basket. This is a fact confirmed by experience ever since the disease became known. The epoch of coloring 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 131 centimes........ Wages of a woman at 1 franc per day of 8 hours

Total......

Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in June (15th to 20th).

40 pounds of flour of sulphur at 131 centimes......

2 days' labor of a woman, 8 hours effective at 1 franc..............

Total......

Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in July.

.$0 321 16

$0 481

$108

40

$1 48

Aramons, the most vigorous.

48 pounds of flour of sulphur at 13 centimes* Labor of a woman 3 days at 1 franc........

$1 30

60

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. Cincinnati, by the wholesale, I found to be 7

The cost of sulphur in

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. Marès, and by four if men do the work.

cost per acre from June onward. For two applications, 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 quantity 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 beautiful green color and to vegetate with new vigor. At each application the same effect is manifested in a

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, moreover, not isolated, nor does it apply solely to the blossoming 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 influence. From this point of view we may easily arrive at the conclusion that vines should be sulphured when in blossom, whether the oïdium 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

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 came. 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 "à propos," and often enough to prevent any ravage of the oïdium. 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 sulphur a manure, or at least a stimulant for the vine?

What I have observed down to this time, and particularly in 1856, after having put the question in the first edition of this work, leads me to answer affirmatively. At the same time, it will not do to conclude 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 manuring, while in soils well manured and well cultivated its effects on vegetation sustained themselves during many succeeding years in the most remarkable

manner.

I feel sure that sulphur augments considerably the vegetation and fructification of the vine independently of its state of disease. It will be a valuable agent to increase the fertility of vineyards and render them more regular, but upon condition that manure be concurrently employed, otherwise its action will yearly grow less, and end by becoming insignificant.

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 favored by the richness of the soil, and will not, to any considerable extent, increase the fruitfulness of badly-kept fields. In those well kept up, sulphur acts