. In the centre and the north there was, |
at the same time, a notable decrease of the disease,
but in the south it again came forth with disastrous
power. :
In 1857 the disease was general in all the south;
but, energetically combated with sulphur in a great
number of localities, did not prove so disastrous as
in the years preceding. The malady also continued
to decrease in the centre and north under influences
favorable to the vegetation and fructification of the
vine. Possibly, then, the period of decrease in the
disease, so desirable for vine-dressers, had arrived ;
but the experience of 1857 again too well demon-
strated the superiority of the products of the sul-
phured vines, both in quantity and quality, for it to
be yet prudent to leave the vines to themselves. The
SuLPHUBING OF DiIsEASED VINES. 228
persistence of the disease in vineyards where it has
been the most efficiently combated is a fact at this
day so well established, that we should continually
be on our guard against it. The sure and practica-
ble means which we possess of combating this disas-
trous scourge must still be called into use, and still
continue to confer on vine-growing countries benefits
whose value will augment with the increased care
bestowed. Those means are, in their employment,
based on the methodical application of sulphur in
powder, to which we owe, up to the present time, the
most undoubted success.
The idea of applying sulphur to the cure of the
vine-disease is old; it dates almost from the appear-
ance of the disease, for it was proposed by an En-
glish gardener of Leyton, Mr. Kyle, in 1846, and by
Mr. Tucker, the first observer of the oidium, who
combined sulphur with lime; but it received then
little attention.
It is in France that this application of sulphur has
been really studied and propagated. Thus, in 1850,
M. Gontier, the able gardener of Montrouge, near
Paris, obtained from it, in his grape-houses and
gardens, excellent effects, and devised the use of the
bellows to administer it, after having first moistened
the branches and grapes. It was this last method of
224 ~~ KuRoPEAN VINEYARDS.
application on branches and grapes moistened be-
forehand that was practiced in some of the vine-
yards of the Bordelais and of the south as early as
1853, and particularly by Count Duchatel and Doctor
Turrel in 1851 and 1852, but it was under condi-
tions as yet too saben and: park for applica-
tion on a large scale. ara
In 1853 Mr. Rose Charmeux conceived the idea of
scattering dry sulphur on the foliage and on the dis-
eased fruit. This idea rendered the use of sulphur
practicable in large vineyards. It was published for
the first time, with a report on the decisive results
obtained at Thomery on 300 acres of vines, by the
Imperial Society of Horticulture of Paris, at the end
of 1858, and subsequently by M. Rendu, Inspector
General of Agriculture, in the beginning of 1854
(Report to the Minister of Agriculture). These doc-
_ uments, which received an immense publicity by be-
ing reproduced in all the journals, leave no uncer-
tainty as to the value of dry-sulphuring vines. It
was only after their publication that it was employed
on the vines of the south in the year 1854.
But to obtain in every case, from the use of dry
sulphur, sure and complete results, certain determin-:
ate conditions must be complied with, which had not
by any means been sufficiently described. It was
SuLPHURING OF DiIsEASED VINES. 225
for that reason that its employment, in the south
above all, was followed now by failure and now by
success, which left the question of sulphurization un-
decided, and gave rise to the most opposing opinions.
It needed, to decide this question, a more complete
study of the disease itself and of the action the sul-
phur has, whether on it or on the vine, and that,
moreover, precept should be united to example, and
the exactitude of scientific observations demonstrated
by the practice and experience of several years, in
vineyards of vast extent, and under the most varied
circumstances, to insure a success that none could
doubt of.
This was the task I undertook to perform in the
year 1855, at the time when the question of sulphur-
ization was the most controverted, happy enough to
obtain the encouragement of the Imperial and Cen-
tral Society of Agriculture of Paris, and afterward
that of the Society for the Encouragement of Na-
tional Industry. Since then, experience has confirm-
ed anew the results of my researches.
But, before explaining the methods of operation
which I have deduced from them, it is necessary to
say a few words of the march of the disease, of its
essential characteristics, and of the causes to which
we should attribute it. We can afterward better ap-
226 EuvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
preciate the action of the agent to be» employed
against it.
DEVELOPMENT. OF THE DISEASE OF THE VINE.
The vine may be attacked by the disease at all
epochs of its vegetation ; it only needs a series of hot
days to begin for it to appear here and there on va-
rieties particularly accessible to its ravages, the Carig-
nan and Picardan, for instance. If the season is
cold and backward, the disease manifests itself later.
Such developments so early in the season only oc- ,
cur in plants already invaded during the preceding
year, and belonging to varieties well known as being
especially subject to the disease. Thus, as early as
April, the carignan may show signs of it, but only
partially, on a few buds, which will appear as if more
or less powdered with flour, and which soon wither.
On the other kinds it does not appear till later, ordi-
narily in the month of May, and even then attacks
only here and there a single bud.
It spreads in proportion as the weather gets warm-
er, and then its ravages take a general character, no
longer limited to a few isolated stalks. Thus, at the
time when wheat ripens, it is seen to break out on all
the plants at once. The vines then take a peculiar
yellow color, and if you closely examine their leaves
SuLPHURING OF DISEASED VINEs. 227
and fruit you will find them covered with a white
dust, or efflorescence of a peculiar musty odor, easy
to recognize. The invasion becomes from this mo-
ment general; it extends over immense surfaces, over
entire countries, advancing a few days swifter or
slower according to the heat of the climate or of the
exposures.
This is at the beginning of the grain harvests, an
epoch which in the climate of Montpellier varies from
the 20th to the 30th of June; it is also the close of
the period of blossoming. The oidium from this time
spreads every where and attacks by degrees every va-
riety, enfeebling their vegetation and destroying their
fruit during the heats of July and August. It is then
only that the shoots become covered with black spots,
that the leaves curl up and dry, that the grapes, at
first powdered with white, become covered with brown
spots, split, and dry up. Ravages of all kinds become
evident to the eyes of all, and illusions and hopes
founded on the vigor of the vegetation vanish before
the reality.
Such is the general course of the malady; the in-
jury it causes is ordinarily greater when a warm and
dry summer succeeds to a rainy spring.
Warm, stony, shallow soils are most often those
where the ravages are greatest, because the disease
Die | EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
makes its appearance there sooner than in soils that
are deeper, and therefore slower to become heated.
The dry winds and the first heats of summer ordi-
narily make it spread with marvelous rapidity.
Vines on trellis and other high-trained vines are
more affected than vines in souche.
Certain varieties resist better than others the at-
tacks of the disease, and such varieties are known
and noted in every vineyard at the present time.
Old vines suffer much more than young ones;
their product becomes null. The old wood and
branches for the most part die, and must be grafted
or uprooted.
Good cultivation does not keep away the disease,
but gives the vine more power to resist it.
It is the same as regards manuring; at the same
time, when it heats the soil, it favors the precocious
appearance of the disease, and renders it more dan-
gerous; in such case we must be ready to combat it
energetically.
CHARACTER OF THE VINE DISEASE.
Wherever the vine disease has been observed, it
has been characterized by a little cryptogam or mush-
room, named oidiwm Tuckeri, after Mr. Tucker, who
first observed it. The appearance of this little mush-
SuLPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 229
room, similar in the first days of its development to
a whitish mold, is, then, the fundamental character-
istic of this disease. It can not be recognized on the
different parts of the plant except by the presence of
the little mushroom, and, on the other hand, wherever
this last is established on a vine, it is diseased; so
that the study of the disease itself and that of the
oidium are inseparable, and the two are confounded
the one with the other.
It is only the different developments of the oidium
that give to the disease its divers aspects, according
to the epoch when it is examined and the degree of
intensity it has acquired.
Thus, as its seat is the epidermis (or outer skin) of
all the green parts of the plant, we find the oidium
on the shoots, on the leaves, and on the grapes—on
all parts that are green, in a word, and direct obser-
vation shows that it is by it they are being injured.
The old wood, on the contrary, and the roots, on
which no particular sickness is remarked, are not at-
tacked by it.
The yellow and dull aspect which the diseased
vine takes in the beginning is a first symptom of the
development of the oidium; the white spots seen on
shoots, leaves, and fruit signalize its presence and the
stage of its very active vegetation; the characteristic
*
230 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS. ~
musty odor which the vine exhales is nothing else
than the oidium itself; the gray color noticed on the
parts attacked, after a while, is owing to the state of
old age of the mushroom; the black spots which ap-
pear along the shoots, leaves, and grapes are the in-
delible traces of alterations its presence on the sur-
face has produced, and which remain after its death
and disappearance.
The stunting of the shoots and of the grapes, the
curling up and premature fall of the leaves, the de-
velopment of inter-leaves, are the consequences of
the profound and long-continued disturbance which -
the oidium has carried into the vegetation of the vine,
a disturbance whose manifestation dates from its ap-
pearance upon it.
In fine, the injuries (lésions) to be seen on the
grapes, the cracking and drying of the berries, are
the consequences of the alterations to which the ex-
terior of their tissue has been subjected: they cause
it to lose its elasticity, and to rupture when the inte-
rior parts come to grow.
THE OIDIUM TUCKERI.
The Oidium Tuckeri is a microscopic cryptogam
strongly resembling the érysephes, little mushroom
parasites of the most dangerous spécies. It is itself,
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINEs. 231
then, nothing but a parasite, which feeds at the ex-
pense of the very substance of the green parts of the
different organs of the vine on which it plants itself,
and thus prevents their development. Down to this
time it has not been observed any where else than on
the vine, and does not develop itself on other plants.
The cryptogam observed on various fruit-trees, on
hops, on the bind-weed, and rose-bushes, are all dif-
ferent from the oidium or érysephe of the vine, al-
though their structure may be analogous to it.
It is composed,
1. Of creeping filaments, very loose, performing
the functions of roots (Fig. 2, m, 7); they are very
numerous, elongated, ramified, without cells, cover-
ing with an inextricable net-work the plant attack-
ed. They are provided with globular protuberances,
which penetrate the outer covering of the tissue, and
serve as anchors to hold on by (Fig. 2, ¢,c). These
last, by degrees, form about them the black spots no-
ticed on the shoots, leaves, and fruit. This assem-
blage of creeping filaments is designated by the term
mycelium.
2. Erect filaments, divided from distance to dis-
tance into cells, and club-shaped. The cells are sus-
ceptible of being transformed each into a particular
kind of seed. These filaments are designated as
932 EuvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tigelles, or fertile filaments, in contradistinction to
those of the mycelium, which are designated by the
name of sterile filaments.
3. Of spores or sporules (Figs. 2 and 3, s, s, s);
these are elipsoid corpuscles, that is to say, about the
form of an egg, engendered by the cells of the ti-
gelles, borne by them, and placed end to end at their
extremities. These spores perform the function of
seeds of the mushroom parasite; they germinate and
reproduce it in all its parts.
Thus the otdium is furnished with distinct organs,
which fulfill the functions of roots, stalks, and seeds.
It needs a good microscope to see the oidium well,
for it is extremely small, as will be seen by the fol-
lowing figures, which express its dimensions.
The filaments of the mycelium are from 3 to 5
thousandths of a millimétre (a millimétre is .03937
of an inch) in thickness. Singly they are impercept-
ible to the naked eye, which can not see them except
grouped in masses.
The tigelles have a diameter of 4 or 5 thousandths
of a millimétre in the narrowest part, at the base ;
it is often double that at the top. Their length va-
ries from 7 to 15 hundredths of a millimétre.
The spores are of variable sizes; in general their
largest diameter is 25 thousandths of a millimétre;
SuLPHURING OF DISEASED VINEs. 233
it is often less. Their smallest diameter is about
10 thousandths of a millimetre.
The otdium mould, when it covers all the different
parts of a diseased vine, consists, then, of an enor-
mous number of individuals. The fragments of the
mycélium reproduce it as scions, and the spores as |
seeds. ach little surface covered with mould may
be considered as a nursery, capable of furnishing a
prodigious quantity of reproductive elements, and
which the movement of the air will afterward spread
abroad on all sides.
In hot and damp weather, the oidium multiplies
itself thus very quick by scion as well as seed, and
can suddenly infect great extents of vine-plantation.
It spreads on the surface of the green parts, and fast-
ens there, interlacing it with a multitude of the fila-
ments of its mycelium, on which sustain themselves,
like fibres on a surface of velvet, the tigelles loaded
with spores. In the early days of its appearance,
the tissues on which it spreads are not impaired ; but,
little by little, they discolor, rot, and are destroyed.
There results from this a disorganization which af-
fects the parts over which the oidium spreads, and
especially the grapes. We may then prevent the
bad effects of this parasite by attacking and destroy-
ing it as soon as we see it appear, and before it is
234 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
well established on all the vines of the vineyard ;
whereas, if we wait too long, the evil is done, and no
remedy can avail.
DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THE VINE DISEASE.
This assemblage of properties so peculiar explains
why the disease propagates itself and develops; how
it effects such ravages when circumstances favor the
vegetation of the mushroom, and do not oppose its
development. Many observers also consider this
cryptogam as the cause of the disease. Their opin-
ion has still greater force, since it has been proved
that the disease can be cured; on parts newly attack-
ed, by simply rubbing it off, or by destroying it in
any other mode. Thus the direct study of the dis-
ease has brought us to these conclusions :
1. That it is by the oidium alone that we recog-
nize it.
2. That its disappearance, wherever it has not af-
fected the tissues, is marked by the disappearance of ©
the disease and of its effects.
The logical consequence of these conclusions is |
that the oidium produces the disease of the vine by
developing itself upon it, by disturbing its vegetation,
and by exhausting it after the manner of parasites. —
Other opinions are brought forward ; they are of
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 235
two sorts. One of them would attribute the disease
to the presence of certain little insects whose stings
cause the wounds on which afterward the oidium
develops itself. This system is at this day alto-
gether abandoned, for direct observation has never
been able to discover any insects whatever in num-
bers sufficient to produce effects like those of the dis-
ease.
The other opinion attributes the disease of the
vine to a particular state of the plant itself. That
diseased state of the interior that has been observed
might be produced by the appearance of the oidium,
and would then be the effect, and not the cause of
‘the disease. This explanation might be well found-
ed if we knew to what to attribute the diseased state
of the interior; but, down to the present time, noth-
ing has occurred to justify the supposition. Vines
are diseased in all countries, in all situations and ex-
posures, in the best soils, of every species. Every
kind of treatment, by manuring, pruning, cultivation,
etc., have failed. We must then give up this ex-
planation, since experience does not confirm it.
The only opinion which, down to the present time,
agrees with direct observation, that which attributes
the disease to the development of the oidium at the
expense of the various organs of the vine on which
236 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
it plants itself, is that which, it appears to:me, should
be adopted.
CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED IN ORDER TO COMBAT
THE VINE DISEASE.
In placing ourselves at this point of view, the
problem of how to combat the vine disease resolves
itself into that of destroying the oidium, or its germs,
in all stages of their development, and on every part
of the vine where they may be found.
I have made, toward this end, for several years
past, a great number of experiments of all kinds, and
I have realized that it was hardly possible to destroy
the disease by attacking, during the slumber of vege-
tation, the germs which reproduce it. The means
employed for this purpose may accomplish it, and
the disease will not disappear for all that.
In effect, as soon as vegetation is in movement, a
cloud of reproductive oidium germs, transported by
the currents of air, light upon the green portions,
take possession of them, and at the end of a few days
the disease breaks out anew; the oidium grows, fruc-
tifies, implants itself every where, destroys the fruit,
and emaciates the vine.
The methods which aim at merely curing the dis-
eased grapes are still more insufficient than the pre-
SuULPHURING oF DIsEASED VINES. 237
ceding, because they leave the disease full sway
during the first three months of the vegetation of
the vine, the very time when it is most redoubtable,
and abandon altogether to its ravages the shoots and
leaves. Such methods really amount to very little.
As we can only certainly know the presence of
the disease by that of the oidium, and as it fastens
only on the green parts, it is upon those green parts
we must attack and destroy it as soon as the parasite
begins to make its appearance there.
The conditions to fill are therefore the following:
1. To operate on all the green surfaces of the vine
in vegetation, penetrating wherever that fine dust can
penetrate which forms the spores of the oidium.
2. To renew as often as necessary the application
of the destructive agent employed against the oidi-
um, since the means of reproduction it possesses are
incessantly at work, and it can develop itself anew
as soon as the green surfaces of the vine cease to be
protected from its attacks.
3. To apply the remedy before the oidium has
been able to impair the tissues of the different parts
of the bud—above all, when it is young. This last
condition is the most indispensable, because, if we
fail to destroy the parasite until it has more or less
affected the parts, we shall obtain but a partial result
at best—the evil is already done. |
238 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
These three conditions should be fulfilled by means
that are sure, practical, not too costly, and which do
not interfere at all with the divers operations of cul-
tivation.
PROPERTIES OF SULPHUR.
The object is attained in an admirable manner by
the flour of sulphur. It possesses, in fact, all the
properties necessary to constitute it the curative
agent “par excellence.” On the one hand, it de-
stroys the oidium whenever coming in contact with
it; and, on the other, its form, being that of a very
fine dust, enables it to envelop by a simple aspersion
the entire plant in vegetation, and its volatility in
the temperature daily produced by the heats of sum-
mer on the earth and the green surfaces exposed to
the sun insures its action on the mischievous germs.
It has, besides, the property, as remarkable as un-
looked-for, of stimulating the vegetation of the vine,
thus communicating to it vigor to conquer the at-
tacks of the parasite.
Sulphate of lime, soda, potash, which destroy very
well the oidium when they can be brought in con-
tact with it, are not at all volatile like sulphur.
They have not at all,as it has, the property of pene-
trating in the form of vapor all those places left un
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 239
touched by it when in the form of dust, and of con-
tinually renewing their curative action by every day
vaporizing a little. They have, too, the serious in-
convenience, if they pass into the wine with the
grapes, of imparting to it a bad taste not always to
be got rid of.
The mixtures of sulphur and of dust, such as pul-
verized earths, plaster, etc., have the inconvenience
of neutralizing, more or less, the action, of the sul-
phur,so that by using such we risk obtaining but in-
complete results. We may, besides, injure the qual-
ity of the wine if the mixtures in question are capa-
ble of forming soluble combinations in it.
ACTION OF SULPHUR ON THE OIDIUM.
By direct observation under the microscope, we
are able to see that the grains of flour of sulphur
cause the oidium to perish when they enter in con-
tact with it.
One condition seems always necessary, which is,
that the temperature should be above 20° of Centi-
grade (68° of Fahrenheit) when the contact takes
place. Now this condition is always filled during
days of sunshine, from the time the buds begin to
put forth in April and May. Later, during the days
of summer, the temperature almost always passes this
240 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
limit, even in the shade. As the oidiwm does not
propagate itself nor develop rapidly until the tem-
perature reaches 25° to 35° of Centigrade (77° to 95°
of Fahrenheit), such a heat insures the action of the
sulphur against every increase of the disease. When
the temperature is too low, the sulphur does not sen-
sibly act; and if blown off by wind or washed off by
rain, it must be applied anew. The action of the sul-
phur on the oidium is quick enough, but it does not
become apparent until after a few days.
When the sun strikes the diseased parts which
have been covered with sulphur, the action is much '
more energetic and rapid: it becomes apparent from
the second day, and often sooner. ‘This results from
the warmth of the sun’s rays.
A sulphuring well applied, which reaches the en-
tire surface of the vine, will therefore destroy the
oidium; but, as the vine grows continually, and the
grapes enlarge daily, as the wind and the rain carry
off all the while some of the sulphur from the sur-
faces where it was deposited, they soon become bare
again and are exposed to new attacks ; then the
oidium again appears and attacks the vine, as it did
at first. This occurs ordinarily in summer time, after
an interval of twenty to twenty-five days,* or some-
* When the ground is very damp beneath the surface, and the lat-
SuLPHURING oF DisEAseEeD VINES. 241
times alonger one. Then, again, it may happen that
the oidium will not make a second appearance in se-
rious form, especially if the weather continues for a
long while very dry and very hot, and the sulphur
rests a good while on the ground and on the various
parts of the plant.
The high temperature produced by the vertical rays
of the sun in summer vaporizes the sulphur in a per-
ceptible manner. It gives out then a very lively
odor, which all must remark who have employed it
on their vines. It is that portion which falls on the
ground without reaching the vines which feels more
particularly the effect of the heat and passes into va-
por, because the sun’s action heats the soil much more
than it does the foliage. It results from this that the
sulphur which was spilled and seemed lost, produces,
on the contrary, the happiest and most continued ef-
fects, by passing daily into vapor under influence of
the daily sunshine. Its molecules thus penetrate
ter is dried, baked, and covered with weeds, and great heat succeeds
to heavy, drying winds, the oidium will reappear more quickly. In
such circumstances I have seen, in 1856, in the month of July, its in-
vasions renewed after only ten days of interval. Such a combination
of circumstances is not frequent; at the same time, it will occur in
wet seasons. In such cases the sulphurings must be brought closer
together, and renewed as often as the invasions are repeated.
L
249 EvroprwnaAn VINEYARDS. :
numberless points on the foliage and fruit that might
not otherwise be reached.
I am sure that it is not at all to the sulphurous
acid, nor to the sulphuric acid which is found in
small quantities in flour of sulphur, that the action of
the last upon the oidium is due. The same effects
may be produced after having washed it; they may
also be obtained with sulphur-rolls well pulverized.
[Here follows a very closely detailed examination
into the characteristics of the two forms of sulphur,
namely, the ground and the sublimated, or flour of
sulphur. The chapter devoted to this is omitted,
_ with the observation that flour of sulphur is the best
to use in America, as the difference per cent. in price
is not here so great as it is in France, and its greater
cheapness there is the only advantage it possesses
over the other. The flour is very light and fine of
texture, and of a beautiful yellow color. Ground
sulphur is much the lighter in color, and the finer
(and, of course, the better) it is, the lighter is the
hue.], -
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES.
The sulphuring of vines is an operation which
consists in spreading over their foliage and fruits
sulphur in fine powder.
e
, SuLpnveine or Disvasep Vines. 243
_ Flour of sulphur obtained by sublimation is ordi-
narily the form of it most suitable for the purpose.
_ Three conditions are necessary to insure a good
_ 1. The application must be made as soon as the
cidium begins to appear on the vine. Thus the par-
asite will be prevented from obtaining too strong a
foothold on fruit and foliage to impair their vegeta-
tion and diseaze their tissues,
2. The sulphuring must be renewed as often as
the cidium renews its attack, and as soon as it reap-
pears. Thus we continue to operate on the surface
of the plant, and to prevent the bad effects which
would not otherwise fail to follow a new invasion.
3. The application should be thorough, and reach
every infected part. It will not do, therefore, merely
_ to sulphur the diseased fruit; the shoots, leaves, and
all the fruit—in a word, every green part, must be
_ dusted with sulphur. When we find a single bad on
a stalk to be diseased, we may be sure every other
bud carries on its surface the germs of the disease ;
to destroy those germs, they must be reached with
sulphur-dust.
The fundamental principle is this: scatter the sul-
phur on every green part upon the first appearance
Of the symptoms of the disease, and renew the ap-
244. EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
plication each time it reappears. It is especially
at the commencement of vegetation that we must
keep the vines free from attack. At that epoch the
least delay is dangerous, for the buds then attacked
are so young and feeble they have no power of re-
sistance; they emaciate, are stunted, and very quickly
lost. Moreover, the earlier the disease appears the
more virulent it generally is. The Carignans and
Picardans, varieties which are usually the first to be
attacked, are examples of this.
A precautionary application may be made before
any sign of disease appears. It can do no harm, but
there is no rule for prescribing it. Such applica-
tions have no other objection than that, if made after
vegetation is well advanced, they cost something. In
the earlier periods of the development of the buds,
that is to say, about the middle of May, the cost
would be insignificant. But preventive applications
should not be relied on too long, nor lull the vigi-
lance with which we should watch every portion of
the vineyard.
Such a surveillance it is easy to organize by divid-
ing the field according to the varieties it contains,
and keeping a memorandum of the applications each
division has received.
Proprietors who have their vines sulphured should
SULPHURING oF DISEASED VINEs. 245
make sure it is properly done. It is an operation
that needs the eye of the master.
Sulphur may be applied at all hours of the day
when it does not rain; it is indifferent whether the
surfaces where it lodges are wet or dry—the action
is the same; provided the temperature is not below
20° Centigrade (68° Fahrenheit), it will destroy the
oidium wherever it touches it.
At the same time, the best conditions for employ-
ing sulphur, and for its quick and lively action, are a
dry and hot day, a brilliant sun, a light wind to aid
its dispersion without disturbing that operation, and
dry surfaces to receive the powder.
In my practice five applications have sufficed to
combat the most malignant cases of the disease,
where the attacks begun on the “ Carignans” the 2d
of May, and were repeated down to as late as Sep-
tember. On some young Aramons not invaded till
July, only one sulphuring proved sufficient.
Between these two extremes, I have found that in
the greater number of cases two or three sulphurings
arrest very well the effects of the disease; three have
been enough in the greater portion of my vines, and,
notably, in 1854, when the malignity was remarkable.
Following the principles I have. set forth, I em-
ployed powdered sulphur in 1854, 1855, 1856, and
246 ' EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
1857, on great extents of vine plantation, situated on
the most varied soils, and growing all the varieties
cultivated in the south of France; and I obtained
so complete a success that there was no exception to
it even when the disease had attained its greatest vir-
ulence.
The empirical methods that have been applied to
sulphurization will never give such a collective re-
sult. They have led into error a crowd of operators
by designating in advance a fixed epoch for employ-
ing the sulphur and the number of sulphurings nec-
essary. This has been because the disease varies so
much in the periods of its appearance and succes-
sive reappearances, according to soil, exposure, varie-
ty, and culture, that no general epoch can be fixed on
of practical application to all varieties and all soils, —
etc.; we may hit right with some, we will miss with
others. Moreover, these methods have produced a
mixture of good and bad results which served to cast
a cloud of uncertainty upon the efficacy of sulphur
in the first years of its introduction, and retarded its
general adoption.
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 247
MANNER OF APPLYING SULPHUR TO VINES. — INSTRU-
MENTS MOST SUITABLE FOR THAT PURPOSE.
We can, if we choose, fling sulphur upon vines
without any instrument, or we can dust or dredge
it over the foliage from a thin muslin bag; a sieve
may also be made to serve; the effects will be good
ifthe operation in any of these ways be but careful-
ly done. But the waste is great in such case, and a
strong wind arrests the work entirely. It is there-
fore important to adopt a good instrument.
The quantity of sulphur necessary might be al-
most indefinitely reduced if the sulphur were itself
divided to infinitude, and if we could spread it with
perfect regularity and uniformity, for great masses
of it are not needed to produce the desired effect on
the oidium: it suffices that the dust of this substance,
no matter how small its grains may be, should pen-
etrate wherever the oidium or its germs may be.
With powder perfectly divided, and a suitable in-
strument, a great economy of sulphur may be real-
ized, then.
The instrument should satisfy the following requi-
sites :
1. Throw the sulphur-dust far enough, and scatter
it uniformly, so as not to fall in lumps.
248 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
2. Be able to augment or diminish at will the
issue of dust.
38. Not be inconvenient to the person who uses it.
4, Facilitate the work.
5. Be easy to handle, and capable of being used
either by men or women, or by children of twelve
years.
6. Be strong, and not require repairing.
7. Be of sufficiently low price.
Down to the present time the instruments in use
do not meet all these requirements ; but, if they have
not yet attained the perfection of implements that
have been subjected to the tests of a long experi-
ence, they can, nevertheless, do good service.
Those instruments are the following:
1. Bellows of different kinds.
The box-bellows, at first used, consisted of an or-
dinary bellows, on the nozzle of which was fixed a
tin receptacle, which was traversed by the blast, and
into which the sulphur was put.
These bellows projected the sulphur with force,
and sent it well among the foliage, but a great deal
of it went out in lumps; they held but a small
charge, and needed frequent refitting; they were
heavy, and hard to handle, because the load was car-
ried at the extremity; they often got out of order
Scipegveine or Diseasep Vines. 249
from the weight of the receptacle, which works
apart the joints, and fastenings, and ends, by wrench-
ing off the nozzle.
The Vergnes bellows has replaced the above with
advantage.
Tt is a common bellows without a valve, and
whose whole interior serves as a receptacle for the
sulphur (Fig. 11). At the base of the nozzle (#) is
a sieve with large meshes (s), and made of coarse
tinned iron wire (m); the sulphur is thus prevented
from going out in lumps, and the tin preserves the
iron from too rapid corrosion.
The air comes in and goes out by the same way,
by the nozzle, which should have at the base a sufii-
cient diameter to be slightly conical.
A two-inch hole is cut in the upper beard of the
bellows to receive the sulphur, and to this hole a
stopper of wood is fitted @). A pound of sulphur is
a proper charge, and this will dose fifty vigorous
Vines as they are in July, when the shoots cross one
another and entirely cover the ground* Care must
be taken not to overload the bellows, because then it
can not play easily, and the leather soon bursis near
* A South of France tine in this stazpof its growth woold take
twice as much sulphur as ome of ours would —P.
L2
250 EUROPEAN, VINEYARDS.
The advantages of the bellows I have just de-
scribed are these :
It is cheaper than those made with a tin recep-
tacle between the body and the nozzle.
It is more manageable, because all the weight is
near the hand.
It can carry a larger charge, and therefore needs
less labor.
It flings and scatters the sulphur, which, kept con-
stantly in motion by the entrance and exit of the air
through the same opening, is better divided, and
makes fewer lumps.
It is necessary that the leather of these bellows be
of excellent quality and very strong; inferior leather
is soon corroded and covered with holes.* They
can, besides, be very well and cheaply mended when
holes appear, by pasting pieces of leather over the
holes with a strong mucilage, which, in fact, makes
them stronger than before.
* Here I foresee a difficulty. With the best tanning material in
the world, we have the worst leather in the world. Owing to a want
of the critical faculty, as well as of economical foresight on the part of
the consumers, and a want of conscience on the part of the tanners,
we lose every year, from wearing bad shoe-leather, a sum sufficient
to pay the interest on our debt.
I think this is the second time in thé course of this volume I have
provided for that interest ; and, now we have chosen Grant for Pres-
ident, I hope he will attend to this matter. —F.
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINEs. 251
These bellows, nevertheless, have always the in-
convenience of letting out some of the sulphur in
lumps, and of breaking in holes.
2. The perforated box.
This is simply a round tin box, slightly conical,
furnished at its larger extremity with a double bot-
tom pierced with holes for the sulphur to sift through
and pass out. The smaller end has a cover fitted to
it, to be opened when the instrument is charged.
This is the simplest and cheapest of all the instru-
ments, and has the great advantage of never getting
out of order; but it has numerous difficulties: it is
fatiguing and troublesome to the workman, works
slowly, badly distributes the dust, and letting it out
in lumps, causing great waste. Of all instruments
in-use, this one renders sulphuring the most dear and
least expeditious. .
An improvement on the last is the box with a tuft
(Fig. 12). The same in all other respects, it differs
only in having a tuft of wool attached to the surface
of the perforated end, the shreds of which are four
inches long. This tuft becomes filled with sulphur,
and gives it off when shaken, receiving continued
supplies from within the box. It lets out no lumps,
and diminishes considerably the expenditure of sul-
phur ; it avoids, thus, the two great disadvantages
252 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
of the simple perforated box, but does not remedy
others. Besides, it can not be worked except with
a very small quantity of sulphur, for otherwise it
would gorge, and let none out; it therefore needs
frequent filling, which wastes time.
Down to this time I have used, notwithstanding its
inconveniences, the Vergnes bellows, and it is with
this instrument the results have been obtained which
will be found farther on.
Doubtless better results as to economy might be
obtained with a more perfect implement. But, until
sufficient practice shall have enabled me to record
my testimony in favor of such a one,I limit myself
to pointing out in what direction we ought to search
after such improvements, and in designating such in-
struments as have been more particularly brought
before the attention of the public.
OF THE EPOCH FOR APPLYING SULPHUR.
If the opinions of even the most eminent cultiva-
tors is so divided as regards the efticacy of sulphur
against the disease of the vine,* it is because that, to
-obtain of that agent all its good effects, it must be
applied at a determinate moment, which varies ac-
cording to climate and variety. It is from not hav-
* There is no longer any such division of opinion in France.
SuLPHURING OF DiIsEASED VINES. 253
ing operated properly, or not haying sufficiently re-
newed the operations, that they have not succeeded.
The moment to seize upon is, I repeat, that when
the first symptoms of the disease appear. If we
wait too long, and the oidium gets a strong hold on
the vine, we shall never completely cure its attacks.
With certain varieties the grapes will be destroyed
(Piquepouls and Terrets); with others they will be
profoundly injured—they will become brown, crack
open at the season. of maturity, ete. People will
then say that sulphur has no power over the oidium,
that they do not believe in it, that it is better to do
nothing, etc. One accustomed to see diseased vines
learns very soon to seize the favorable moment; and
here is the way to recognize it, and then to treat it,
as it is manifested on our principal varieties in the
south of France.
[Although it may seem at first not worth while to
read the details which follow respecting the different
methods rendered necessary by the many different
varieties of vines grown in the south of France, yet,
upon reflection, and especially by reading those de-
tails, the American vine-dresser will recognize the
value of every thing they contain. They will show
how one variety is afflicted in one way, and another
in another—how wide is the range of the manifesta-
254 . EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tions of the oidium, and how various—and prepare
him to deduce principles of diagnosis and treatment
for each of our own native kinds, as each in turn
shall become infected in its own peculiar way. ]
Carignans.—Of all varieties of the vine, the Ca-
rignan is that which the disease attacks in prefer-
ence; in a great number of cases it takes the in-
fection first, and then communicates it to the other
varieties in a disastrous manner. In this respect it
may be considered the seed-beamer to the mushroom
parasite. It is it that spreads and disseminates the
disease at the epochs when it is most particularly
dangerous. It merits, therefore, very perticular at-
tention.
When a Carignan is attacked by the disease, we
see, here and there, shoots affected by the oidium
as early as in April, only a few days after their put-
ting out. These buds are covered, wholly or in part,
by a whitish or gray dust of a characteristic musty
odor. At this epoch we must search closely to find
these, for they are still very young and relatively
few, and do not strike the eye if it is not practiced
in watching for them. Thus a vine of Carignan
will appear in good condition to the eye of a not
very attentive observer, which is, at the same time,
completely infected with the malady and already
badly injured.
SuLPHURING OF DisEAsSEeD VINES. 255
At this epoch (April and the first days of May),
Carignans thus invaded have not the yellow and sick-
ly hue which the oidium brings when it comes later
in the season. As soon as we perceive the young
buds to be affected, we must apply sulphur, and un-
sparingly pluck off such as are entirely covered with
the oidium. Strictly speaking, they may be cured,
but they are already so impaired they will always
remain stunted, and can give but an insignificant
product.*
From this epoch (May), if the sun shines on the
sulphured vines during several hours, or if the sul-
phur remains forty-eight hours on the vine without
being washed off by rain, the effect is produced. It
will not become evident till several days afterward.
We will then find that the affected shoots have lost
the peculiar musty odor which accompanies the oid-
ium. On examining closely the young leaves, we
will see that the white spots have become gray, that
they are no longer accompanied with dust, and have
lost their odor. The disease is then suppressed for
* In 1854 I cured shoots of the Carignan so completely attacked
as to be covered as early as the 12th of May with a gray powder:
they were hardly four inches long. ‘Their grapes ripened perfectly
healthy, but the shoots, although cured, remained stunted. It suf-
ficed to keep them constantly sulphured during the first month, and
afterward renew the application every fortnight.
256 . EvRoPEAN VINEYARDS.
about three or four weeks. At the end of that time
the shoots have grown. If it is perceived that the
vine takes a sickly yellow hue, that the young leaves
of their extremities are covered on their under sides
and about their edges with white spots, that they are
slightly crisp, we may be sure the disease will not be
long in making a new irruption. We must. then
again make a general application of the remedy on
the shoots, leaves, and grapes. It will act like the
other if the weather is warm enough, and if a rain
does not immediately carry it off. Its effect, if the
sulphur remains several days on the vines, will con-
tinue at least three weeks.
The surveillance must continue from this time on-
ward. A third, fourth, and even fifth application
must be made, if necessary.
The Carignan, while it is one of the vines which
take the disease the most severely, is, at the same
time, ‘one which sulphur preserves the best. Under
its influence it gives magnificent products.
We always find a few Carignans scattered among
mixed plantations. They there propagate the dis-
ease in a disastrous manner. To prevent this, it is
enough to sulphur them at first by themselves once
or twice, if need be, at the beginning of vegetation ;
afterward they are treated with the rest of the vine-
SuLPHURING oF DisEASED VINES. 257
yard. This method is not expensive, and succeeds
very well.
In 1855 I preserved the worst attacked of my Ca-
rignans with five sulphurings, applied at the follow-
ing epochs: the 2d of May, 19th May, 5th June, 9th
July, and 14th August. In the deeper soils, the dis-
ease being less precocious, three applications, made
at the end of May, June, and July respectively, were
sufficient.
The Aramons.—The Aramons are attacked later
than the Carignans. It is hardly before the second
fortnight in May that we find appearances of the
oidium on their shoots. These are, as yet, few in
number, and scattered here and there. Before the
end of May they must be pulled off and sacrificed.
The vine will be infallibly attacked later, either in
June or July.
The signs which warn us the invasion has begun
are a decided yellowness of the leaves, accompanied
with little white spots around the indentations of the
young leaves at the end of the shoot; a slight crisp-
ing of those leaves; efflorescence on the berries of
grapes or on their stems. This is the time to make
a general and thorough application of sulphur ; its
effect will be sure. In about eight days after the
vine will take a beautiful green color; all the efflo-
258 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
rescence will have disappeared. This arrests the dis-
ease for twenty or thirty days, according to the
weather. After that interval, signs of a second at-
tack will be indicated by the shoots becoming yel-
low; by white spots on the lower side of the young
leaves; by the whitening of a grape here and there.
Then give a second sulphuring.
If this is too long delayed, the yellowness increases;
the leaves crisp; all along the shoot what we call ¢n-
ter-leaves put out: these are new leaf-shoots, slender
and curled. This last sign is characteristic of the
disease, like the musty odor I have named. Finally,
the white spots on the grapes cover them entirely
and become gray. Then the fruit is injured, and
will bear traces of damage even after being cured:
it will be likely to split when it ripens. Sulphur, in
this condition of things, may re-establish the vine, but
will not preserve it in its full vigor, as it would if ap-
plied a few days sooner ; and to accomplish even thus
much, it may be necessary to renew the application
from week to week.
The sulphur should be blown from a bellows, and
be made to reach all green parts, but, at the same
time, be more particularly directed toward the
grapes. If the second sulphuring has been proper-
ly done, and toward the end of July, nd other will
be needed.
SULPHURING oF DiIsEASED VINES. 259
In general, two sulphurings have been enough to
preserve Aramons strongly invaded ; in a few cases
only I have had to give three, and on young vines of
this variety, not attacked till late in July, only one
has sufficed. I sulphured my Aramons in 1854 and
1855: in the first year, on the 9th of June, 14th of
July, and 1st of August ;* and in the second year
twice, namely, from the 9th to the 11th of June, and
from the 10th to the 12th of July. ’
It is noteworthy that the grapes of the Aramon re-
sist strongly the disease, while the wood is easily af-
fected by it. We also notice Aramons that preserve
and ripen some fruit, although their young wood is
seriously attacked. The vine is none the less dis-
eased for all that, and will, in general, produce much
less fruit the following year.
Alicantes, Aspirans, Mourastels, Hillades, Bruns
Lourcats, Clairettes, etc—We observe and treat the
greater part of these red varieties as we do the Ara-
mon. With them the disease has the same phases—
the yellowness, crispness, inter-leaves, and invasion
of the grape—but, in general, with less distinctness
of manifestation.
* In 1856 my Aramons were sulphured, mostly, from the 24th to
the 30th of June, and from the 15th to the 25th of July. Only a very
few of the vines needed three applications. 'The oidium came later
than it did the preceding years, on account of the continuous rains.
260 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The Alzcantes and Mourastels resist the disease re-
markably well.
The Muscat.—This vine has in its form and in its
wood a great analogy with the Aramon, but it does
not resist the oidium well, and its fruit is affected
much sooner than that of the other.
The Piquepouls should be especially watched.
As soon as the disease appears on them, so abrupt is
its attack, the crop is ruined in a few hours if meas-
ures are not taken. The attack aims principally at
the grapes, and is much less felt on the shoots and
leaves, which is the reverse of what happens with the
Aramon. After the beginning of June or last of
May, whenever we see the verdure of the shoots
grow pale, and a few spots appear on the young
leaves, sulphur must be applied; it will arrest the
disease for three or four weeks. It must be after-
ward renewed according as it may appear necessary.
I have succeeded in saving Piquepouls strongly at-
tacked by means of three sulphurings properly ad-
ministered in May, June, and July. Under the influ-
ence of sulphur, this variety gives very beautiful pro-
ducts.
The Zerrets take the disease in an anomalous
manner. Sometimes they resist very well, and give
the best crops; sometimes they give, on the contrary,
li
SULPHURING OF DisEASED VINES. 261
the worst results, because the disease takes the form
of “rougeau.” We seldom see any of their shoots
diseased until the epoch of general invasion comes,
which is about the time of blossoming (the 25th of
June), or a little after, from the 1st to the 5th of
July; sometimes it comes sooner, in the first fort-
night of June; sometimes, again, it does not come at
all, and then the vine is naturally cured. This last
case is rare, however, and it is best not to count on it.
The invasion announces itself by a slight yellow-
ness of the leaves; these, at their extremities, show
white spots, chiefly at the indentations. On the
grapes, before as well as after the blossoming, otdi-
um dust appears. If the grapes have not blossomed,
the injury may already be considerable.
Rougeau of Terrets—On the appearance of the
earliest symptoms, sulphur must be applied without
delay. A few days of delay are very prejudicial,
for the disease of the vine takes suddenly, with Ter-
rets, a new and terrible form: the vegetation of the
plants ceases, the leaf turns red, dries, and falls; the
fruit dries or becomes atrophied; often it continues
slowly to become covered with a gray dust; the ber-
ries then detach themselves one by one, or cease to
grow any more: hardly a trace of fruit remains.
It is this particular form of the disease that we
262 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
generally designate at this day, in the Department of
J’Herault, under the name of rougeau. This does
not at all resemble the peculiar affection that the
vine-cultivators of the north and east called vowgeot
before the disease of the vine was known. Messrs.
Dunal and Esprit Fabre, who first called attention to
the rougeau in January, 1854, took great. care to dis-
tinguish it from the other, but they did not attribute
to it the origin which I give it, for they made of it a
disease entirely distinct from that produced by the
oidium. Since 1853 I have declared the rougeau of
Terrets to.be a particular form of the vine disease.
It is produced by it, because we never see the rou-
geau appear on our Terrets before the invasion of
the oidium—it always follows that, and is its conse-
quence. Besides, when sulphur is applied to the
Terrets at the moment of the oidium’s appearance,
the disease is cured, and the rougeau does not ap-
pear.
A good application of sulphur at the beginning of
the disease averts it for about twenty-five days. Aft-
er that interval, if we have not yet reached the time
when the grapes begin to color (the 15th or 20th of
August), we may again perceive, on the young leaves
at the end of the shoots, and on the grapes, new be-
ginnings of the disease ; often even the signs of rou-
SULPHURING oF DISEASED VINES. 2638
geau itself. We must be prompt to sulphur again,
which will carry us safely through to vintage.
When the application of sulphur is too long de-
layed, and the rowgeaw actually comes, we must not
hesitate to have recourse to the remedy anew, unless
‘things have gone so far that all is lost. In 1854,
from the 17th to the 19th of July, I sulphured gray
Terrets strongly attacked by rougeau—the crop was
already half destroyed. At the end of ten days vege-
tation resumed its course, the rougeau was arrested,
and all the grapes which had not become atrophied
were preserved. The vines in question yielded half
a crop. Those in the same field which were not sul-
phured perished entirely.
The rougeau works its ravages principally at the
epoch of our greatest heats, from the 15th of July to
the 15th of August. Of all forms of the disease,
it is the most disastrous and most rapidly destruc-
tive.* ,
In general, two sulphurings, well done, and at the
proper moment, combat it effectively on Terrets, al-
though it often assumes a disastrous intensity. This
* Possibly this form of oidium is the one for whose maw our dear
little Nortons are destined. Certainly something very like the rou-
geau came to my Norton vines last year. We hear, too, of the Del-
awares losing their leaves. We shall see.—F.
264. EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
is because the oidium begins its work upon that vari-
ety quite late.
In 1855 and 1856 two sulphurings proved sufficient
to preserve my gray Terrets. The first was given be-
tween the 4th and 7th of July, the second between
the Ist and 3d of August.
VINES SULPHURED THE PRECEDING YEAR.
Every year since 1855 I have made comparative
observations of vines sulphured in 1854, 1855, 1856,
and 1857, and those which were not. In both, the
oidium made its annual reappearance at the same
epoch, and with the same intensity.* In 1854 I
sulphured several vines from the 7th to the 17th of
August. This was late enough, certainly, for the op-
eration to have a preservative effect; yet in the fol-
lowing year, as early as May, I found the oidinm on
shoots of those vines. What sufficed to meet the
disease and render it harmless for’ one season was
not suflicient to prevent its recurring early in the
next; so that the use of sulphur from year to year is
not a preventive against the disease; nor is it any
more so when resorted to at the beginning of vegeta-
* In 1856 Carignan vines sulphured and preserved in 1855 were
attacked after the end of April, like others not sulphured at all. In
1857 they were attacked in May.
~
SULPHURING oF DISEASED VINES. 265
tion. The proof is, we are obliged to keep renewing
it, if we would obtain good results. This simple
statement is enough to demonstrate how slight are
the grounds on which all pretended preventive meth-
ods of employing sulphur rest. Those who have ad-
vocated them have never succeeded in preventing
the coming of the oidium. They combat its effects
as they are combated where rational means are used,
- but with this difference, that they employ, without
motive, much useless material. Sulphur is simply a
destructive agent par excellence of the oidium, inas-
much as this last dies, as we have seen above, when
brought in contact with it. Apart from the impul-
sion it gives to the vegetation of the vine, the action
of the sulphur against the oidium is then curative ;
it has no other character. |
The vigor of sulphured vines produces generally
in them, the following year, a more abundant pro-
duction of fruit than that of such as had suffered by
the disease. It is now a well-recognized fact that
the shoots of such as I have last named present, in
the season of putting forth, a quantity of grapes
much less than that of vines in a normal state.
M
266 EuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
PRECEPTS TO FOLLOW IN APPLYING SULPHUR TO
DISEASED VINES.
It is well to observe the following precepts in ap-
plying sulphur to diseased vines:
1. The vines attacked by oidium should be culti-
vated with special care; we should leave no weeds
about them; the earth should be kept always loose.
Every thing that enfeebles vegetation favors the ac-
tion of the disease; for instance, bad pruning, plow-
ing too seldom or doing it badly, the washing away
of the earth from slopes, ete. The invasion of the
parasite mushroom troubles profoundly the vegeta-
tion of the plants. They must be reanimated by cul-
tivation, while at the same time the parasite is de-
stroyed by sulphur. In this way the most complete
results will be obtained.
If a diseased vine is manured, it must be culti-
vated and sulphured with particular care.
2. It is better to apply the sulphur too early than
too late.
3. Sulphurings at the moment of the blossoming
have appeared to me the most efficacious; they ap-
peared, besides, to exercise a salutary action on that
phase of vegetation. I thought I observed, in 1854
and 1855, that vines which received the sulphur at
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 267
that epoch had “knotted” their berries better than
the others.* It destroys the oidium at the moment
when it is most capable of injuring the grapes, and
the effect is therefore all the more valuable. There
is no vine-dresser who has not seen, in certain years,
grapes of the Terret disappear in a few days from
having taken the oidium at the moment of blossom-
ing. The presence of sulphur prevents that disas-
ter.
4. Every sulphuring should be carefully made, and
reach all parts of the plant—shoots, leaves, and fruit.
To spare the flour of sulphur is bad economy. The
dust should be flung on either by walking all round
the plant, or by doing first one side and then the
other. The work is well done when, taking a bunch
or a leaf, and holding it between the eye and the sun,
numerous grains of fine dust can be seen upon it.
Always bear in mind that sulphur destroys oidium
only when brought in contact with it.
5. When a vine has been sulphured, it is proper to
wait some days, at least, before plowing. What of
the powder falls to the ground should be allowed to
* T observed the same thing in 1856. It was confirmed the same
year by the experiments of M. Cazalis-Allut; and this important
fact appears to me now beyond doubt, and deserves place among
those the most interesting to viticulture.
268 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
volatilize in the sun, and rise and condense on the
shaded portions of the vine; it will thus penetrate
daily the sheltered places where a simple aspersion
of the dust would not have carried it. To turn it
under with the plow would defeat this process.
6. If a rain comes and washes off the sulphur the
very day it is applied, there is no risk in waiting a
few days before renewing it. Notwithstanding the
rain, the effects of the first application are consider-
able, provided the temperature has attained 68° to
85° Fahrenheit. From the time the vine is well in
leaf—the month of July, for instance—strong rains,
even, can not remove the sulphur, and even in May
and June they derange less than was at first feared.
7. The conditions most favorable to the action of
sulphur are hot and dry weather and a clear sun.
Nevertheless, sulphur may be applied in all weath-
ers, and nothing should stop it, when the need is ur-
gent, unless it be rain.
If it is needed without delay, wind should be no
objection. I have sulphured, in June, vines poorly
leaved, during high winds, and succeeded well. In
such cases it is only needful to use a little more ma-
terial than in a calm.
8. The effect of a sulphuring can not be judged
until after about ten days. It is requisite, in fact, to
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINEs. 269
give the vegetation time to regain its normal prog-
ress and to develop anew. A rain falling a few days
after the sulphuring renders the good effect of it
much more conspicuous. The whole vine takes a re-
markable greenness and brilliancy: the leaves seem
varnished.*
9. The sulphur is no preventive; the need of re-
newing it so often proves that. If we would pro-
ceed with that economy of which large agricultural
operations are worthy, it is proper to await the symp-
toms before resorting to the remedy.
10. After August 10th, in the climate of Montpel-
lier, the effect of sulphuring on the varieties of red
grapes is hardly appreciable in preserving the fruit.
11. When the grapes begin to color without being
attacked by oidium, they are out of its reach. If
they are already affected before beginning to turn,
they will continue to suffer. What precedes has ex-
plained why sulphuring performed toward the end of
July,and done just when it should be, and as it should
be [I use ten English words to translate “ @-propos”],
carries the fruit safely through into the vintager’s
* A gentleman, writing of the oidium in South Carolina, notices
such a varnished appearance of the leaves as preceding the develop-
ment of the parasite. The two facts are worthy of being compared,
and may possibly bear on the question of the origin of the pest.
270 EvuROPEAN VINEYARDS,
basket. This is a fact confirmed by experience ever
since the disease became known. The epoch of col-
oring in the Department of L’Herault (according to
years, varieties, and exposures) is from’the 5th to the
25th of August.
OF THE QUANTITY OF SULPHUR NECESSARY FOR THE
TREATMENT OF DISEASED VINES.
Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in May.
12 pounds of flour of sulphur at 134 centimes...........scceceeeee $0 323
Wages of a woman at 1 franc per day of 8 hours...........00+++ 16
TLotalicy:5.22oneee $O 484
Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in June (15th to 20th).
40 pounds of flour of sulphur at 13} centimes. ....0...ceccseeeee eee #1 08
2 days’ labor of a woman, 8 hours effective at 1 franc........... 40
Total: iiivessonermeeee $1 48
Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in July.
Aramons, the most vigorous.
48 pounds of flour of sulphur at 13} centimes*® .....+..esssecseeees $1 30
Labor of a woman 3 days at 1 framc.........s.es-eeeesseeeeseeeee anes 60
Totaly s.is/senesenee $1 90
In most kinds of vines, sulphuring in July costs no
more than in June, and $1 48 may be taken as the
* Five centimes equal one of our cents. The cost of sulphur in
Cincinnati, by the wholesale, I found to be 7} cents, nearly thrice the
cost in France. Men’s wages in that country being usually 50 cents,
and in ours $1 50, it appears we should multiply by three the above
estimates of M. Marés, and by four if men do the work.
SuULPHURING OF DISEASED VINEs. 271
cost per acre from June onward. For two applica-
tions, then, the cost will be $2 96, and for three,
$4 44. The quantity of sulphur used will be from
80 to 120 pounds per acre. This last figure is the
maximum, and is rarely reached; in most vineyards
the minimum is seldom exceeded. Better sulphur
than I have used would cost more, but less of it be
needed. The dryer it is, the farther the same quan-
tity will go, and the less will be the labor required.
Practically there is no more simple operation than
sulphuring vines, even when they are in their fullest
luxuriance. Where the vines are trained to stakes,
as in Bordeaux, Champagne, and the Bordelais, far
less material and labor are needed. Comparing the
results obtained with the expenditure, no operation
can be more advantageous; the vines are preserved
on the soil, and their products saved from the worst
scourge that has ever attacked them.
CONCERNING THE VEGETATION OF SULPHURED VINES.
The effects of sulphur on the vegetation-does not
‘ begin to be appreciable until the end of spring, or
in summer, about eight days after-the application.
Then the branches are seen to recover their beauti-
ful green color and to vegetate with new vigor. At
each application the same effect is manifested in a
272 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
marked manner; the vine also maintains a vigor so
well sustained, provided it be well cultivated, that its
fruit ripens much more equally and much earlier.
These facts are at this day beyond doubt in all
places where the proper method has been carefully
followed.
I have before alluded to the favorable influence of
sulphur on the blossoming. I again observed it in
1856, and the same year the observations of many
cultivators confirmed my own, which I had published
the year before. This fact, so important, is, more-
over, not isolated, nor does it apply solely to the blos-
soming and fructification of the vine. I ascertained,
in 1866, that sulphur favors the fructification of a
great number of fruit-trees, particularly plum, quince,
pear, and apple trees, and exerts on the vegetation of
a large number of cultivated plants a powerful influ-
ence. From this point of view we may easily arrive
at the conclusion that vines should be sulphured
when in blossom, whether the oidium is present or
not.
A more even ripening, and probably, also, a special
action of the sulphur on the coloring matter of the
grapes, makes the wine from sulphured grapes have
a higher color, so that in the departments of the
south such wines maintained over the others an in-
SuLPHURING oF DiIsEASED VINEs. 2738
contestable superiority in 1855 and 1856, and it was
the same in 1857.
Sulphured vines have every where preserved their
leaves with remarkable persistence, such as was only
observed in well-manured vines before the disease
eame. In 1855 and 1856 they kept their verdure
up to the frosts of December, looking like so many
green islets among the others, despoiled of their
leaves since the month of October. Their wood is
healthy, beautiful, and very much developed. Their
products in grapes have been those of good years.
Their wood being very vigorous, the shoots present
the following year a show of fruit more abundant
than vines that did not take the disease.
The effects of sulphur on diseased vines is really
marvelous when it is applied “d@ propos,” and often
enough to prevent any ravage of the oidium. The
same vine, divided in two equal parts, has given me,
according to the virulence of the disease, two or four
times more fruit on the sulphured part than on the
other; the difference of product in grapes being still
greater when we operate on Carignans, Piquepouls,
etc.
This remarkable vegetation of sulphured vines
brings us naturally to put the question, Is the sul-
phur a manure, or at least a stimulant for the vine ?
M 2
274 EvUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
What I have observed down to this time, and par-
ticularly in 1856, after having put the question in
the first edition of this work, leads me to answer af-
firmatively. At the same time, it will not do to con-
clude that the use of-sulphur dispenses with that of
manure. I have noticed that its good effects tend
to diminish when the soil is neglected as to manur-
ing, while in soils well manured and well cultivated
its effects on vegetation sustained themselves dur-
ing many succeeding years in the most remarkable
manner. .
I feel sure that sulphur augments considerably
the vegetation and fructification of the vine inde-
pendently of its state of disease. It will be a valua-
ble agent to increase the fertility of vineyards and
render them more regular, but upon condition that
manure be concurrently employed, otherwise its ac-
tion will yearly grow less, and end by becoming in-
significant. "
This same consideration ought to reassure those
who think the stimulating action of sulphur may
soon exhaust their vines; for that stimulating action
can not exert itself except in so much as it is favor-
ed by the richness of the soil, and will not, to any
considerable extent, increase the fruitfulness of bad-
ly-kept fields. In those well kept wp, sulphur acts
SULPHURING OF DiIsEASED VINES. 275
like good cultivation and manuring, which, while
developing the productive force of the vine, are far
from exhausting it.
In any case, nothing is more worthy of interest than
the study of questions arising out of the use of sulphur
to stimulate vegetation. It is a wholly new field, in
which the student of vegetable physiology and agri-
culture may find numerous subjects of observation.
REVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS WHICH RELATE TO THE
EMPLOYMENT OF SULPHUR AND ITS ACTION ON THE
VINE.
In this review we see that the action of sulphur
on the vine is exerted in two ways quite distinct.
In the first place, sulphur destroys the little para-
site mushroom (oidium Tuckeri) whose development
on the branches and fruit constitutes the disease.
In the second place, sulphur acts by exciting veg-
etation and .favoring fructification.
Thus two distinct properties reciprocally complete
each other when the disease is to be combated.
The sulphurings should therefore be so timed and
regulated as that the one should work to the advan-
tage of the other.
Thus we should always sulphur at the period of
blossoming, in order that the fructification should
276 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
operate more completely, and this without regard to
the disease. If, before or after this is done, the oid-
ium makes its attack, it will be sufficient, independ-
ently of the sulphuring at blossom-time, to give an-
other each time the first symptoms of disease show
themselves. I have described them minutely, and,
besides, every one knows them too well at the pres-
ent day to make any mistake.
I have shown by numerous examples that in the ~
most obstinate cases it is rare that four sulphurings
are necessary, not counting that given at blossom-
time; that oftener it suffices to add one or two only
to this last, in order to obtain the best results. We
have also seen how the surveillance of a large vine-
yard, of varieties the most diverse, is made easy, by
keeping a memorandum of the fields in cultivation,
and of the sulphurings given them; for the study of
the oidium proves that its reappearances are almost
always separated by an interval of twenty to thirty
days, according to the intensity of the disease, the
variety, soil, cultivation, and temperature.
Thanks to this system, 1 have indicated how the
application should be made to all the varieties of
most importance in the South of France; how we
may be always in time, always sure to succeed. We
realize the greatest possible economy, and do not, all
SULPHURING oF DisEASED VINES. 277
at a time and needlessly, employ an excessive force
of laborers at seasons when they are so scarce that
often the most urgent labors must go undone.
For those who would free themselves from the
trouble of watching over their vines, and care little
about the additional expense—who prefer a rule
ready made-——there is another manner of procedure
equally sure: ¢¢ is to apply sulphur to their vines
every twenty days, beginning at the moment when
the shoots have attained the length of two inches,
and continuing till the grapes begin to color. In
the climate of Montpellier these two epochs are com-
prised between the 1st of May and the 10th of Au-
gust, or thereabout. In that interval of a hundred
days there will be five or six sulphurings to make,
whose effects will be assured, as well for the purpose
of destroying the oidium as for that of favoring the
vegetation and fructification of the vine. By this
system, which is based on the interval which sepa-
rates ordinarily the reappearances of the oidium, the
average cost of material and labor will be double
that which I have given as the highest estimate.
OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE USE OF SULPHUR.
The principal objections made against the em-
ployment of sulphur are the following:
278 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
1st Opsection.— The good effects are doubtful.”
If the good effects are doubted by any, it is be-
cause they have not made the application under the
proper conditions; either their vines had been too
long invaded, or the sulphuring was not soon enough
renewed and at the opportune moment, or it was in-
completely done, and directed against the diseased
grapes only instead of all the fruit and entire fo-
liage. It is probable that later, when the employ-
ment of sulphur shall have become more general,
and we understand better its management, no one
will seriously dispute its value.
In all the course of this work I have demonstrated
by direct observation, or by practice and the produc-
tion of facts, how ill founded is this objection. I will
add to these a few considerations to answer the argu-
ments of those who tell us they every year see dis-
eased vines cure themselves spontaneously without
any sulphur, and that if those which are sulphured
recover, it is not the sulphur that cures them, but
Nature.
There are vines, it is true, which rid themselves
spontaneously of disease ; nevertheless, they are never
entirely delivered from it, and for that reason are
not comparable for strength and beauty to the same
vines treated with sulphur. We know them as soon
SULPHURING oF DisEASED VINEs. 279
‘as we look at them. We always see numerous traces
of the oidium on their grapes, but principally on
their shoots. If they pass for being. spontaneously
cured, it is not so much because we see no oidium
appear upon them as because they give a better
crop than in preceding years. It would be more
proper to recognize in their condition a marked ame-
lioration than a cure. The number of vines really
cured spontaneously is small.
But, in any case, spontaneous cure and sulphur
cure are two things which do not conflict at all, es-
pecially when that which passes for spontaneously
cured, like that which is cured by sulphur, is subject
to be again attacked by the disease. Finally, com-
parative experiments made on the same vine divided
in two parts, of which the half which was sulphured
was perfectly preserved, while the ‘other half, left to
itself, was completely ravaged, answer all objections.
Such comparative experiments were often repeated
in 1854, 1855, and 1856.
2d Opsection.— The use of sulphur is expensive.
T have replied in advance to this objection, and
proved that such expense hardly amounted to a
fourth or a seyenth of the ordinary current expenses
of a vineyard, including interest, taxes, etc. It is,
nevertheless, no trifling expense, but it is very largely
280 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
compensated down to the present time by the in-
creased price obtained for the wine.
3d Oxsection.—Sulphur used on the grapes im-
parts a bad taste, which enters into the wine.
This is no better founded than the other objec-
tions. It is true, wine from grapes recently sul-
phured has a very marked sulphurous flavor, which
lasts a good while, but when nothing else has been
mixed with the sulphur, there is nothing to fear from
this; ordinarily it passes away without leaving any
trace after the drawings off which remove the wine
from the coarse lees. The taste, besides, is slight
when the sulphuring has been done in a rational
manner, without covering the grapes with a useless
quantity of dust, and that, too,so late in the season
that no good could come of it, however applied. I
have had in my cellar many large casks full of wine
from sulphured grapes; it has always kept well and
brought a good price. Nor have I ever learned that
the case was different in the cellars of others. To
my view, the feeble quantity of gas which may de-
velop from the sulphur in such wines is a preserva-
tive agent, and imparts a peculiar stability.
But, however this may be, there is a sure means to
avoid the contracting of any such taste. It consists
in making the last sulphuring not later than from
SuLPHURING oF DISEASED VinzEs. 281
the 20th of July to the 15th of August, and in using
a bellows instead of flinging on the powder from a
box, and at a period so late that there can be no need
for it in any case.
But, even after the sulphur taste has been con-
tracted, it can be removed easily enough by once or
twice drawing off. Usually the first drawing off,
which, by removing the coarse lees, disposes of the
greater part of the sulphur, is found sufficient.
M. Barral has pointed out a way of more prompt-
ly effecting the same object: it consists in drawing
off the wine into a cask in which sulphur has been
burned in the ordinary method of fumigation. The
sulphureted hydrogen which gives the bad taste de-
composes in contact with the sulphurous acid intro-
duced by the fumigation, and the wine is quickly re-
lieved of the presence of the former. Wine destined
for the still should be carefully rid of the taste in
question, as otherwise it will enter into the brandy.
We know that great quantities of sulphur are used
by wine-merchants to fumigate their casks. . There
is no more reason to fear injury to the quality of the
Wine in the one case than in the other.*
* But a few years since, wine was shipped from Cette to Holland
quite new, on the lees, and strongly sulphured. This wine, after the
treatment, appeared to have lost color. In that state it made the sea
282 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
In 1855 and 1856 wines from sulphured grapes
generally possessed a superiority over others which
caused them to be sought after. Their color was
livelier and their maturity more equal. It was the
same in 1857. These are advantages which decide
the question altogether in favor of sulphur.
When the sulphur used on the vines has been the
triturated article from raw material of inferior qual-
ity, or mixed with other matters capable of forming
sulphurets, it may happen that a disagreeable taste
will be produced, quite distinct from that which
comes from sulphureted hydrogen. This will be
due to the presence in the wine of a small quantity
of soluble sulphurets: it is very tenacious. At the
same time, if the casks are strongly fumigated with
burning sulphur and drawn off several times, it ought
to disappear, because sulphurous acid decomposes
soluble sulphurets.
When vines are treated with sulphur that is free
from all mixture, like the flour or triturated rolls,
there is no danger of such accidents.
4th Oxsection.—Suffiicient sulphur can not be ob-
tained to cure, every year, all the diseased vines.
voyage, and on its arrival was allowed to repose. It was drawn off
several times and then clarified. It became excellent, and was re-
marked for its freshness and delicacy.
SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES. 283
Admitting that the vine disease will continue for
a long time and with its present virulence, we shall
certainly need a good deal of sulphur. But there is
hardly a limit to its production; millions of quintals
may be obtained, if needed. The rise in price of the
flour did not extend to crude sulphur, so large is the
supply. It was the suddenness of the demand that
made flour of sulphur temporarily dear. Let the ex-
tent of the prospective demand be known, and the
increased means of manufacturing it will bring down
the price to a reasonable point,* and medicine enough
be found to heal all the sick.
* Within six months from writing the above, this prediction was
fully realized.
284 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
CHeP TER Ry.
MONTPELLIER AND HENRI MARES.
ND now we will go to Montpellier and make
the acquaintance of M. Marés himself. Mont-
pellier was once a capital of Languedoc, Toulouse
being another. As long ago as the times of the
Crusades, it was a republic, free and flourishing, and
“the hope of the free.” It was ruined, however, by
long wars, waged on each side to correct the theology
and save the souls of those on the other side.
In a fine old mansion near the beautiful park, or
rather point of view called the Perou,I found M.
Marés. He met me as he should, and I spent an
hour with him explaining what my errand was, and
endeavoring to interest him in it. On parting, he
promised that, on the day but one following, he would
call and go with me over some of his vines, excusing
himself for not doing so the next day, as it was a féte.
To properly occupy the féte-day, I took the train
for Cette, the neighboring sea-port,a place of large
MoNTPELLIER AND Henri Margszs. 285
wine commerce, and famous for its “imitations,” as
they call the Madeira, Sherry, Port, etce., they make
there.. These are not, however, like those of Chaptal
and Gall, imitations of the miracle of Cana, but are
based on sound, strong, natural wines, which are fla-
vored and named in deference to British and Amer-
ican tastes. .
The train stopped for a while at the village of
Frontignan, famous for the Muscat of that name.
The Muscat requires a soil open, warm, and, at the
same time, rather strong. The grapes must hang on
the vines a certain time after maturity, and on any
but a dry soil would rot during the heavy rains of
the last of October, which I have said were common
in Languedoc. To give sweet and high-flavored
wine, the vines need to be at least twenty years old,
which is a pity, for we could make Muscats grow in
many parts of America, and the wine, so luscious,
and, at the same time, so delicate, would suit the
tastes of our people, and help them learn to love
wines in general. It would be an admirable sugar-
teat to wean teetotalers.
In different parts of L’Herault as many as 5000
acres are planted with this variety, but the average
yield is very small, in some neighborhoods not ex-
ceeding sixty gallons to the acre. It is grown in
286 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
souche, or, if trained to trellis, yields an inferior pro-
duct. The spaces are only three feet.
I walked about the streets of Cette, and went
through some of its vast warehouses. Nobody would
tell me what were the ingredients put in to make
Port, Sherry, Madeira, etc. They manage to do with-
out cellars by callmg by that name their ground-floor
store-houses, and sprinkling their pavements in hot
weather.
During the evening, after returning from Cette, I
invited to my room the old, well-decorated officer of
the First Empire who kept the hotel. He said the
vine product had greatly increased of late years, in
consequence of the rise in prices, which still kept
rising, notwithstanding the increase. But the wine
was not what it once was; the resort to manuring
had not only lowered the quality, but so affected its
keeping properties, that whereas formerly good wines
would keep fifteen years, now they last only five. The
better kinds, St. George’s, for instance, used to bring
only about 18 cents a gallon; the price of the staple
red wines of L’Herault now ranges from 10 to 25
cents. And this is the story all over the French
vine districts — increasing consumption, advancing
prices, extended plantations; manuring, increased
yield, and inferior quality.
MonrTPELLIER AND Henri Mariés. 287%
Next day M. Marés called for me, and conducted
me over one of his vineyards lying at the edge of
the city. The wine-house belonging to it was the
same in which Chaptal, at the time a resident of
Montpellier, carried on his experiments in falsifying
wines. His example has found few followers in his
own province, however, and the only wonder is that,
with real wine flowing like a sea around him, and
selling for 5 cents a gallon, he should have thought it
worth while to employ his great abilities in making
it from water.
The vines I found to be furnished with from six
to eight shoots or canes to.each souche, each cane cut
back to two eyes and what they call a sub-eye. The
very old vines had more canes than any others. To
prune, they use a two-handed shears, and make a
square cut, instead of one which leaves the tip in
shape of a whistle. These shears are said to save
three fourths of the labor, and, since the cost of
pruning is so large a proportion of the whole ex-
pense of working vines in souche, it is said that, but
for their invention, wines of the south could hardly
have kept their place in the market.
It is difficult to see how vines in souche could be
pruned any longer than they are, if the fruit is to be
kept off the ground. As it is, however, all the clus-
288 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ters being collected about the crotch of the souche,
and balanting each other from opposite sides, they
are very well sustained. It is likely many of our
American varieties would prove too long-jointed for
such training, or bear their fruit so far out on the
branch that, in cutting back to two eyes only, we
should cut away all the fruit-buds. There are vines
in France which have this habit, and for such M.
Guyot’s system might be a good one. Some of the
plants I saw had the valuable peculiarity of holding
their canes, and the shoots from them, quite erect,
while others drooped and trailed.
The field had received its first plowing. Good eul-
tivation, M. Marés said, required three workings of
the ground in a season, and sometimes four. The
first should be done between the first of January and
the last of March; the second, between the 15th of
May and the 1st of June; and the third, some time
before the 24th of June, or be deferred till the first
fortnight of July, though generally that is rendered
impossible by the vines spreading so as to completely
cover the ground. Formerly twice working was con-
sidered enough. Hand-labor is thought the best, and
doubtless it is, but the plow is more generally used
because it is more economical. It is not unusual to
plow both ways, the furrows crossing each other.
MonTPELLIER AND HENRI MAREs. 289
The first operation is often so performed as to throw
the earth away from the feet of the vines, leaving
them standing in little trenches seven inches deep.
As this is done at any time from the first of January
to the last of March, it would be a destructive prac-
tice in our country of cold winters, as one of my
neighbors across the Ohio learned at his own ex-
pense, when a very skillful vine-dresser undertook to
do in Kentucky what he had been taught in France.
Naturally one of my first inquiries was for the
reason why low-souche training was not seen in other
parts of France. The reply was that, except in the
warm climate of the south, fruit would not ripen
unless spread out on trellis or stakes. The Folle
Blanche, however, which thrives in the comparative-
ly cold and damp region of the Bordelais and the
brandy country of the Charente, is an exception to
this rule.
“These vines,” said M. Marés, as we passed into
another plantation, “in their third season from cut-
tings, which was last year, yielded 100 hectolitres to
the hectare” (about 1000 gallons to the acre). Old-
er plants in the same field had given double that
quantity. |
Seeing bits of rags sticking out of the ground
here and there, I asked if they had been brought
N
290 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
there as a manure. They had, and rags are held in
very high esteem. Oil-cake, too, is considered par-
ticularly valuable.
In remarking on the space allowed between the
plants, M. Marés said that experience had shown that
nothing was gained by setting them any closer, an
acre of vines standing within three feet of each oth-
er yielding no more wine than if they were five feet —
apart.
Early on the following day, which was the 15th
of April, M. Mares called by appointment to drive
me out to his large estate, ten miles from Montpel-
lier. On my remarking that the morning was sharp
and frosty, he told me there had been a severe frost
both the last night and the one before, and he was
rather anxious to learn how far his vines had suf-
fered; but he was apparently less preoccupied dur-
ing the drive out than might be expected of a man
with 250 acres of vines and two sharp frosts on his
mind.
An hour and a half or less brought us within sight
of a large chateau, with a wall about it, amid planta-
tions of olives, mulberries, and vines, otherwise unin-
closed. Halting the carriage a good way short of
the house, we got out and entered a field bordering
the road, and the proprietor began his inspection. It
MonTrELLIER AND Henri Marss. 291
did not by any means please him, and the result was
that he became convinced he had lost half his pros-
pective crop on all vines sufficiently advanced to be
hurt. ;
“We are ravaged, M. Henri!” exclaimed, in a bluff
voice, a bluff, wholesome-looking man, with a gun in
hisshand, who came to meet us. It was the overseer,
who was, at the same time, the “frere-du-lact” of M.
Marés. In old countries, where they try to remember
and not forget, the relation of foster-brother (broth-
er of the milk) is rather a near one, and I am sure
the overseer performed his duty with more fidelity,
and more pleasure too, for considering himself a
member of the family. He had been through the
fields since daylight, and made his report as above—
“We are ravaged.” “TI think so,” was the reply of
the other, as he continued on, tramping over the dusty
furrows, continually stooping to examine the buds as
he went, like one who is his own chief overseer. And
I must tramp after him and listen to all he said, for
seldom could I obtain admission to a lecture such as
he was giving. We talked as continuously as we
walked, his familiarity with every detail, and his
scientific knowledge of his subject, more than ever
convincing me I had fallen into the hands of the
right man. I could easily see, also, that the fields
292 EvuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
were clean of weeds, every vine-souche in good health,
with none missing, the alleys well kept, and all things ~
thing fully up with the season.
Three hours of such walking and talking brought
us to the gate of the chateau and.the hour for break-
fast. Vines in low places had suffered the most, and
in this respect it was the same with the mulberry-
trees. Recently- plowed fields, other things equal,
had decidedly been worse hurt than those early
plowed. Late pruning was also shown to be a pro-
tection. The dangerous term, as regards frosts, is,
it seems, from the 1st of April to the 10th of May
(which last date is precisely our limit in the Ohio
Valley), but now and then the limit is exceeded in -
Languedoc as well as Ohio. For the above reason,
no plowing is done, if it can be helped, between
those dates. .
Pruning is by many deferred to the latest safe
moment, and by some is done even as late as the Ist
of April— in the flow of the sap,” as it is called—
which is said to guarantee the wines through the
whole of that month. But this practice is objected
to as having a stunting effect. A good many vines
had been burst (in their last year’s wood) by the late
severe winter, the mercury having fallen as low as
17° above zero of Fahrenheit. One of our Ameri-
can winters would astonish them, I think.
MonTPELLIER AND Henri Marss. 298
We were ready for our breakfast when it came in
—for a “breakfast with forks,” as they call it. While
dispatching the excellent and substantial one spread
before us by an old domestic, we tried several kinds
of the finer wines of the country, such as Muscat, Pi-
cardin sweet and dry, ete. Five francs a bottle was
the price of one of the Muscats, grown during the
hottest season in memory. The price of the average
quality of this kind of wine, when old enough for
drinking, is but thirty cents. It is sad to know this,
and then to think of the ten and fifteen fold prices
wrung from our toiling thousands of money-makers,
bankers, jobbers, and stock-jobbers for inferior liq-
uids by heartless hotel and restaurant keepers.
In reply to an inquiry from my entertainer if I
really thought the vine could be made to succeed in
America, I told him yes, of course; it was native to
every inch of our soil, found in all our forests from
North to South, whereas, I went on to add, neither
France nor any other part of Europe could claim it
as indigenous, and for this last gave Humboldt as
my authority. To my surprise, M. Marés refused
to admit my fact and Humboldt’s, which I and H. |
had affirmed a thousand times without meeting with
contradiction. He assured me that wild vines still
existed in many parts of Languedoc; that their fruit
~
294 EvROPEAN VINEYARDS.
was even used for wine-making by the poor people ;
that, so wild was their nature, when attempts were
made to cultivate and prune them closely in the usu-
al mode, they would blossom, but never bear; and,
finally, for illustration rather than proof, referred to
the twisted column often seen in European architec-
ture as copied from the wild vine in its gigantie for-
est growth.
I ventured to boast a little of the vigorous growth
of American vines, but here again M. Marés took me
down, and I fell heavily. “Come this way,” he said,
“and I will introduce you to some of your compatri-
ots.” And he showed me to his nursery, or experi-
mental vineyard rather, where were growing a great
number of vines assembled from all parts of Europe,
some from England even, with three from America,
the Catawba, Isabella, and York’s Madeira, or Canby.
The last stood in the same rows with scores of others
of the same age, namely, three years, and had been
treated in all respects in the same manner as the oth-
ers. They were as large as a large thumb, which
was certainly very well for them, but the others were
as large as a wrist.
T gave up.
“They resist disease remarkably well,” observed
M. Mares.
MonrTrpELLIER AND Henri Mares. 295
He showed me his collection of plows, chief among
which was the old classic article, one handled, and
all of wood except a sharp-pointed, triangular plate
of iron, which ran flat to the ground. I attacked
the plows, thinking I could safely attack a two or
three thousand year old invention. But M. Mares,
while admitting the superiority of modern plows,
of which several of very good construction were in
use in Languedoc, insisted with many reasons that
for certain kinds of work, and in certain soils, the
“apuire,’ as it was called, remained still a desirable
implement. It recalled our Western shovel -plow,
which is likewise of wood except the shovel plate,
which does but shallow work, and stirs the soil with-
out turning it over, and is, in fact, a step backward
toward the old araire, which last, however, goes
down as deep as eight inches in the first or winter
plowing.
After the plows I was shown the bellows used for
sulphuring. There were several kinds, most of them
being known in America; but it is worthy of re-
mark that M. Marés, after fourteen or fifteen years’
experience with all of them, preferred the simplest
and cheapest, namely, that described in his pamphlet
as the Vergnes bellows.
A serious defect in all bellows I have seen since
296 EvRorPEAN VINEYARDS.
my return to America is that their sieves are double,
and are too fine. They should be single, and the
meshes as coarse as consists with economy of sul-
phur.
We next looked in at the wine-cellars, or rather
houses. These were of a grandeur befitting an aver-
age vintage of three hundred thousand gallons. The
several apartments were furnished with fifty-five
casks, called “ futs,” of capacity varying from seven
to ten thousand gallons, besides many enormous vats,
each wide and deep enough to drown very comfort-
ably dozens of naked villains who might attempt to
bathe in it. But the thing is never needed to be
done in Languedoc, where grapes get so dead ripe as
to need no crushing even, but are commonly flung
into the vat without stemming, and with no other
crushing than what they must needs get in handling
and transporting. For the same reason, seven days
only is the term of the fermentation.
From 250 acres in vines M. Marés often gathers
as much as 15,000 hectolitres, or 375,000 gallons.
The variety called Aramon, in the proper soil, gives
1200 gallons to the acre as an average.
In Languedoe, as elsewhere on the Mediterranean
shores, and to some extent also in Burgundy, it is an
immemorial custom to sprinkle on the grapes in the
MonrTPELLIER AND HeEnR1 Marés. 297
vat before fermentation begins a layer of plaster of
Paris. In the south they generally make the layer
thick enough to amount to two pounds or more for
every hundred gallons. This is to prevent the for-
mation of acetic acid, and is claimed to have other
advantages as well. Many, however, are beginning
to oppose the practice. Its opponents, while admit-
ting that plaster helps the wine to keep and deepens
its color, insist that it hurts the quality, which accusa-
tion its advocates in their turn stoutly deny.
During fermentation the vats are usually covered
with loose boards. A plan for improving inferior
musts has been invented by M. Marés, which is as fol-
lows: The best grapes, usually ripening ten days in
advance of the others, are gathered and fermented
first, and as their quantity is usually less than that of
coarser qualities, the vats are only partially filled, so
as that each one shall have its even share. On the
eighth day the clear wine is drawn off, leaving in the
bottom of the vat, however, not only the pomace, but
also one fifth of the liquid. The inferior vintage is
then flung in upon this residuum, and, fermenting
there, takes up a portion of the virtues of the supe-
rior one, working an amelioration that sometimes
doubles the market value of the wine.
This is,in fact, Gall’s method, with only such dif-
N 2
298 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ference as must always exist between real wine and
sugared water.
Though seven days is the usual term allotted for
wine to remain upon the skins, it varies somewhat in
certain parts of Languedoc. In the Gard, for in-
stance, it is often extended to fifteen days, and again,
where it is not intended to make wine of commerce,
or when the “ Rose” wines of the Rhone hills is_
sought to be imitated, a much shorter time is al-
lowed, ranging from thirty hours up to three days.
To hasten fermentation, a part of the must is some-
times boiled and then returned to the vat.
Common wine is only once racked off, which is
done at the end of winter, and in cold weather, if
practicable, but in some places it is not drawn off at
all; but Muscat is racked four times within the first
three months from vintage.
The wines of the South of France vary in alcohol-
ic strength from seven up to sixteen per cent., the
strongest being Muscat and Picardin, both of them
white. Common red wines of commerce range be-
tween ten and twelve per cent. before the dealers
take them in hand to manipulate for market. These
brandy heavily all they send away, which notoriously
hurts their delicacy. So does the long fermentation
on the skins, they say, which is also done to make the
MonTPELLIER AND Henri Marés. 299
wine keep. What is retained for home consumption
is, however, left in the vat only long enough to get a
good color. As such wines will not bear transporta-
tion, they must be drunk at home to be truly appre-
ciated.
From the wine-houses we looked in on the silk-
worm nursery, and afterward walked out to where
they were building drains of stone. In Languedoc
it is customary to drain heavy soils, but the custom
is by no means so uniform as it is in Médoc, Bur-
gundy, and Alsace, where more valuable products are
obtained. So important do I now esteem it to drain
all clay soils destined to be planted in vines, that to
my mind the mere absence of drainage in the vine-
yards of the Ohio Valley would suffice to account for
their poor success, were no other cause to be found.
Deep digging, trenching with mattock and spade two
feet deep, or deeper, have a certain effect for a few
years, but in time the adhesive soil gets packed again,
and the expensive preparation is as good as lost.
And I can not but think that good tile or stone
drainage would dispense with the costly trenching
or deep plowing we have been used to think essen-
tial, so far as that a good turning up with the com-
mon subsoil plow would be found sufficient.
We did not get back to Montpellier till some time
300 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
after dark. At my hotel I bade good-by to the gen-
tleman from whom I had learned so much, and the
next day was on my way to Avignon.
A traveling companion who lived near Avignon
informed me it was the custom in his neighborhood
to heap up about the feet of the olive-trees, every
autumn, little mounds of earth fifteen inches high,
to protect against frost. He also said they did the
same with their vines, which otherwise could not
support even the mild winters of the south. Avig-
non, it will be noted, is in the great South of France
vine-country, and the vines alluded to were grown in
souche. This was what I had not learned before,
and came from a stranger, yet I am inclined to be-
lieve it, though I don’t think it is true of the vines
about Montpellier, or those immediately on the coast.
At Avignon the rail. route toward Lyons enters the
Valley of the Rhone, and, for a long way up that
valley, the same method of training and the same
vines are found as those I have been writing of, and
as this continues all the way to Valence, which is in
the latitude of Bordeaux, I can readily believe in the
necessity of covering up in winter.
Low SovcueE VINES In AMERICA. 801
CHAP Tih. XV TEE
WOULD LOW SOUCHE VINES DO WELL IN AMERICA?
if regards California, this is no longer an open
question. In certain parts of Texas, too, they
have a wild vine which takes the low souche form of
itself, by help of winter killing, which regularly cuts
it down to a few eyes close to the old stalk. Those
of us who would try the experiment should begin
with varieties whose joints are short, whose canes
are stiff, or, what is better, erect in their growth, and
whose fruit-buds are found close to the old stock, or
souche. If we have none which combine these qual-
ifications with the other essentials of a good plant,
means can probably be found for educating such as
we have into the requisite habit of growth.
In view of the possibility that we may not be able
at once to lay our hand on precisely the right kind
to begin with, I have imported the French varieties
already mentioned.
Of course they must be covered in winter, except
the Folle-blanche, which may be hardy enough to do
without it in some of our Southern States; but cov-
302 EvRoOoPEAN VINEYARDS.
ering little ten-inch stumps would be a very trifling
matter in comparison with the laying down and bury-
ing of high souches, which is even now the.practice
in our colder grape regions, and has always been done
in some parts of Hungary.
For ripening grapes on vines trained in souche, the
requisite amount of heat during the growing season
may be estimated from the following data, obtained
after much search in a corner of the Imperial Library
at Paris, where were deposited a few volumes of re-
ports on the statistics of some of the departments.
Perhaps in a future edition I shall be able to furnish
something more satisfactory than the range of the
thermometer in but two of the departments of the
great vine-region of South France, one of them coy-
ering only two years,and the other only one. The
mean temperature of the Department of the Gard
during each month of the growing and ripening sea-
son, for the years 1838 and 1839 respectively, and
that of the Department of the Bouches-du-Rhone,
where Marseilles is situated, during the correspond-
ing months of the year 1821, were as follows:
June. | July. Aug. Sept. Oct.
Gard, 1838 53.24 | 63.86 | 72.05 | 70.70 | 74.48 | 67.72 | 61.70
‘¢ 1839......| 55.58 | 64.86 | 76.17 | 78.26 | 76.04 | 68.38 | 60.20
Bouches - du-
Rhone, 1891 | 0 52.70 | 62.6 165.3 | 69.20| 57.20] 56.30
Low SoucHE VINES IN AMERICA. 303
With the indication thus given of the temperature
of the warmest portion of the South of France, every
one can compare that of his own particular section,
and judge if its climate is warm enough to ripen
grapes on vines trained in low souche. I will, how-
ever, give the mean temperature of one point in the
Ohio Valley and one in the Lake Erie region:
April. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. Sept. Oct.
Cincinnati .......| 54.10 | 63.60 | 71.40 | 76.50 | 74.20 | 66. 53.20
Kelly’s Island ... 57.53 | 68.65 | 74.01 | 72.41 | 64.94 | 53.16
The degree of heat needed to ripen the Folle-
blanche in souche is less than what the other varie-
ties seem to require. It alone, so far as I could
learn, flourishes in that form as far north as Bor-
deaux, and even farther north in the Department of
the Charente, where, as we have seen, it yields the
wine of which Cognac brandy is made. The mean
temperature of the Charente, derived from observa-
tions made during a series of four years, at the hours
of seven A.M. and two and eleven P.M. each day, is
as follows:
April. May.
47.90 | 53.81
August. |September.| October.
59.28 57.68 | 47.98
Whether we compare with the South of France,
then, or the far more temperate region of the Borde-
lais and the Charente, it will appear that throughout
304 EuROPEAN VINEYARDS,
the greater part of the United States we shall have
a sufficiency of solar heat for ripening grapes on
vines in souche.
It has been objected to this kind of training that
it can not succeed except in an extremely dry cli-
mate. But vines in souche seem to do as well in
the Valley of the Rhone, where the mean rain-fall for
the year is 36 inches (the same as in L’Herault), and
for the summer months 94 inches, as in Gironde and
Charente, where the yearly quantity is but 24 inches,
or in parts of California, where the summer mean is
less than 2 inches. Or, if we regard the dryness or
dampness of the air merely, and not the rain-fall, we
find such vines supporting as well the aridity of the
South of France, where there are but 77 rainy days
in the year, as the moisture of the Valley of the Gi-
ronde, where there are 141, or of the Valley of the
Charente, where there are 150 of them in a year.
A good deal has been published in America on
the climatology of the grape, in which the quantity
of the annual as well as of the summer rain-fall is
treated as being very important. It seems to me
that the true inquiry should be how dry, or how
moist, are the soil and the air during the growing
and ripening process? Languedoc, with 36 inches
of rain-fall, is a dry region, chiefly because those 36
Low SovucweE VINES IN AMERICA. 805
inches fall in 77 days, while the Charente is a moist
one, with only 24 inches of water, chiefly because it
continues to come down during 150 drizzly days.
The fact is well known that, as compared with the
climates of France, Germany, and other wine-coun-
tries of Europe, our own is remarkably dry.
If it be said that to be safe from the oidium we
must take refuge in regions where the rain-fall meas-
ures only just so many inches in such and such
months—that we must abandon our Ohio Valley
and fly to the lake shore, I will ask, Why is it that
oidium in all its forms is far more pestilential in the
South of France, which is very much the dryest por-
tion of the kingdom, than in any other part of it?
Or, if it be replied that this results from training in
souche, I rejoin that they have there both stakes and
trellis, and that it is precisely the vines trained upon
stakes and trellis that are afflicted the worst.
There exist in America three conditions which
render training in souche more suitable for us at the
present time than the other modes. These are:
1st. Dear labor.
2d. Cheap land.
3d. Immediate need for much cheap wine.
In view of the first of these, I would observe that
the cost of creating an acre of vineyard, planted in
306 EvuROPEAN VINEYARDS.
the fashionable varieties, and furnished with wire
trellis, exclusive of the price of the land, fencing,
and a good many other smaller items, has of late run
up to the large sum of $600, $700, and $800 in Con-
gress money, which, being reduced to the currency
of the Bible and the Constitution, means, we will say,
$500. In many places this is doubled, and in others
much more than doubled, by the speculative prices
paid for the ground. And the yearly expenditure
for attendance, merely, is estimated, I see, as high,
sometimes, as $150, or, I should say, $110 of true
money, in which we will hereafter continue to make
our estimates, if you please. i
Now if I should assume the first cost and subse-
quent maintenance of a vineyard in souche to be
only one third of the cost where the methods in
vogue are followed, I should probably come as near
to exactitude as estimates usually bring us. But I
prefer each one should estimate for himself. The
same preparation of the soil is needed as with other
vines. Cuttings, and not roots, should be used, and
cuttings for an acre should not cost over $10—we
used to sell them for $2 50 the thousand. Only
winter-pruning is needed, and no pinching, rubbing
. off, willow-tying, straw-tying, or leaf-pruning ; and as
regards plowing and cultivating, the same labor good
farmers bestow on their corn-fields will suffice.
Low SoucuHeE VINES IN AMERICA. 807
In view of the other two conditions, I recommend
the selection of rich, warm, and, at the same time,
easily tilled soils, such as are more readily found on
plains than on hills. A good sandy loam, planted in
souche with Concords or Ives’s Seedlings, well culti-
vated and well sulphured, ought to bring an average
annual crop of one thousand gallons to the acre,
which should sell, while new, not for $1 50, $2, $3,
and $4 per gallon, but for 25 cents at the very out-
side.
We can, and we will, grow wine cheaper than the
Europeans, and for the same reason that we can grow
wheat cheaper than they, namely, that we have cheap-
er land and more of it. In raising grapes on our
present system, however, we abandon the only van-
tage-ground we possess, and enter into competition
with them in a field where they are stronger than
we.
_ As long as our wines, no matter how inferior, sell
for a dollar a gallon, expensive vineyards, with their
costly culture, may do very well, but how long will
this last? More than one authority entitled to re-
spect have lately estimated the extent of our present
plantation at from one to two millions of acres. I
think this an enormously large estimate, but don’t
doubt we shall, before very long, have a million acres
308 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
in bearing, chiefly of coarse varieties and yielding
large crops. We shall have a glut of wine, as we
have twice had of petroleum, and a like fall in prices.
This is what I want to see, and what Mr. Longworth
hoped for and labored for, till the blight came upon
our vines. Yet, when such a glut shall come, the
sufferers will be those whose vineyards cost to make
them, land included, a thousand dollars the acre, and
to maintain them a hundred dollars yearly, rather
than those who shall follow the more economical plan.
Fine qualities, where they happen to be on fine
soils, will bear the highest possible cultivation. Of
such there is no danger we shall ever see an over-
production. I know of but one man in America
who has turned away from rich hill-side land, and
gone and planted his vines on a meagre soil, with
the purpose of obtaining a choice rather than an
abundant return. a
For cheap culture and large crops we should go to
the plains. For a small but valuable product we
may resort to expensive garden-culture, if we can
find an exceptional soil, and such will more easily be
discovered on hills than elsewhere. To adopt expen-
sive methods on strong hill-lands, only to grow coarse
and cheap wines, is a great mistake, into which our
instructors from foreign countries have led us.
How THEY PLANT VINES IN Sovucuet. 309
CHAP Tih xX LX:
HOW THEY PLANT VINES IN SOUCHE.
4 ile the details Iam able to give on this subject,
I am largely indebted to the writings of M.
Marés, as well as to his verbal instructions.
Unless the soil be very light indeed, draining is
essential. If this be done, a good subsoil plowing is
all the preparation needed, unless it be manuring. If
it is not done, the ground must be broken up to the
depth of two feet. In Languedoc they go down to
the depth of.three feet sometimes, but usually from
16 to 24 inches is all. To break up an acre two feet
deep requires the labor of two yoke of oxen and two
drivers for three days, and of one yoke and one driver
for the same time, the work being done at two opera-
tions, the heavier plow following the lighter.
The usual distance of five feet between the plants
is, strange to say, extended to nearly six feet where
the land is poor. It is thought that a wider space
than five feet on rich ground induces a too great de-
velopment of wood and leaves, at the expense of the
310 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
ripeness and excellence of the fruit, a thing not to.
be feared where the ground is poor. As obviously
there would be a better access for the plow if the
space were enlarged, it has been attempted to obtain
that advantage by planting in rows 7 feet 3 inches
apart, the plants being distant from each other in the
rows only 3 feet 7 inches; but this has not succeeded.
The same variety, growing on the same soil, has been
found to give twenty-five per cent. more wine where
planted 5 x5, than where planted 7.3 x 3.7.
They use both rooted plants and cuttings. Where
the soil is not too dry for them to take root easily,
*
which is, however, most commonly the case, cuttings -
are preferred. In Médoc, where such a degree of
dryness is not to be feared, they decidedly prefer
cuttings. For the larger portion of our country I
feel sure cuttings are best. This is especially true
since nursery-men have learned the forcing process.
But cuttings should be carefully chosen, and as care-
fully prepared and set out. A cutting should never
be taken from a barren vine nor from a barren cane,
but from a fruit-branch of the preceding year that
has borne fruit, and from a healthy plant of full age.
In Languedoc they bring vines into bearing as early
from cuttings as from roots. Where the intention is
to plant in the early part of winter, they soak the
How THEY PLANT VINES IN SovcgeE. 3811
lower eight inches of the cuttings for a week before
planting them; but this can be dispensed with if re-
cent rains have moistened the soil, or if the planting
is to be done in the spring. Before setting them out,
the bark of the cuttings is scraped in places here and
there between the eyes for eight inches of the lower
portion, the knife penetrating to the inner bark. Un-
der very favorable circumstances, the failures of cut-
tings thus prepared, and which were planted as soon
as cut from the vine, have been known to amount to
only two per cent.
In Médog, if cuttings are to be planted before
their buds put out, they prepare them by setting
them in a trench inclined at an angle of forty-five
degrees, and cover the lower half with earth; or, if
they are not to be planted so early, a ditch two feet
deep is dug, on the bottom of which there is flung
eight inches of loose earth; on this eight inches of
cuttings are laid horizontally, separated from each
other by more loose dirt sprinkled in, and finally coy-
ered with about eight inches of earth, which com-
pletes the filling up of the trench.
Another plan, mentioned in M. Du Brieuil’s work,
is to bury them in a trench in a perpendicular posi-
tion, points downward and butts upward, and cover
them with two inches of earth. This, he says, ad-
312 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
vances their growth by one year. Possibly, with
these hints, we may devise a way to make cuttings
from Norton’s Virginia Seedling take root, a thing
as yet found impossible unless forcing of some kind
is resorted to.
After establishing the points to be occupied by the
souches in the new plantation, a peg nine inches long
is driven down at each point. At the side of each
peg a hole is dug measuring twelve inches every way,
and so close up to the peg that it makes its appear-
ance midway in the side of the hole (see plate No. 1).
The bottom of the hole is covered with two inches of
surface soil, but no manure. The peg being now re-
moved, the plant or cutting is made to take its place,
with the lower end, however, to the length of two
joints, including two eyes, curved to an inclination
of forty-five degrees, the base penetrating to the bot-
tom of the two-inch layer of loose soil, as seen in
plate No. 2. The hole is now filled up with surface
soil, and well packed down.
7
At the proper time, that portion which shows it-
self above ground is cut back to either two eyes or
a ;
How tHry Puant VINES IN SovucueE. 313
three ; or, if more of it is left to guide the plowman,
the buds on it are rubbed off except the two or three
lowest. If the soil be damp, three eyes are left,
which will give the souche a height of about eight
inches; but if the ground be dry, only two are left,
giving a height of from four to six inches. For the
longer souche a small stake is provided to hold it up
till it can maintain itself. Eight or ten inches would
be the proper length in this country.
During the first season the ground is worked at
least three times, and, if needed, as many as six times,
for no weeds must be tolerated. At the second plow-
ing of the second year the earth is removed from
the feet of the plants, so as to leave each row stand-
ing in a shallow trench, which is not closed until
early in May. This is to allow the suckers, which
sprout from the plant quite down to its foot, and
prevent its forming a good souche, to be removed,
which is done just before the trenches are filled, at
which time the suckers have usually attained a length
of twelve inches.
As the winds in the south of France are extremely
violent, a mound of earth four inches high is formed
about the plant during the first and second seasons
after filling the trenches, otherwise they would be in
danger of being uprooted. The second year the cul-
O
~~
314 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
tivation is otherwise the same as during the first
year.
The third year the same treatment as to suckering
and banking up the earth, as well as plowing, is fol-
lowed.
At the end of the first year, if the
growth has been good, and two large
enough shoots can be found issuing
from the proper place, both of them
are reserved to form arms to the future
souche, and are cut back to two or three
eyes, as in plate No. 3.
Pruning in the second and third
——= ~
Pruning at thee
of the first year. early in April, lest the young plants,
na years is not done till late in March or
being earlier to put out than older ones, should suf-
fer from frosts.
At the end of the second
year the pruning is so per-
formed as to give to the
souche three, four, or six
arms, according to its vigor ;
and, if the soil and cultiva- eens WR
tion are good, each arm is eT age
allowed to retain three eyes, otherwise each is cut
back to only two.
How tury PLant VINES IN Sovucue. 815
At the end of the third year the souche is so
pruned as to increase the
number of arms to six, if
that could not be done the
year before; if the ground
is good, two eyes are this
year allowed to each shoot ;
Sa 72>
Pruning at the end of the third if not, then only one eye
year.
i
and a sub-eye are reserved.
We have now conducted the young plant to its
adult age, and henceforth the pruning is uniform
year by year. This is so conducted as to leave at
the extremity of every arm one shoot of the preced-
ing year’s growth, cut back to one or two eyes, ac-
cording to the vigor of the vine. If the vine is very
strong, sometimes more than one shoot is left on an
arm. Care is taken to balance the souche on all
sides by keeping the arms as equal in length and reg-
ular in position as possible.
If too much old wood has accumulated on the
arms, so as to impair the health of the souche, it is
carefully corrected by pruning in the way shown in
the two plates, No. 6 and No. 7.
Whenever, from age, disease, or other cause, a vine
is condemned to be rooted out, and it becomes good
policy to obtain from it all the fruit it will ripen
316 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
The same souche after being reduced.
while it lives, two of the shoots are bowed upward
and tied together without any pruning, and all the
others are cut back to three eyes.
hausts the vine.
This soon ex-
=
How tury Puanr VINES IN Soucue. 317
= = Fes — Pa on
sss Z ———— ae
~ ——— ELAM ELIE EI op ——— ae =
=
===
o
318 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
Plate No. 8 represents an Aramon twelve years
old. :
Plate No. 9 represents a plant forty years old that
has been pruned.
> se eee
CoNnOLUSION. 319
~O BA PPE R, X X.
CONCLUSION.
HE climates of those countries from which our
knowledge of viticulture has been mainly de-
rived but very little resemble that of the United
States. Our skies are clear, our rains torrential, our
sun hot, and our air dry. We have rude winds and
sudden and severe changes. ‘The important vine-dis-
trict to which I have been just directing attention
has skies as clear, a sun as hot, rains as copious, a
drier air, ruder winds, and quicker changes. Its in-
habitants enjoy an experience that has come down
from Roman and even Grecian days; and a people
who but lately led European civilization are certain-
ly able to profit by such an experience, and may
safely be presumed to know something about grape-
growing.
I commend especially to gentlemen in the South-
ern States the subject of training according to the
modes of Southern France, as being adapted to many
of their warmer soils and their abundant sunshine.
320 EUROPEAN VINEYARDS.
How far to the northward of the Valley of the Ohio
the method in question might hope for success de-
pends on many facts and considerations. We have
seen that the I olle-blanche, thus trained, does per-
fectly well in a colder climate than that of our Lake
Erie shore, and a damper than any on our Atlantic
sea-board, while, as for those other plants which flour-
ish throughout Languedoc, they would find as warm
a home on the banks of “ La Belle Riviére.”.
I conclude with a few words of advice to such of
my countrymen as can command a half acre of
ground for vine-growing. Drain it well, and keep
it only moderately rich. Plant Norton’s Seedling or
Ives’s, and train them on the low souche system, fol-
lowing closely its simple precepts, except where your
own judgment modifies them. Gather the grapes
before they get too ripe, crush them after stemming,
and let the must complete its fermentation before
being drawn off the skins, so that your wine shall be
thoroughly red. Drink that wine—you, and your
wife, and little ones; drink it for breakfast, drink it’
for dinner, drink it for supper; drink it, in short,
whenever you are dry, or wet, or cold, or tired. Drink
your own wine, and not another’s. It will cost less
than the sugar you now mix in your tea or coffee.
It will reduce your grocer’s bill, and nearly abolish
—— ss S.
CoNCLUSION. 321
your doctor’s. It will give you healthy children, and
not only purify their blood, but mend their manners
also, Babrius says. Your wife will gradually reform
her ice-water drinking, abandon her dyspepsy; take
flesh upon her bones, be seen to smile often and some-
times laugh, and glow with the warmth of health
and love. You, on your part, will gradually become
less uneasy, and more fond of amusement than ex-
citement ; will grow more plump, but have better
strength to carry your flesh. Owing to the presence
of particles of red coloring matter in the wine, things
will look more rosy-hued than before, and the future
appear not unlike a Western sunset. At times you
may feel somewhat “above par”—a trifle lighter-
hearted than usual. In such case, be not alarmed ;
excessive happiness is a symptom that will generally
pass away of itself—or they might pump a little cold
water on your head.
Thus can you obtain in abundance a purer drink
than water, a cheaper drink than sugared water, and
a healthier one than any. Thus may you bring
tranquillity and cheerfulness beneath your roof-tree,
and contentment and affection to your fireside—live
a merry life, and
**Die a good old man.”
O 2
: ahcok
Sek: sea
INDEX.
A.
Page
PNODIGeratlons wath SUSAN ANG WALI). secscversosverscvesecdecsacemstcnves 20
with distilled spirits..... aaber Svobosncenooocwoocos Bendecoueedoanooan Ze
NOW) Gebechedseccscs.<ncscouccdessccessecs anaceeseacien’s eens 129
Withitartarie/ acid’... c..c<saacsasee neononbane RBC RORGE ECHR cERDOGNCC . 133
Oy GELeCted parc .c.-ceesoeqc-cceririee SapAOONOICO sanonOcONII000: 133
as affecting health and morals..... Snore acescbote GOOCRECOIC Pose 134
Ameri CammiCed GMNKS:sjersesc-«cescieeeimnictaed cesses SOON CGOCUOAEACHSS 5 AS)
American vines in France.........+.+ ROS EOBAECROOOAOOOCE dele siogciaceiea eid zie +
American wines at the Paris Exhibition ...,............ Sponscogg0gne . 137
OVEL-PLOCUCHON OF ..con.ceevanccsuacesecsscerses RaSnancnaoscc.qud0900% 307
B.
Babrius, his Wisdom.........seserscsers bdasaee Miesiesess Baseiccaticens Tessas + UC
IBasaltiesOlliccsteconsetsceeeececes Weecsseccese sa baeuisoeeiee’ Raetat cevenecetntene: 185
PCC AVICDNA. socscccsssaccctec sennteceeacdeaswenadadeees Saves eheeenn conor 139
HS COMMUN KINO Ret apcsisecievcceiisagosssesssessees'escoasecs socoobdariknbesndco5e 189
Bellows, for sulphuring vines............... bagdrinacoocHAc aie seeeie OD
Beziers..... eodarag map gaeeciasasbececisenes Basgcen spacooneodae dbaneiqgnone eM aoe cor nce
Black sulphurous earth ....,.........cecesneee agnasee 500000 sogonoeGOs eels
SOLO SMU hi rere. oterece sis ness eoieceaee PemeoaahieswcaRneaaees SOS RBCRRIORC CALE 9
Bow pruning...... sep AoRRSeGARSLOROE steneeeveesecvacenanescceneeseenaeess 92, 187
Brandy-making, in Cognac................ Roslensicarescusecet cow ecceuones 31
in the South of France...... dese cacisceces cscs ogceecon Maseccees costs 74
Burgundy....... opSeppaieneas nodsouoense Risiatnaisleliisisetresinsibisiisisssislecee cic clsvete 78
C.
OAS ctccenstsieatvanteyes cystnd’ssieisachevas canes tavievesesweesedvecescecdverte LOB
Casks, in Médoc, preparation of...........
324 INDEX.
Page
Casks, in) the Sauterme Districts, ....5.c--ssscscssscsecesssncteysreeeeenn 69
AN ASUPOUNGY ass nce sbnesesascss users cicsswed scien aevenctstermeeaaaame 80, 88
BH CHAIN PALS onises(ee salsinlatioesionsieneueenenceset eens supa trasie ceeds 110
Ati TOMANNIS HELE «5 sicci<ciaessewieceises vows aamshen ae sensp ep sacecekennetes 171
im the South: of Brae .2d..1...0ras+csssasectcacessse set speementeae 296
Catawba wine, its valuce.....<cccssscecvsveedesvecnocsieasssseclesnisiaenie te See Le
@ellars, im MedOG 2.0 s5isiecas se neeasa cues ve vie oe tsaldetevnise setenatea stag eaten 58
I WSUTOUN YA. cc acereneclsseaeedeeseneawess anisins coisuae haan edel ten Searmatea Ie
AMC MAIN PBOMG sieve sseaed dpeonasedslean seacoast ilebnsassentceies 106
in the: South Of MLAMCE. <s.ci.ceeps ocvevenceilepeiewdusiel eoeentee item 286
MC EEBE. Sak svc ceewub a aos svesen teenies seialie/sivees gsucineunetces Soren tgee ask santana 285
(Olokzhnet (rier 55 s5nonodiseae 4.0 5a0r banao Ga ecod coc sesnocnocncudc ics rcncocen 148
Mia ptalaziM SWIMS, os ccecseeeslenllsun weal cleels osictesaleseeeellestesteaaeaen . 120
Chemistry ANd Wines... ce stoevenseceesiel ous velos'a nde dumsecelelvenenees 127
CO LANEY AIG. aie om niece sive Celvoieinwielia'e«'eeise\s(osleieicr= siefel-minel ee awe oe te teteee tae 110
Classification ‘of Médoc wines...,...5...ss::cvs.csedsenedevsuesieenseunnne 66
Ohimatetof the South OFMrance c..s.s0c.occesesecmnceiel eopiaesseeemeete 205
KETOS WVOU SCO fe vanoree nlwn's'teleldn eo olcisolelolleleelslestseitane sens iicieseloe essen eae 88
Oa PAL TON! CASKS) ven woe eeiveniseetisies «tee selesss seh ednasiiedecsi¢ehe ee tiennnae 186
WOES, CHECHS: OF Keo vetaees «ateea cols detstelnsertesteltentelaniene de temaneaeaattaateetie QakO2
OPN AC cere ecs ls sncsstec sce chstaseisseele st eitrseilaelrcararje clea settee eet teen 29
Contents of the ‘‘ Manual for Sulphuring,” etc. .........s.ceceeeeeee 213
Cos d’Estournel ..........+. vais aissie ddaceedaceewiosdssdeans abe epeleemeaetang 64
Cost of cultivation in Burgundy. ;.....:..00.:-+-+sssesesddcnssedseneses 95
ON The RDINE.......0.ccseseeeracsecdasaneesieeeeeseanmcy cavecslepeiishehe 185
COVeTINE VINES IN WINGEL <0) cscs <esogdnaesen se enk’dds vile peseseitetts .. 800
aS practiced in TOKay...........s.c.0crerasccorserecnsesecesnsieeses 191
Crushing grapes with the feet ............cecccssscscesessosvesscessesare 53
HINGES ces oatcns seanwad claves sews aac calacdceeueadanicn outcomes Neneh hie 183
Cuttings, how selected and prepared. .........ccsscesassravcssteceent » 810
HOW Planted....0...0-+r0deeosavesseseoensie ves seinwsisee sehlddellestiei ie 312
D.
Delarue, M., his tests of adulterations.......ccscccseserceseseres 129, 133
Dégorgement of sparkling Wine..........scscecessecsceecscerseversceves 113
Delevan and Dow, their delusions...............seesessccescscereesseess 19
Diseases of the vine (see Vine disease)..........sssseerecseeteserenees 206
Distribution of prizes at the Paris Exhibition .......-.2t..sseeeeeees 142
+ gra
es
°
INDEX. 325
. . Page
Wosingywineyin |Champacner. ccess.scsseveecassas-caonedsacsucbiscwarseses 110
bees LO AEM IVLCHOG trict secies ois ovo sistelis ss.sisisileosrc\se one's saisischje-ceiaes/sisia'si 63
APSO UUNEMNMH TALI CO\s gecesi dense venecsesensicasinen'vantenw ater deweasess 299
MEM POLLATICE OF, 1M A MMCTICA. siacniatiieesseohepiniveneenen erate sd sone 'ven 299
Dp pein oy Olle MAEM OCs cnet cere class ewisicacoapessisniheway saeane heaesee ees 56
MIELNSY SAUGEEOE) DIStELCh; ns cnanees seven siege measeeem canes rnesescs cee Ln)
TUBER EUG OU s asia sass aise sidsisiaeivaeleosslani-te anchio'selde cance cee ciottrases ace 88
MEDG OMEAT PA OTIC ed oe se sdageine ils eacaccces suasaccescccsecinesaeaceanecsee 110
AMP GEL SOULHKOLBTANCE jasccaaraclocaesasecsscesces sesbenseeaacecdsees 298
DuMcard Sihitsh A acxckasssetuconsess seas cccwsonceceasanses daoveuveeenes 131
Mae Gk G Thaeercetrciee asain skins de sales cuicis tale enioe sieue sie oseesieeeebesceseenascrace 183
E.
PPE A Cae re neten. Keen usustacsetente reese dctwesasoeuvnostee snes saces saci 17
FESR cre sacdes tbs pivesweucatecessidauadessiedssissiasssesosdeen doce siedseves acts 106
BOS ENIe we. PM PLOSS\.,.cc 0c tcwen see rece cenmevdsoesisos reac asoeseaemseeecs 142
Bini MOM Of NGG ati ALIS: 2c cenecceavescleseisesciviaisasieces/scsessinaes 118
F,
PASTE tp TONN Oe WALES isa sereica cee sictomemsnenionn sais vc cielsacensecsbiovecessenceee 119
[Srl Waves rey, iad Mess Fevers oduodent ccoonseubecececacodon sean d eacabaadocod see: 56
UG EH SALERNO MOIR Chijec.ecacejectdensmseiences.cose coeicheisivasiasisiccset 69
Hcile= lan chiemes mace tretaseeee nee raose anes cans oseoteisckiecs cebienicavecele ceine 17
Foreign wine-makers in AMETica. ............sesccecocscecccreceecscces 114
HP OMGEMAD, saceans seecteseleaersies AE ap CORB ORCL EEE DEED bor rea ceone ence percrotas 285
Brostiin the: South) Of France ......cesce.sssssensoossens meapheeadae poses 290
G.
Grol liz coe Wal OS seat ecinnsastecacewesninctles eee va <qeesee se sceivemicei asst siajsiee< 120
(Era @e Gime a aeeteete ste eneeits/es) tie tsesetidee rac ccisee-toensceiene'nrt 181, 183
Gary OMstSySteUl Ol PREMINGs .oscccsecerscestesceeneecestpceacticcvsrncnass 91
a:
SHeatIMS Wines £0. Preserve theM.........0.0cevdseeverercceressecssoncss 144
UU arndineeneee tes cascseame ce catlecsine aeccccaraatetiedssccss's.<ssiaccoaen waa 161
326 InDEX.
le
Page
MVGMMMFSTAME SOUS taesscrececausaewonssatessoserecsvesretawees savanieeaaesee
tala MetHOS:. vcotessovseecacndecsepeeoecenslcnCadesedsredstoreeneaeenee 196
Vip IAM WANES «sss¢s2s cesses sacle as anes oases eviaaewieememae setts eens eenem 200
RMVidi isc andesnpstas sasgeiteaes bageactenesvaclecdaeeeenene vost sock phen eceaeem 196
J.
POMANMIS DELO sane caisevcccasce chinese ccsep ates saletstaciteeee ann Svavue sels 164
SUMS PS EAL eavcaseaessieualesweasesscesaseseseworeswreceses swocneowaes cbinenbentat 136
K.
Keeping wines, Pasteur’s method for...........ssecseseeeevees See ceeccemlenes
L.
Mbachiymia CHUISEln..censic-wasonaaccesnecesecascesdeteressomaeenmane BB pet 196
eraGGC ncner ccaatnecesasatcetencenadccnsaese ane dedracascnp acs ke skGneememe gee OME
Lake Erie Wine District, temperature Of..........csssccocseecvecoenen 303
DEAN PUCKOC \. ence avecesavaiecaasaucearecsaseccaccnslencecsilecsdcdcesmemee a tteeme 71
IDAVENINSaVINES, 11) SULTON Vcc css.ceses cscs elses sens ssc aene steer 80, 95
IM \CHAMPALNC. i052 cccuicassecescsdeess Ocdasesecaepntenens sanceesMenen 152
as ‘preventing the disease ....<...csssessssetessrseessensbre waren oes
Leaf-pruning, in the Bordelais............... Scteeoeesncts ceeonociientens 21
in ‘the Sauterne Districts... ....:....csc0ssassasvecavtassesseeseeeeee 68
IM CHAMPA Crnccesiscvocecsssesecapeces Miendsa sive veog vas tenure saesenee 157
Wéoville ... cece .0ss Baie alobiclelea sua NeWalieucssseeceee a tec cee secel sc Reemeeeee 63
Liqueur for Sparkling wine (see Sirup). ........sscscssesecerseseceeee 111
Long pruning destructive (See Pruning)...........sscssssoscassovsenes 91
GOW ‘BOUCHE VINES isi sens accu vendeweviescoescetihecetGcvates ste tu teCnneemteneee avr
BN) CaMfOrsiis ii see ioes bs vevtee vesesuceeeiee screw siscte eee eee Senile
BD GRAS J Seinievsinesabvesdadaesw cess cbeaweaenareesebactes eee eam 301
would they do in America? ............00006 ne sash seep sees Reene 301
ISEB chsh ais 6c «sth nasa svastensansbarttne tenes ceetee <cteee 306
NOWSLOAPIANE Renee oesueoswaraclecrwaseecion sees sented eshvaabieg a eenene
OW HONPRUME sais vis. ssbastevasestosversnesantececne testes ttneaaam 287
cultivationyof, When young... 6. i cSliicveaccecesrcese teduees eens
Low training (see Low souche)........ ss isla Giga gedee de wel eee ne Cae Eee iby
*
InpDeEx. 327
M.
Page
Maine, Valley of the ........0...0sse0-sssceee. “Soecrsoecanagcednconateconooe 187
Manners as affected by wine-drinking ............sessssssccoescecssees 37
none sin MEI OCH 2s .s.cadsaeeet cae rccateccte swcsocesceeceteheresascs 60
MLNS SAUTEMMOMOISHIGE. «cceecieienieiesssceweticecsulecnacocscna celts 69
SPMD AE GUNO YS 52014. vodavasadsdcseaicatanesrecacees vnnadvaasatuanwowas 81
atin CHAMP AOME Raper tsasalcsnr ene ctveseseceatsnessteusstaecies qeeaties 156
Ate OMANMISHELOrnceccccstessetecsiemteesce ec esas cheese seskinsceoemsccee 172
AMMEAEMISHMDAVALIAL sc scares cctececcesssesinssrcrecancesewsed slascecec 185
fin), TE MIDAS Tas c3eseonogeo acne cadockine ononcSuGacad sods dscoeaSrneadsonednddr 191
HONIG SOU OL HTANCE Sect a-cceccnessssiestcrecdiocsesccdseces 286, 289
Marés\) Henri bis work on Sulphur! Cure..........0.0s00soccerseceeeos 209
COMVELSAMOMS AWA acme econ tes tenee risecles sinaciemeinctciectcicciclsseless 287, 290
ATED OCW racetncat cesieeel sort stolscmedenodicetocssccceesecscsscteedesaeseees 34
ISIEHLVRE aa) TREE yacecacncddoccorBonoogncact pocsoonqugnceasochcns. Seperiaisonocees 25
Wikatpelitermemtiensastncnssanavccesesteshesesecaeeeeaccs beesaes eivacsesenents 284
N.
NE WaVNe SANG VOlGss sss saocacsasseccaksaccscsteaseeeearesesersessnOOs LoD won
INO ITTARTTO A LAG HEE boasneeadaaes ScboRgooceo cane EeBNDEOE es0cc ddoodsansoncaSconns 13
INoriOn sy Vinpiiia! Seedling less. ce. leecectonesdocavesssececeseetneses 5 HL)
O.
Oidium, the (see Vine disease)............sssscscsesereosees Fitieewecesd 206
Oldiviness and mew ncs.seewcccaccccssscesccacdeadpsdeessecscesssOO, loon roo
OxensineHPANiOsvean cee vconsevnwwee oun Sesue ec ebteasenseaeecteaseessacseees 43
iP:
Pasteur, his method of preserving WiNE.........-secessscssseercerenses 143
JEEATUN ECA eeStondepaconadads qeeeOnee Gonbd06 ngse boboOo ABC COrcndcodpEmGaC ppgone 38
Percheron horses..... Baciseis ieee noes toacietetutonoives one a ostaoeeeieacesaseses 13
POM OUZAN OC WANCSin sa vseenserotetan tee rest sack cts leeecentiseese bees sands 126
Pichon Imonpueyilleueacee dace sae iocereueccisnwacectieceies son aacaasece acer ce 59
PAN WN wy SULOUUGY creases sadicecnsenecesatoeceslenroseccceossecccncscens 94
Mid © AMD ASM eusactctasnemntescnesecerecitect scene sscs/ocs seers dans 156
in the South of France ............... SMa asiales Stasabveidsececssdhascaee’s 309
TPIT (SENIIXE CEs Jorcncncees eseioganca sobsaro-ap300c TU cbn OR pSEReBED ooCadROone 35
328 INDEX.
Page
Plowing, in the Bordelais. .............. sa cueactecestsseent eee sbiaedclsactenm geen
UTE CHATENLE! ts oseaubsae ce -saces ceive scene tecce cess Ter Lane aeae one eee
in Médoc..... Sndgs cbson SoApardocerisacosdndsnt sioss sais Baia pesten e's ichicee ee
in the Sauterne District............... sdglen melee way sseplessaenias rer i)
an the South of Hrance....2..<-000..sses wastes wasieee see veceee LOD
Politeness of the French an effect of red wine............scecsroes » LOL
IPOLt WINE, NOW MAGS iisscescccca va cvs ies eelacce dome ncei teen seeeeee Heer) aie
Potash in shales of the Lake Shore and Ohio Valley............... 159
Preparation of the soil, in Burgundy..............sccseseeeers Biosci |) 3
Afi OHANDISHEEO Nc .cesecerein canes hedene tein westreeenatomaaen anata tonates ae bf,
in the South of France............. sbalseedileds sceRt va ceeereeaee Aon,
Preserving wine, Pasteur’s method.......... Jase ssceadelasen cement menmmerEEs
JET ESSOID. sos sscaisss secsieeseace masiehaa sad se sieneloes cet menteee cet: chee eee = plea) ib) etal
Prices of wine, in the Bordelais.....<>.....s.«.s+4sd<sseseecheeaenee cave OLD
in Wied ocs-....s--.: agaeeeeeeore Renaeens 6c svc oueceosvasoteeae eee vas (00
in) the South Of WLAMCCs saeces.-caserencconseeasewcarectheeeeee 75, 204
in Burgundy....... nAgaboaanpaapissooncoos nslee ae oiee apn getes ecetiase 3) 80
in America..... Seo isordaprshoagnecroaSdenaeon POO eO Sno Orin 125, 307
of Johannisberger ............++ isles Sewanee hiss sake neh senawentaeien 173
Production increasing in France............ weleajeseanahoeepn eden vonedes ee:
increasing rapidly im AMETICA...............0csocoseossssseneuasen (eae
average of, in Charente. .............0csesseseres pebtitoode hot Peet 3;
Ani VCU Get... Seacegn meeecseteeneandie: sastestcomes cocchceveneeeue
in the Sauterne District. 2. cee sss-cwae-- dea nenweeabees Seaeene Oe
Ol the) COte di Or. sec.c. cess sesenBeabeeanated ‘cctadaitetseise ..90, 92
in) the: South Of France: ..<.21!cessssae+sodeontennes esemeaes 296 -
Provignage......... idscodeshe seeavalteses Moccenenemehancremarnts oye sat sae
Pruning, in the Bordelais ............sse0.. .sescsmeenenmsaee skaanee Pree ic
in the Sauterne District............scesccrecaeccresceesceseccsseees . 68
GN SUNS UNGY: Jeeeveeceacee a WEB SOE idasaiohias baeeeee tases reiciesieph niece
on the Cote d’or...... Geauaseeinesver tase vavleos Saleineeigers iain dd eiceu eee
Guyot’s system Of..........0000.0sscesesesereessiesactinie santiedeenMeeeeaeae
in Champagne...........+ aaeeacee A cucmaus ao aueeet {Sandon tao
on the Rhine............0.+ scare eamtanerenaire sfensorane ena cacoreeetamlnay
In] italyeneswossvsosss diab ecbie dele ses Gcaieiaaid ations lau niece sca Soe «. 198
Of LOW /SOUCHE) VINES. ...404 «sc. oceadeeinises cesses «ace eaene eaeeue OM
late, a protection from frost........s.scseseccceares oniespineneee anemic)
of young vines in low souche...........s..scseeeerecnnerentenees ees 314
INDEX. 329
= Page
Red wine, its effects different from those of white............... 98, 103
HVE! DEST AOTPAINETIGHGS <o<ciaececacguscanedenenisoeieseancoestecee sus 100
eimai Ob Sue) South Of HTANCC es specncssrssssdssccesceecnae teats cosecs 205
Cont iors, (Gano vols) WWE eh ocmcncnsoctcison esd coqcononcoacbaasteanh aaneec 304
(Ov Have, (Olotengsialis) WENO) eG dopsanannqeecrindgoonooodacneSodnticosdadoce 304
RH GUIS sahten ys euisucteais ac waaeoeGaniac cuseb avi neccabclasesswineues deedesemase Atte 148
UM GIUS DPE CI VEL As ceceasecacaseseeestens sacedecrethenes Gotwacn claaewocecees 184
ERMC MISH WIDE: cr.ceccuretec carved cvssveauee shor seis seeiveaberaneeilsteseesias 163
EMIS BEVIS hI CHOW UME. cota sonceetelee seinaeseeasedenseamodseceercnews ans 162
PSE aT MMC aacciesisscrense secu ses scebSocnABeDapecscnoucoondsdignondanoas JI!
AESAIVITE Tete LUO Cis piaanisiicatcam's caine Ta pvalape dates ier ysasusonece'ssataeldensiebase 201
Ss.
SAINT BGOMES as dpeccecstesccetaans Nas dvontiec Success esese dapat sasedaseaiacens 15
ICE ERE teens scnicces ie tbontiter tsetse Casceces oaescrecendevsasecseeensess 68
Shalegmytie Ohi Oy Walley suc. cseccecascvers<occersoeces seeeeeeetesosseeess 159
Pier icaKe HG) WISHICH. 7,050. sapaceassseacencedesdsdeseces senses 158
SitupMor Champagne. LTSt COSC. sucesso ssys onsicccetses cveates oncagen 111
BECOMGUGOSE truenaeaiagssclecacenl atinctilon ee sevetelsoenses oaauetaeeeen 114
SOLS OMMENE OMT ties ncetene as tecsciseee succes cuets sande cessecsesacosetesst 15
Gin (@ HAMM Le ecmanetitcets ease coc ctctless oor sksinastcsstaetebowiee a seete 27
Op GH OCatdnecenton sect catas ses avacaeectareemecacer ewe tase sas canecconae 50
OMmrletSadtermenDIStriChs:caceadcccsocccateses taseseterakesaccsnsenes 68
OP MIMOUM VE ctenencainaseccuce ceisies tom ceuia encloses an ceeascoeoiertnees 92
RB aR NOES Cet ne aca seb cs aidynak cuts icscsapvace dnnesdoesasnscesince 92
Onmue | Champapme Wisthict. ccac-cocc-acecsscneercocevescdeocuee 149, 156
MMU CPUONMED Basis os snasistccoidgn daawsse'aaevostutosiesnececsereeu seve 168
OA AICTE ININIS] OO Res hoc boadnenesc che UOeL OHORECALE Bont cone eee aces 168
OMT CR SWE CUSKINCUSE cumsleas casei cscamanedoeterlss saceeslnodeacvaacees 182
Bia beseteage LAE HIELUN, co ey cane ace eeboies oes < avers kaucndavée odonbons' 185
SOtEITIN Calivancereserecn ences tcnes severe esehesteaebecacete sess ssdaes 191, 194
OMe SOUPD NOM MrANGeN nc on eesdeascaceteacdes os oaeet seesetccosn 204
NOULOHLOntmacesanatieest ee yavesacccesncercesaeaenetae sts catautsccsecsaneoacedtes 196
OUCH CADASNG te mame achive sant caeanncnaeaenesen eee acnns sa cscnc eso wana Wi
PSG a VAN Orne ase ca taxt otis’ cocccnoesetsatceesaceesessenselacnevateass 107
PSLCUMMWAN Cnet Manama nceeac areesctesicc mete rnateitar as cncaeececdoecesceecsel 187
330 InDEX.
; a3
SHEMANTUNS (OT ANES 5. oc acc ssisinn seis s seins swiele valeilecteeeinns penta pee meee 48
Opposite practice in regard) f0.;....-..<-c-«sssceassesnaseeenweenan 83
Stemmmiue-table, DEBt ...\..0sa0es02-cice sess scnswoe acess scien ee =k eae aneame . 65
SUM CLY ac napseisvsumsesseassmeae tose seceeneessensonsessceeseqneseneasen ta . 108
Stomach, temperature, Of. ians0.0+c.0cccdseweseethcs ccedssamseeaeeeceene « 129
BSEOLE=NOUSES wo con vinsisninveneaisiodmeleaiecsisauensisonsen seas asi’een i ieeste tent ¢ 68
Sulphur-cure, in Champagne.........::sscssssessecessenneese hance 159
On the RNIN... 5... .ccniesvces sc couesbon soesbbaebashins teKiewt naam 186
In Wty, dosspedeSesasscdevaessoes deans ncgasidasessedcscleeheea eae am 199
Sulphuring of Diseased Vines, Manual for.............ss0seesseeees .. 209
Sulphur in shale, of Lake Erie shore..............seccscsocscscaowencs » 158
Of the Ohio: Valleyis.scssicciss.0% sd swascacncrsepessacleneyeeee tena . 159
Summer pruning, in the Bordelais.............:.scccsccscsssessseceeees 21
Und MIC MOC ings .towtisc viendo ccenwccciiewesahisosweseneestes see sesa eam 51
Gt (CHAMPALOME) . 5 os vec ne occ esaiaccisensnen lea senartn siqalesletdaen anes 157
SWISS VINCVALAS ...srsensceedtesncvsssscscatanenstessbsacestepshieeevnnmas 180
Ae ¢
Partaric acid fadulteration With. ne... ccsewsaslosnniecneceseeeanineee wilde
Pea, \CHSCHS: OL ce ieitas cedareica das nie ante sans ioaetone welencies aaeeme ean teeta eee 102
Temperature of the South of France............:va-cessssssscneaneeenne 302
OF CHALE by sees che wneico sionwewiciodeistenaee\ecnecies ee oss cath tae a eam 303
Of CiNCINNALL, 6.0000 sie 0 viva sia nisselevaveloe ao b-oielb Hele cielaje aeons teem 303
of the Lake Erie District...........asssiioosscoeseoloaesceiaaaeaeae 303
Terraced -yineyards Of Tally. ......s...asesccos-naesa(varocesessenmenne 202
ROK SY SWAMLG) sto ceteou can vo neeca sevedadaWetsetie eens. dee sa tetaeee a 192
Traiming,in the Bordelais.......«e-.son<cu.deseuseecced teen det eee 16
IN LOW: SOUCHE.....5. siavsvareseececsoenscsccaetnasr seskenre tee sceemaeme 287
Lis AA VANLAGES ci... cir «2 ewes ciee'ed vicone dulce geeseae eee Ramee 20
Of YOUN PlANGAMONS) scene daeisreinnm\elieins aceleatnaleiatlels teeteieente 314
AN @BAT ENC eid owe ve wnieciais vue eosecloieg riduisisels os cieh ey eR ent eee 27
TOA MLEMOC ti. 50 c5nis vse vances esos cmeweinnsiieltslldarte asaeeances tae 47
in the. South of Prance, ......:.slesadstscecsntaceoserddedtcemem™ 76
ON The: CGbe COL... case secsnenaeecsesecsivds ox fue itaane geese amarante ASI
Ab JODANDISDELL:. 5.00 ci'sclinisis onlswicistecienaln sie as'einebasinntee eee Ra eeRienee 170
phot fel Kian scar eeaondanagpeenacesan=adecserc jis posites belo nalaenta eenaen 197, 201
TPUSCATLYs« cgence ceiver siecicn seeds acwlemabdeltctel/celescive ol setae eet ean 201
—- a
. ; InDEX. 351
V.
Page
Watisin=MedoC 5). eadc.c0ve lose BOSC ANCE ROR RONCOOCEOO CANO OCK 427 ie uot ee ota!
Tiny BCU SAIS by gener Sogptsuedcpoc.dededdenepopoadesuouscciccaoou soc scéguernd 82
Thev qi akey pSLO yy e) (G16 J Anna le noon sadecod sbopeoouooneicoonoaddnganciocconn 75, 296
Verdigris for birds......... saad Wtesetoesaazdsed paabvabacdeascenees siete 44
Vine-culture in America too expemsive........... Saioncewasceee tcl 305
WanGydisease, MeBursund yc. scratesacecssccksscusevecosdoccddsesescees . 96
in Champagne........... Rou aivaiatsaleteaiesele salve sc teh ote sete ae'sis see teise . 154
ADP LMCUS OUTLAY OME TAT CCrecien deccoacientesddsecetectserceeestessecvesse 206
Thal 9b EEE feccr mos ensboogobIdboubo oncuEseFBeUuSeC hc eoccUdt ObOCaoeESaOne 191
SN OATHENIUA waar eveavaeseevcbaeutveutehleccecnvesscncchdnsresteese seat 206
LSVeTI Ora LE VEN te 10k ceasc caer sneeeeacedeseseeceascceces sce ocre 154
TOS iM UNIOUS) LOY MIO) VINES ee. nie ollae seisleiesteee ee rciiercilcines see 305
AMIpWuG treatment fOF ...<-.1.c.00.secerssersceaseucnanssecetoredeecs 200
WTR EIED (0 EVINGS cca nerine depbob0dt Meco uno c60 Nc OSCU UCU DSO uCenO ODE Ao oSeuOcOsOK ao
\Winkigvaye, “ihn, INTs FTE oe eognoseodeocauecuEnasdoooo0bdEc. on caoseetodedcadeuceacn 45
MRE TEEN OMNIS CIChet os obac cate tenessaateceitdssagactoewnenad 6%
TRV DEP UAC Yi. cacdecsiccceteewe etait aniaea sas auies eases sietiawhee 81
in Champagne «.2......0.0...ccerceaceessnercecsesneccesseecteereen ers 109
ir eV OMADNISW CLL meee sects viawasesvee coca s sc ale ceesleeisacsesie ise siesiesss 171
ONES H RUHMITIG Moweets veteap etre olsen esivsnsveicecessneeselanmeeeianetieiae sa 184
I Tokay ...........sscceccsscnecsscssecsecsecoeccerescsevenssersceeeeces 192
Vintage laborers ...........0.csessecsscseceteceeceeceecreescsseecerens scan, els
W.
Wages, in the Bordelais..............csssccsssesescserssssesecceesscececes 22
in Burgundy..........00sseccosscssssensccsscessseesccseeseececevereeese 81
IVa eas DVO VINES acct. ce acesiouececnclvers Noggoooced apcucoecnadoceee 186
Wild vines in the South of France...........scssseeeeveescenenseeeoeees 293
Wine-making, in ME€dO0C............scsssssoessereeeee 47, 52, 59, 61, 63, 65
in the Sauterne District ...........0.0sse+eeees Loeondecdogasae cipcande 69
APL EE SOMME OL BLAM CE rs dastieseacasiosis alee dacstades vides claidee sles 75, 296
GIN ESAT UIE Viena cievemowelsasiceicleviersisenle see sts'ie aisles siseeesnnlcs'sosloel 82
in Champagne............. Web Suave cp amesbesldreessbiavagviwsale's<eosa in 107
SAU AAT UE BEL EM ota nc ca certors vitaciasunibevenscasince és cidau aaa 171
on the Upper Rhine...... .....-sccseesseeeeeeseeeeeereeseeseereeees 183
BON MOREY yoee ac atan-ascaxssee-easseocecnaeanascnden se ccersneeeees sows 192
302 INDEX.
Page
Wine-making, in Ttaly............2.ceercosereesee ree cucccoscebts aaa 197
Ware trellis sciisseee ss seas<aielssissessscenenoeete petted ace eceieut eee eamnmame 16
Working the soil, in the Bordelais. 7... 00.0 ....acssssassnsasnasenemeecae 21
Gh Charente .s2; iasis.edscancsescGiceasstaenenettecsascessecdseata emma 33
AN) MEEdOC. oc cccnsenccdcheanssetedeostsser sens cntseshowaes oat eeannme 46
in the Sauterne District............ PEED EBCEP CPEB ACE EEE) Che orcrocico: 69
ID BarQund y. 40. sisicseidonsansraseaceeanectosness segeeccs Rehan aan ema 50
in / Gham payne ives. csansseccsssesseseeewesatsteceecceeseat tee eee 157
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