The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-26 00:00:00

which it is impOrtantrshould be carried on as long as is
consistent with national advantage. (Hear, hear.)
The report was then read a second and third time, and
agreed to.
• APPEAL IN CRIMINAL CASES.

Mr. M'MAHON introduced a bill ro secure a right of
appeal in criminal 09SEM, which was read a first time.
CHURCH RATES.

Sir J. TRELAWNY introduced a bill to abolish church
rates, which was read a first time.
The house adjourned at half-past three o'clock.

VINE-PRODUCING COUNTRIES AND

THE VINE DISEASE,

The Blue-book just published contains reports on
the wine trade of five countries. That from the
pen of Mr. Lumley, her Majesty's Secretary of
Legation at Madrid, gives a very interesting his-
tory of the vine disease in Spain, and its effects on
the immense wine trade of that country. This re-
port is based on the provincial reports of the various
English Consuls. It appears that the more viru-
lent and extensive prevalence of the vine disease in
France gave rise to an extraordinary demand for
the wines of Spain. The cellars of Navarre, for
example, were quite emptied by the exportation to
the French markets, and the price of wine in that
province was tripled in •onsequence. The Pyrenean
frontier has for the present virtually disappeared,
and, finding the passage free, the wine growers of
Arragon and Navarre have effected an importation
into France far beyond what has ever been the case
"in the memory of man," and realizing incredible
profits. The report from Navarre states that, if the
frontier be again closed, or if any restrictive import
duties be levied in France on the wines of Spain,
(the latter of which is to be feared from the circum
stance of the disease being on its decline in that
country, with a prospect of complete extinction),
that province will be absolutely drowned in wine
-partly from the glut of the market, and partly
from the extensive plantations of new vines of late
years. Mr. Lumley hints that the wine trade of
France for the last five or six years has been as
much indebted to Spain for its existence as that of
Portugal or the Douro, and that there is no doubt
that :large quantity of the new wine recently ex-
ported to all parts of the world as wine of the
vintages in France, and as such bought up at fa-
bulous prices by gullible gourmets, was little better
than Spanish wine duly doctored and flavoured.
The following receipt for manufacturing Bordeaux
out of Spanish wine is given P--
" To one-third of the strong black Arragonese
wine-Carinena, Ribeira do Ebro, or others of that
class, the price of which is about 5 sous a bottle-
add one-third of the light yin de Cahors and one-
third water; the requisite flavour is given to it by
the addition of a little orris-root, and the wine thus
manufactured, when sent back to Spain, sells
readily at 50 sous a bottle."
Some idea may be formed of the increase-of the
wine trade of Spain with France from the follow-
ing facts :-The exportation of Spanish wine into
France, which in 1851 amounted to 35,881 arrobas,
or about 1,198 pipes, value 1,451,809 reals, equal to
£14,082 sterling, chiefly for port, sherry, and Ma-
laga, had increased in 1855 to 18,335 pipes, value
£394,965, of which the sum of £351,801 was for
the common
_wine from Navarre and Arragon ; in
1856 the exportation to France increased to 49,491
pipes, value £311,651, of which £270,889 was for
common wine ; while in 1857 France took from
Spain no less than 100,392 pipes, value £654,663,
of which the large proportion of £629,053 was for
common wine. It is supposed that as three butts
of Malaga (against 10 of French) will yield one
butt of brandy, it may have been found worth while
to buy up Arragonese wine for the manufacture of
spirits in France. It is certain that a new and lu-
crative market has been opened for Spanish wines,
which still continues to benefit the growers ofArragon
and Navarre. The abundant nature of the vin-
tages of Spain is almost incredible. A proprietor
of vineyards on the Huesca, in Arragon, assured
Mr. Lumley that the drought of the preceding
sum" er was so great and the vintage so plentiful
that it would have been easier for him to irrigate
his vineyards with wine than with water ! Again,
unable to find room for his new stock of wine, or to
get rid of it at even one real per cantaro (about a
halfpenny a gallon), and there being a scarcity of
earthen jars or vats, he was obliged to throw away
the whole of that year's vintage ! Many of the
districts of Old Castile are equally prolific ; wine,
in fact, is cheaper than water, and it is not unusual
for bricklayers to mix their mortar with wine in-
stead of water ! The wine trade of Spain with
America has received a great stimulus during the
prevalence of the vine disease in France and Ger-
many : in 1850 the export to that continent was
69,281 pipes, value £242,675; in 1857 it was
124,796, value £966,352.
From the increased export of Spanish wines to
France, Tuscany, Sardinia, and Portugal during
the same period, some idea may be formed of the
progress of the disease in those countries. The dif-
ference as regards France (1852 and 1857) was
1,506 and 100,392 pipes; Portugal nil, and 2,351
pipes • and Tuscany 894 and 22,410 pipes. The ex-
port of wine to England was 39,407 pipes in 1850,
value £811,841, and in 1857 42,853 pipes, value
£1,164,861. In fine, it appears that the total ex-
portation of wine from Spain to Europe increased
from 58,964 pipes, value £917,576, in 1850, to
216,829 pipes, value £2,602,876, in 1857-giving
an increase for 1857 of 157,865 pipes, value
£1,685,300, or 183 per cent. ; to England from
39,407 pipes, value £811,841, in 1850, to 42,853
pipes, value £1,164,861, in 1857, giving an increase
for 1857 of 3,446 pipes, value £353,020, or 43 per
cent. ; to France, from 1,500 pipes, value £7,006,
in 1850, to 100,392 pipes, value £663,661 in 1857,
giving an increase for 1857 of 98,386 pipes, value
1;656,655, or 9,372 per cent. ; to Tuscany, from
894 pipes, value £2,713, in 1850, to 22,410
pipes, value £144,285, in 1857, giving an in-
crease for 1857 of 21,516 pipes, value £141,572,
or 5,217 per cent. The greatest exportation of
wine from Spain to Sardinia was in 1855, when it
rose to 20,062 pipes, value £142,943, having been,
in 1850, 2,466 pipes, value £6,685, giving an in-
crease for 1855 of £17,596 pipes, value £136,258,
or 2,038 per cent.
The importation of brandy into Spain has, on
the other hand, increased from 123 to 4,787 pipes,
including 921 pipes from England and Gibraltar.
The increased imports of brandy from France are
very significant in more than one sense. The brandy
is probably manufactured in France from Spanish
wines, and used, when, reimported, to mix with
certain vintages of Spain for which a demand has
sprung up, and which require to be so fortified for
long voyages. The final result of Mr. Lumley's in-
quiry as regards the disease is to the effect that the
oidium (probably an old historical disease) became
generally prevalent in Spain in 1853, though on the
whole in a much less degree than in any other
wine-growing country ; that it attacks all kinds of
wines with the remarkable exception of the " Gar-
nacha," a fine wine, and the " Panipal Girat," a
coarser one, had escaped attack even under the
worst circumstances ; that the produce of the vine-
yards during the prevalence of the oidium was re-
duced on an average 25 per cent. of an ordinary
crop ; that the price of the wine rose on the average
to double what it had been before at Malaga, Mon-
tilla, and in the Douro ; elsewhere, to triple ; at Se-
ville, to quintuple; and in Catalonia to eight times
the former price; that tha disease, if not engen-
dered, is greatly encouraged by damp warm wea-
ther, and that sulphur is an effectual remedy against
it without causing any lasting inconvenience from
its use ; that other simpler remedies are available,
including the dust of roads, especially if it contains
chalk or plaster of Paris; and that the wine trade
of Spain has almost returned to its normal stateex-
cept as regards France ; and that owing to the great
increase of vineyards in every part of Spain during
the last three years the market is likely to be over-
stocked with wine for some time to come.
Mr. Erskine (Dec. 8, 1858) gives the result of his
inquiry on the cultivation of the vine in the Unitad
States of America. Several species of grape grow in
that country, but the "Catawba" is at present al-
most the only one cultivated on a large scale for
vinous purposes. Tho Catawba vine contains ac-
cording to Dr. Chapman, 11.5 per cent, of alcohol,
and 88.5 of water. It resembles Rhenish wine in
appearance, but has a peculiar musky flavour and
more body.. This comparatively poor stuff is sold
at 7 dolls. per dozen, equal to 2s. 6d. per bottle,
and in Ohio and Missouri it realises exorbitant
prices. Imitation " champagne" is also manufac•
tured from an American grape at Cincinnati and
St. Louis, and fetches 4s. per bottle.
Rot and mildew are the diseases to which the
vine is liable in America, and no preventive pro-
cess has hitherto proved successful.
Mr. Erskine has no hestitation in exp-easing his
belief that the culture of the vine in the United
States will extend itself and improve very rapidly,
and that at so distant date wine will be produced
as cheaply and as abundantly as in Europe. The
introduction of beer by the Germans has already
done much good by diminishing the consumption of
spirituous liquors ; and the further substitution of
cheap and wholesome wine, very sensibly observes
Mr. Erskine, "Will do more to wean the people
front habits of drunkenness than all the temperance
societies and Maine Liquor Laws by which it has
been sought to arrest this great evil." The home
market for American wine is already so extensive
that years must elapse before sufficient wine can be
produced there for exportation to other countries.
The following remarkable passage from Mr. Cor-
bett's report on Tuscany should be well pondered :
"The consequences of this calamity (the grape
disease) have been felt less severely in Tuscany,
where no obstacles exist to the free development of
foreign commercial speculation, than in some other
countries, where the principles of free trade have
not been adopted ; and it is hoped that the time IS