Reports as to whether the French are finding any positive relief from the phylloxera are contradictory. The following extract from a French report partly explains the contradiction:

"In the department of Herault, which produces between a fifth and a sixth of the entire French vintage, thanks to the energetic efforts of its vine-growers, who have had recourse to American vines for the purpose of replacing the vines which have died from the effect of this insect scourge, this department is fast recovering from its first scare, and is rapidly regaining its old position and former confidence. In the Charentes, the great cognac producing districts of France, unhappily, the same is not the case. There the proprietors appear to have resigned themselves to what they have come to regard as inevitable, and cereals are fast taking the place of the vine. On inquiring the reason for this we were informed that of the two most generally accepted remedies for the destruction of the phylloxera, one, that of the employment of insecticides, such as sulphur of carbon and sulpho-carbonate of potassium, has been found too costly; while, owing to the rocky nature of the soil and the small surface of earth, the land is said, on the other hand, not to be suitable for the planting of American vines."