The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-22
NO MORE CHAMPAGNE.

The phylloxera have TO a considerable eX-
tent overrun the Department of the Marine,
and the Government has ordered the eXtlr-
patton of the diseased vines.
There appears to be no remedy for the
catastrophe. The little insect, which first
began business in France twenty-siX years
ago has gone on extending its sphere OF
operations year by year until now 1t has
reached the extreme northeastern depart
ments. Before it appeared, France pro-
duced, one year with another. about 2,20o,-
coo, coo gallons of wine; in 1890, the vintage
was oil 100000 gallons. and the total export
had fallen to 100000 gallons as against an
import of 225 0O0,0 600. The partial destrUc-
ton of this important branch of industry
has proceeded in the teeth of the most eneT-
getic measures 10 check it. a large reward
was offered by the Government for the dis
covery of a method for destroying the
phyll0xeIa. A congress of wine-growers
was held in 1851 at Bordeaux, and resolu-
ttons were passed recommending the sub
mersOn of diseased vineyards, and the
treatment of the plants with bisulphid1 Of
carbon and suiph0-car5Onates. But it was
found that the most effective remedy was
uprooting the diseased vines, and replacing
them with resistant stock from this coun-
try. This method was freely adopted in
1SS3-S5, and hopes were entertained that the
ravages of the insect had been checked.
By 1880, the area Of vineyard planted in
American resistant stock amounted to 49,
$40 acres.
Still, as fast as the phylloxera we're eXtir-
pated in one place. they appeared in an
other. Last year, they were found for the
fiD,n IL, nh aud South NTerpa ct n
Paris, and last spring they attacked the
vineyards near Rheims and Epernay, from
the product of which the champagne wine
of commerce is made The Government,
with the assent of the more intelligent grow
ers is proceeding to extirpate them. in spite
of the resistance of the small landowners,
who are disposed TO fight for their vines,
phylloxera and all The Marquis of CLaG-
don, the head of the house which makes the
Moet & Chandon wine, is adopting heroic
methods. In his vineyards, at distance
of every sixty yards, an ounce of sulphurated
carbon is buried one loot below the surface
of the soil. This kills the phyllOxera, but
destroys the roots of the vines as well.
When the work of destruction is complete,
the vineyards are to be replanted with
American resistant stock. on which the
This country is the largest foreign con-
sumer of the fine wines of France. 1t does
MT take as much Bordeaux or Medoc wine
as Germany or Great Britain; it is far be-
hind the Argentine Republic, which is the
largest foreign consumer of this class of
wines. But it consumes more champagne,
Burgundy and fine Sauterhe than any OF
them. OF French champagne Alone we
drink over s.. 100000 worth a year. and the
increased duty laid upon it by the new tariff
was expected to prove quite a source of
income. It seems, now, that we snail have
| to do without it, and that Uncle Sam will
| not get the coin he expected. One result of
| the event will be increased attempts to
| make a really good article of champagne in
tins State. Thus far, the wine to which
that name has bee given-which is merely
an effervescent white wine-has not
succeeded in displacing the French product
even in the California market. But there
is no sayingwhat inventions necessity may
prove the mother of.