Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-09
A CHAMPAGNE PANIC.
Big Scare Over the Ravages of the
Phylloxera Vastatrix.
THE WORLD MAY GO THIRSTY.
Observers Stationed in Balloons Can See
the Ocean Bottom.
DISEASE DUE TO USING TOMATOES
WRITTEN FOR THE p1sPATcH.I

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.I
According to the sensational statements
which have recently bsen freely propagated,
the champagne vineyards are on the eve of
being destroyed by the phylloxera vastatrix,
and in another year or two there will be no
champagne. A writer on the subject gives
some perfectly reliable facts and figures.
which throw a somewhat reassuring light on
the matter. The champagne vineyards
yield on an average nearly 10,O00,0 900 GAL
Ions of wine every year. Only portion of
this is converted into sparkling wine, the
inferior growths supplying ordinary table
wine for the inhabitants OF the district, ex-
cept in years of great scarcity, when they
are utilized by some of the shippers. AT
the present time there are about $4,000, 900
bottles of sparkling champagne in the eel
lars of the shipping houses who, moreover,
hold stock OF over 1000, 600 gallons of
wine in cask. The annual sales, however,
average 20, 600, 600 bottles, SO that the stocks
in hand, large as they seem. represent only
between four and five years consumption.
Ii, therefore, the champagne vineyards were
on the point of being annihilated the wine
might become altogether unobtainable, either
for love or money, before the close of the
century.
But it is by no means certain that the
vineyards are about to be destroyed. No
one can deny the serious ravages of the
phylloxera in the Charente vineyards, but
the latter have been largely replanted, and
are now steadily recovering, for during the
past few years they have yielded at each
vintage an average of "A, 100000 gallons of
wine, the whole of which has been con-
verted into brandy. The real champagne
districts, however, are confined to the De-
partment of the Marine, and so far the phyl-
loxera has not been found in any of them.
1t has, however, been detected in Treloup,
in the Aisne, within 500 Yards of the border
of the Marne, and it is this which has
caused the panic. II is thought that some
of the young vines which have been pur-
chased at Treloup during the last IL months
may have spread the disease through the
localities whence the best varieties OF raw
champagne are derived. If such prove the
case, the situation will be very serious; but
certainty on the point.
The phylloxera virtually disappears dur
ing the autumn and wiuter months, and no
one will know until next Nav whether it
has really penetrated the champagne vine
yards or not. Meantime all precaution-
ary measures are likely to be carried out,
all the remedies indicated by the scientific
research of recent years will be brought into
play, and large fund will be subscribed.
II the champagne growers and shippers are
only in earnest, they may succeed in an
initiating the scourge even more promptly
than did their confreres in the Medoc. The
burning OF contaminated vineyards, and the
saturation of the soil with the most approved
chemical preparations. may do much to
check further invasion. The situation at
the present time is certainly threatening
one, but is clearly little too early to assert
that there is to be no more champagne.