THE GRAPE PLAGUE. THE alarm inspired a few years ago by the potato disease has been recently paralleled in the winegrowing countries of Europe, by the appearance of a destructive substance upon the grape, which proves largely fatal to its growth. The scientific name given to this destroyer is the Oidium, and it may fairly be classed in its effects with the Aphis Devastator in Ireland. Nor must our readers imagine that this is a calamity which only threatens the convivial classes, for abroad, it will be remembered, wine forms among the peasantry an important article of diet. A paper was recently read upon this interesting topic by Mr. Brockedon, F.R.S., at a meeting of the Royal Institution. We avail ourselves of a copious report of it which appeared in the pages of the "Literary Gazette,' to enrich our pages with the following condensed extract from it : "In the spring of 1845, a fungus on the grape was first observed in the hot-houses of Mr. Slater, of Margate, by his very intelligent and observant gardener, Mr. Edward Tucker, whose name has been given to it by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, the eminent naturalist-viz., Oidium Tuckeri. It is an egg-shaped fungus, one of an immense family of this class of destroyers, but one not before known or recognised; and though it bears a close resemblance to those which are found upon the potato, peach, chrysanthemum, cucumber, groundsel, etc., yet it is distinguished from all others by a microscopic observer, and has never yet been found upon any other plant, and when found upon the grape has always been destructive. Its first appearance is like a whitish mildew, showing itself principally upon the young grape when about the size of a pea. When the spore of this fungus has settled on the young berry, it enlarges and radiates irregularly in fine filaments, which often cover the whole surface, extending with great rapidity. These fix themselves by imperceptible attachments, which do not appear to penetrate the cuticle; numerous branches from the mycelium are unfruitful; others are jointed, and rise vertically like the pile of velvet; the upper joint enlarges, rounds itself into an elliptical form, ripens, separates, and is carried off with the slightest motion of the air, to find another grape upon which it can be developed. Warmth and moisture favour its rapid fructification; a succession of spores rise from the same branch; and often two, three, or four ripen and disperse almost at the same time. Its effect upon the grape is to exhaust the juices of the cuticle, which ceases to expand with the pulp of the fruit; it then bursts, dries up, and is utterly destroyed. "This fatal disease has returned with increased virulence in each succeeding year. In 1847, the spores of this Oidium reached France, and were found in the forcing-houses of Versailles and other places near Paris. The disease soon reached the trellised vines, and destroyed the grapes out of doors in the neighbourhood, and continued to extend from place to place; but, until 1850, it was chiefly observed in vineries, which lost from this cause, season after season, the whole of their crops. Unhappily, in 1851, it was found to have extended to the south and south-east of France and Italy, and the grapes were so affected that they either decayed, or the wine made from them was detestable. In 1852, the Oidium Tuckeri re-appeared in France with increased and fatal energy; it crossed the Mediterranean to Algeria, has shown itself in Syria and Asia Minor, attacked the Muscat grapes at Malaga, injured the vines in the Balearic islands, utterly destroyed the vintage in Madeira, greatly injured it in the Greek islands, and de stroyed the currants in Zante and Cephalonia, rendering them almost unfit for use, and so diminished the supply, that 500 gatherers did the ordinary work of 8000! But it is in France that its frightful ravages are chiefly to be regarded as a national calamity, where the produce of the soil in wine is said to exceed 500 millions of hectolitres; twofifths of the usual quantity of wine made there has been destroyed, and what has been made is bad. It has not touched with equal severity all the departments. Traces of its influence have been seen in the Loiret, Loire-et-Cher, and Maine-etLoire. The vineyards of the Medoc, in 1851, were untouched, and the cultivators laughed at the existence of the Oidium; but last year the disease showed itself everywhere in the Gironde, even to the borders of the celebrated Medoc, and between the vineyards of the Medoc and the river at Pauillac and at Macau, with serious injury. In the Lower Pyrenees the vines of Jurançon were affected. The Haute Garonne was generally attacked, and at Toulouse one proprietor, who usually sent to Paris 10,000 francs worth of grapes for the table, lost all, or nearly all, by the Oidium. The Eastern Pyrenees, l'Aude, l'Herault, and a great part of Gard, were all deplorably affected, and at Frontignan and Lunel the vineyards were abandoned in despair. Thousands of labourers were thrown out of employ, and the distress was awful. Wine in France is the common drink of the peasant; upon this, his bread, and some légumes, he labours: but the wine, bad as it is, has risen to double, and, in the countries most injured, even treble its ordinary price. In Lower Provence and on the Isère, the vines which escaped in 1851 were seriously injured in 1852. In the Burgundy district, the vines on the Côte d'Or were little affected in the vineyards, but the trellised vines were seriously so. "Some persons, as M. Robineau, have supposed that it was caused by insects, because occasionally they had been found on diseased vines; but the idea is now utterly rejected, for not the slightest appearance of disease precedes the fungus, which creeps over the epidermis, but does not enter its tissues. It envelops the grape, absorbs the juices of the superficial cells, and stops the growth of the cuticle. The pulp expands within the fruit, bursts longitudinally, its juices are lost, and it dries up. In an early stage of the disease the fungus may be wiped off, and the fruit will come to maturity. The Oidium never matures on decayed vegetable substances; it lives and fructifies only on living tissues. The poor peasant of the Bouches du Rhône believes that the cause is bad air; but at Genoa, Grenoble, Lyons, Dijon, and Strasbourg, the people attribute it to gas-lights! and the vapour of locomotives!! and think that such inventions are infernal; and many works are published with such absurd imputations, and recommending preventives and remedies just as wise. By far the ablest work upon this important subject is by M. Louis Leclerc, who, eminent as a man of science, was chosen by the minister of the interior, M. Persigny, to go into the districts affected, and to report upon the facts he could collect. This he has done in an admirable manner, and to his work, a brochure published in Paris by Hatchette et Cie, Mr. Brockedon recommended his hearers, as containing all that can yet be said upon the subject. The interest which the subject has excited in England has led to such extensive correspondence in the 'Gardener's Chronicle,' that it contains not less than forty communications, and there are to be found the earliest notices of experiments made with lime-water, tobacco, lye of wood-ashes, etc.all these have failed. Mr. Kyle, of Leigh ton, discovered sulphur to be a sure remedy, and it is the only one yet known; but this, which can be applied in hot and green-houses, cannot be used in large vineyards. We can only hope that that Power which has created the Oidium may withdraw what to us appears to be so fearful a scourge." In the course of Mr. Brockedon's paper several curious facts about the manufacture of champagne are given. The most temperate of our readers will probably read the following with interest: "The bottles are wired and stacked away in vast and cool caves, some of which, thousands of yards in extent, have been excavated in the solid chalk of the hill-side. These stacks of bottled champagne are so ingeniously made, that though they may each contain from 1000 to 10,000 bottles, any one of them can be withdrawn for examination. In a warm spring, the extent of bursting in these bottles is a cause of great loss. In April, 1843, Madame Cliquôt, of Rheims, lost 400,000 out of her stock for that season of 1,600,000 bottles. Further destruction was checked by obtaining from Paris ten or twelve wagon-loads of ice, which, strewn in the caves, lowered their temperature. When the wine is thus stacked, the merchants visit the caves to buy, and it is scarcely recommended to their notice, unless the breakage can be shown to be not less than ten per cent. It is this loss, and the cost of labour in preparing, that enhances so much the value of the wine of Champagne. The condition of the wine in the bottle can be easily ascertained by a simple means. A fine hollow needle can be thrust through the cork, and a taste obtained from the pressure within, through the tube. On with drawing the circular needle, the elasticity of the cork closes the puncture. Of the quantity of champagne made it is difficult to obtain accurate information; 50,000,000 bottles would be a low estimate for the genuine product of Champagne; but the demand for wines that effervesce is so great, that they are now supplied from the vineyards of St. Perey, Hermitage, Rhine, Moselle, Burgundy, Bordeaux-in fact, from every wine district in which they choose to make it by sweetening and treating it as in Champagne. But this is not the only mode of making champagne, even with genuine French wine. Very large quantities are made in Paris and elsewhere; in that city there are numerous establishments for such manufacture, one house alone sending out 1,000,000 bottles a year. They sweeten the light common white wines of France, and then impregnate them with carbonic acid gas by means of a pneumatic apparatus, and bottle, them as in Champagne, while effervescent." A HINT TO THE DISCONTENTED. ALL human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those that we find in the present; and we neither feel nor see those that exist in another. Hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. In my youth I was passenger in a little sloop descending the river Delaware. There being no wind, we were obliged, when the tide was spent, to cast anchor and wait for the next. The heat of the sun on the vessel was excessive- the company strangers to me, and not very agreeable. Near the river-side I saw what I took to be a pleasant green meadow, in the middle of which was a large shady tree, where, it struck my fancy, I could sit and read-having a book in my pocket-and pass the time agreeably until the tide turned. I therefore prevailed with the captain to put me ashore. Being landed, I found the greatest part of my meadow was really a marsh; in crossing which, to come at my tree, I was up to my knees in mire; and I had not placed myself under its shade five minutes before musquitoes in swarms found me out, attacked my legs, hands, and face, and made my reading and my rest impossible; so that I returned to the beach, and called for the boat to come and take me on board again, where I was obliged to bear the heat I had strove to quit, and also the laugh of the company. Similar cases in the affairs of life have since frequently fallen under my observation.-Franklin. WORTH IMITATING. ABOUT this time colonel Gardener entered upon that methodical manner of living which he pursued through so many succeeding years of his life, and I believe, generally, so far as the broken state of his health would allow it, in his latter days to the very end of it. He used constantly to rise at four in the morning, and to spend his time till six in the secret exercises of devotion, reading, meditation, and prayer; in which latter he contracted such a fervency of spirit as I believe few men living ever obtained. This certainly tended very much to strengthen that firm faith in God, and reverent, animating sense of his presence, for which he was so eminently remarkable, and which carried him through the trials and services of life with such steadiness and activity; for he, indeed, endured and acted as always seeing Him who is invisible. If at any time he was obliged to go out before six in the corning, he rose proportionably sooner; so that when a journey, or a march, has required him to be on horseback by four, he would be at his devotions at farthest by two. He likewise secured time for retirement in an evening; and that he might have it the more at command, and be the more fit to use it properly, as well as the better able to rise early the next morning, he generally went to bed about ten; and, during the time I was acquainted with him, he seldom ate any supper but a mouthful of bread with one glass of wine. In consequence of this, as well as of his admirably good constitution and the long habit he had formed, he required less sleep than most persons I have known; and I doubt not but his uncommon progress in piety was in a great measure owing to these resolute habits of self-denial-Doddridge. Varieties. CHANGE IN CLIMATE.-Those who have read the ancients with attention, conclude that the degrees of cold are at this time much less severe than formerly. The rivers in Gaul-namely, the Loire and the Rhône were regularly frozen every year, so that whole armies, with their carriages and baggage, could march over them. Even the Tiber froze at Rome; and Juvenal says that it was requisite to break the ice in the winter, in order to come at the water of the river. Many passages in Horace suppose the streets of Rome to be full of ice and snow. Ovid assures using them to Chantrey, who declined. "I watched," said that the Black Sea was frozen annually, and appeals for the truth of this statement to the governor of the province, whose name he mentions. In short, all the ancients who mention the climate of Gaul, Germany, Pannonia, and Thrace, agree that the ground was covered with snow the greatest part of the year, being incapable of producing | olives, grapes, and most other fruits. HUNTING THE HYENA IN ALGIERS.-The Arabs have a most singular way of catching hyenas. We find the following account credited to the Paris "Constitutionnel," the editor of which obtained it in a letter from a French officer in Algiers:-"A short time since the commandant of the battalion of Turcos, or native soldiers, was informed that a female hyena had been seen in the neighbourhood of Mostaganem, near Mazagran, and that she had taken refuge in a cave about one hundred yards in depth. Orders were immediately given to carefully guard the entrance to the cave. Two Turcos, provided with a simple cord and a small chain, went into the cave, without weapons, and merely carrying a candle, and in about an hour, to the great astonishment of the spectators, an enormous hyena appeared, muzzled, and allowing itself to be led along with the docility of a sheep. According to the account given by the Arabs, the animal, dazzled by the light of the candle, allows itself to be handled and caressed like a young dog, and during this time the hunter takes care to muzzle it, and thus prevents the possibility of its doing any mischief. Two soldiers were, however, two days after, seriously wounded by one of these animals, which suddenly resumed its ferocity, and, after biting through its muzzle, and knocking down its two assailants, took to flight. It is hardly possible for anything to equal the courage and temerity shown by the natives in these sports." ever, THE LOST TRAVELLER.-Among the numerous victims, distinguished travellers, whose lives have been sacrificed to the perils of African discovery, the world has almost forgotten that of the unfortunate Jacques Compagnon, who, under the auspices of the duke de Choiseul, left Senegal in 1758 to explore the country to the north and east of Senegambia, penetrating as far as the wooded desert of Simboni, where he was heard from in 1760, and then disappeared, never, it was supposed, to be heard of again. After ninety years of mystery and oblivion, howthe veil has been removed, and the secret of his fate has been disclosed by M. de Gaysa, a Hungarian explorer in Africa, from whom a letter has been received by the Imperial Society of Vienna, disclosing discoveries which seem to place the fact beyond question, besides giving it a very interesting aspect. M. de Gaysa writes from the country of the Kommenis, a semi-civilized tribe, who have some religious notions, "possessing a certain analogy with the Christian tradition, a regular language, an alphabet, and a mode of writing;" all or most of which they appear, from their own account, to have derived from a stranger, a European, who died among them in 1775, and whose memory was revered as that of a sage or good genius. That this stranger was Jacques Compagnon was proved by a number of circumstances, not the least conclusive of which were several personal relics, regarded by the people as sacred, one being a quadrant with his name engraved upon it in full. It would seem, from such accounts and traditions as M. de Gaysa was able to gather, that Compagnon was detained by the Kommenis, and being reconciled at last to his captivity, devoted himself to instructing them in the useful arts. His tomb, consisting of "a little stone monument of a conical form, covered with an inscription in hieroglyphical characters," was pointed out to the Hungarian visitor in one of their principal villages. GREED PUNISHED.-Our own lamented Chantrey, who, though fully alive to the merits of the good things of this world, was one of the most unselfish and liberal of men, had a story relating to one of the city feasts at which he was present. The great national sculptor-for truly great and truly national he was-sat next to a gentleman before whom stood a large tureen of turtle-soup. This citizen instantly possessed himself of the ladle, carefully fished out the coarser parts, and offered the plate containhe, "the progress of the plate: at last it was set down before the lord mayor's chaplain; and the expression of that man's face, when he beheld it, I shall never forget." The gentleman went on helping till he had cleared the soup of all but the green fat and richer parts, the whole of which he piled up in a capacious plate for himself. Then up spoke our sculptor and said: "If you will allow me to change my mind, I'll take a little turtle." And the waiter who held the plate placed it, to the horror of the dispens ing expectant, before Chantrey, who immediately commenced spoon-exercise, as Jonathan delicately describes such evolutions. "And this I did," said Chantrey, "to punish him for his greed." What was the unhappy gourmand to do? His own tureen was exhausted, and in a half-frantic tone he called to one of the waiters to bring him some turtle. But at city feasts the guests of the day; and the waiter, after trying about, brought are very industrious, especially when turtle is the order back to our greedy gourmand the identical plate of fatless flesh which had so astounded the chaplain, who had con"And then," trived to exchange his unwelcome portion. Chantrey would add, " my attentive neighbour's visage was awful to look upon!" There was no help for it; so the disconcerted gourmand betook himself to the rejected plate, with the additional discomfiture of see ing Chantrey send away his, still rich with calipee, fat, and fins.-Broderip's Leaves from the Note-Book of a Naturalist. VEGETABLE VITALITY.-Algiers journals state, that of a number of grains of wheat found in an Egyptian mummy twenty-four were planted last year in Algeria, and that seven of them have produced each six or seven ears of grain, with between seventy and ninety grains in each ear. The stalks are higher and stronger than in ordinary wheat, and each grain displays a sort of beard. The seed obtained this year is to be sown, and will, it is expected, yield an abundant crop. THE BATTLE OF THE BEES.-"Galignani's Messenger' informs us of a curious circumstance that occurred recently at Guilleville, in France. A small farmer had in a field about 250 beehives, containing a vast number of bees. He sent a man with a cart, drawn by five horses, to remove some earth from the wall near which the hives were placed. The carter, having occasion to go to the farm-house, tied the horses to a tree. Almost immediately after, a multitude of bees, either irritated at the shaking of their lives by the removal of the earth from the wall, or excited by the electricity with which the atmosphere happened to be charged, issued from their hives, as if in obedience to a given signal, and with great fury attacked the horses. In an instant the poor animals were entirely covered with bees from head to foot; even their nostrils were filled with them. When the carter returned, he found one of his horses lying dead on the ground, and the others rolling about furiously. His cries attracted several persons; one of them attempted to drive away the bees, but they attacked him, and he had to plunge into a pond, and even to place his head under water for a few seconds in order to escape from them. The curé of Guilleville also attempted to approach the horses, but he too was put to flight by the enraged insects. At length two fire-engines were sent for, and by pumping on the bees a great number were killed on the horses or put to flight. The horses, however, were so much injured that they died in an hour. The value of the bees destroyed was about 60%., and of the horses 1004. A few days before, bees from the same hives had killed seventeen goslings. were unfolded, the auctioneer's rostrum was pre- | man, by look and sign, directed the busy and obpared, catalogues of the sale were piled up ready servant auctioneer. Several small lots were knockfor distribution, and merry men in shirt sleeves-ed down to them, including a portion of the library, for the weather was hot-having got through the for which they had to battle through a spirited preliminary arrangements, had seated themselves contest with the gentleman in spectacles, after the on drawing-room chairs, and were refreshing them- second-hand booksellers had left off bidding. But selves, hands and faces unwashed, with bread and they succeeded, and their competitor was angry at cheese, and heavy draughts of porter, from the his defeat; and then they went away. next public-house. It was all natural. Men must eat and drink as well as work; and in the daily duties of life-though those duties may be inextricably interwoven with sorrow and loss to others why, say they, not be cheerful? The sale commenced, and the auctioneer entered upon his duties with business-like tact and ingenuity. He was a quick salesman, and kept buyers up to the mark, so lot after lot was knocked down with commendable rapidity. Bidders were numerous and respectable, for it was no "put-up" auction sale, and it was known that the late proprietor of the goods which were to be thus dispersed was a man of taste and discernment. A large number of friends of the family were at the sale, with carefully-marked catalogues. One plethoric gentleman had ticked off certain dozens of wine, which were to be sold in one lot. This gentleman knew Mr. Grafton had been very particular in his wines, having proved them. A younger man had his eye on the drawing-room chairs and tables. He was about to be married, he hoped; and this was a favourable opportunity of completing the furnishing of his new home. A lady and her three daughters were hoping that the grand piano-forte would not be run up too extravagantly. They knew its tone and its cost price, for this was not the first time they had seen it. A gentleman in spectacles was waiting with patient indifference for the library lots. There was "a choice collection of modern works, elegantly bound and in first-rate condition," the catalogue said; and the gentleman knew this as well as any catalogue could tell him. There were prudent lady housekeepers also, who, if they could, would replenish their glass and china, their beds and bedding, their napery and drapery, at their friend Mrs. Grafton's sale; for, since there was to be a sale, they might as well get a bargain as let another have it. now There met, that day, at that auction sale, some who had met in the same rooms at other times; and it was natural for them to talk of those other times, and to say how they pitied poor Mrs. Grafton-and how they wondered what she would do -and how they blamed Mr. Grafton for living up to his income, and not making any provision for his family-and how Mrs. Grafton would feel the altered circumstances, so used as she had been to a home of luxurious plenty ever since she was married-and how they wondered where she and the children were, now they had left the house. All this was natural enough to say, and it was said very suitably and decently. And then the speakers turned their attention to the auctioneer, for one lot which they did not want was just knocked down, and one which they did was as quickly put up. There was a couple in the throng, middle-aged and plainly dressed, who looked with grave interest on the proceedings of that day. They, too, had a marked catalogue in hand, and at times the gentle The sale was ended at last. The plethoric gentleman rejoiced that he had bought the wines a bargain. The lady and her daughters were disappointed that "the grand," which had cost a hun dred pounds and more, was pushed up beyond their twenty guineas, and that they had lost it. Young benedict obtained his drawing-room furniture; but for the most part the materials of that sale were to be seen two days afterwards, ticketed and prominently set forth, at the open shop fronts of various brokers and dealers within a mile of Islington; and the empty, silent house was ready for its next tenant. And where were the widow and the fatherless? Follow us, reader, a little way out of town, or rather a little nearer to its extreme verge-a short half-hour's walk from the Islington Angel; and enter with us one of a row of houses, neat, prim, and what advertisements would call genteel. They stand back from the road, and a long narrow strip of ground in front, surrounded by iron railings, and filled with stunted shrubs-poor things! and lanky lime-trees with brown and dusty foliage, gives designation to the row: it is the "Grove." The tenants of these houses have mostly business in the city. They have small incomes and large families; and those of them who are very ingeni ous in contriving to crowd together a considerable number of breathing machines within a very limited space let lodgings. Perhaps, on an average, let the number of legitimate members of the households be what they may, two in every three of the houses in the "Grove" contain first-floor lodgers. street. It was Three months have passed since the death of Mr. Grafton, one since the sale, and nearly two since Mr. Nelson took leave of the poor widow, and departed homeward to his quiet country parish. It was well for Mrs. Grafton that she had had a friend to manage her affairs for her more considerately than the "man of business" would have managed them. It was Mr. Nelson who had sought and found an unfurnished floor at the "Grove," and had plainly but comfortably furnished the rooms from the house in he who had paid off the servants their arrears of wages, and quieted the impatience of certain pri vate creditors, who, naturally enough, were desirous of knowing how and when their debts were to be liquidated now that Mr. Grafton was gone, and the firm, as they understood, not responsible. It was Mr. Nelson, also, who had listened compas sionately to the disconsolate bewailings of the bereaved lady, who, when the earliest deep throbbings of sorrow for her loss were over, shrunk back with dismay and impatience from the first neces sary sacrifices which that loss involved, and had borne the half reproach that it was very hard to be driven away so soon from her luxurious home, and have to put up with the scanty accommoda tions of the lodgings taken for her in the "Grove." |