FRENCH (FnAxcE, ante). The vineyards cover 4.27 per cent of the surface of France, and are one of the chief sources of its agricultural wealth. They are to be found, more or less, in every district, except in ten northern departments. In 1862, according to statistical documents then published by the government, the departments in which the vine was most extensively cultivated were Herault (162,172 hectares), Charente-Inferieure (157,753), Gironde (126,220), Charente (100,008), Gers (94,790), Gard (94,200), Dordogne (87,252), Aude (81,869), Var (79,040), Lot-et-Garonne (69,166). The vintage of 1876 gave a total of about 41,840,748 hectoliters (921,033,017 gallons). In everything relating to this culture the French are unsurpassed. The various first-class wines which they produce, under the names of Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, etc., are in general demand in every part of the world. The vineyards produce annually about 7,706,961 pipes of wines (a pipe being-usually estimated at 105 gallons), valued at $52,084,018. and 228,129 pipes of brandy, valued at $11,433,852, giving an aggregate value of $63.517,870. In the department of the Gironde there are no about 140,000 hectares of vineyards, producing annually on an average 2,280,000 hectoliters of wine. These wines are celebrated for their variety, their excellence, the low price of their common qualities, and the enormous price of their first qualities. The production amounts to an clear value of 180,000,000 francs, The Gironde is practically divided into five wine-producing districts, namely, the Medoc, a district on the left bank of the Garonne, extending from Blanquefort to the sea; the Graves, or high plains above the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne; the Cotes, or inclined banks of the right side of the Garonne; the Palus, or low marshy territory on both banks of the Garonne in the more immediate neighborhood of Bordeaux; and the district of Entre Deuk-3Iers, or low land between the Dordogne and Garonne. The Medoc district pro duces the wines of Labarde and Cantenac; in its very heart those of Margaux; and northwestward the Saint Julien and Pauillac. Still further north it produces the St.
Estephe, and at its northwestern limits the wines of Saint Seurin-de-Cadourne. The variation of the soil causes a great variety in its products, so that the best and the inferior wines grow frequently side by side. As the vines arc the same, and their cultivation identical, the soil must usually account for the difference; but the special conditions of this difference are as yet unknown. The Graves district 'occupies the heights in the immediate neighborhood of Bordeaux. The vine succeeds very well, and the wines obtained are of greater body, deeper color, and more spirituous than those of the Medoc. The bouquet is not great, and they require six or eight years in barrel before they can be put into bottles. After that time, however, they remain excellent. The first quality of the red wines is that of Château Haut-Biron, classed immediately after those of the Châteaux Margaux, Lafitte, and Latour. The product is from a surface of forty-four hectares, and the principal vines cultivated here are Gross Viduro, and the Sauvignonne, together with the Malbec and thd Cruchinet. The white wines of the Graves, or Sauternes district, are produced on the left bank of the Loire, in the neigh borhood of Langan. The principal vines planted are the Semillon and the Sauvignonne, mixed here and there with a little Muscatel. The principal growths of the district arc the Barsacs, Sauternes, and Bommes. Those wines of the Gironde which are called wines of the hillsides, or "Vin de Cotes," are obtained on a chain of hills which extend along the right bank of the Garonne from Ambarez to Saint-Croix-du-Mont. The most celebrated are those grown in the vineyards of Saint Emilion, which occupy 1041 hectares. The varieties of grapes in this district are the Noir de Prussac, the Murlot, and the Bouchet, or Cabernet. Red and white wines are produced in the districts of Libournais, Fronsadais, and Blayais, and large quantities are exported under various names to America.