by the Phoenicians, and to Italy and southern Caul from Greece. In the earliest Roman times the vine was very little cultivated in Italy, but gradually Rome and Italy generally became a great wine country. At a later date the republic sought to stimulate its home industry by prohibiting the importation of wine, and by restricting its cultivation in the colonies, thus preserving the latter as a useful market for Italian vyincs According to Pliny, Spanish, Gallic and Greek wines were all consumed in Rome during the 1st century of the Christian era, but in Gaul the production of wine appears to have been limited to certain districts on the Rhone and Gironde. The cultivation of the vine in more northern parts (i.e . on the Seine and Moselle) was not commenced until after the death of Probus. Owing no doubt to the difficulties of transportation, wine was, in the middle ages, made in the south of England, and in parts of Germany, where it is now no longer produced (cf. Hehn, Cidtiirpfianzcn, &c, and Mommsen, Romische Gcschichte, v gS et scq.) We know very little of the ancient methods of cultivating the vine, but the Romans — no doubt owing to the luxuriant ease with which the vine grows in Italy—appear to have trained it on trees, trellis work, palisades, &c. The dwarf form of cultivation now common in northern Europe docs not appear to have obtained to any extent. It seems likely that the quality of the wine produced in ancient times was scarcely comparable to that of the modern product, inasmuch as the addition of resin, salts and spices to wine v. -as a common practice With regard to the actual making of the wine, this docs not appear to have differed very much in principle from the methods obtaining at the present day Plastering appears to have been known at an early date, and when the juice of the grapes was too thin for the production of a good wine, it was occasionally boiled down with a view to concentration. The first wine receptacles were made of skins or hides, treated with oil or resin to make them impervious. Later, earthenware vessels were employed, but the wooden cask — not to mention the glass bottle— was noc generally known until a much later period. Production. — The total wine production of the world, which, of course, fluctuates considerably from year to year, amounts to roughly 3000 million gallons. France and Italy are the chief wine-producing countries, the former generally producing rather more than the latter. During the phyllo.xera period Italy iri some years had the greater output {e.g . 1SS6-1888 and iSqo-1892). The average production of the chief wine-producing countries will be gathered from the following table: — Wine Production. Average Annual Production in Millions of Gallons Jor Quinquennial Periods Country. France . Italy

Spain Portugal Austria-Hungary Germany . Period. 1891-1895. 1S96-1900. 1901-1905 770 674 74 113 49 9SS 6S9 412 123 120 64 1126 840 390 105 178 74 The United States produces roughly 50, Bulgaria and Rumania each 40 and Servia 10 million gallons. The United Kingdom produces no wine, but the Cape and the Australian Commonwealth each produce some 5 million gallons. The variation from year to year in the quantity of wine produced in individual countries is, of course, far greater than that observed in the case of beer or spirits. Thus, owing to purely climatic vagaries, the quantity of wine produced in Germany in 1891 was only 16 million gallons, whereas in 1896 it amounted to in millions. Similarly the French production, which was 587 million gallons in 1895, amounted to no less than 1482 millions in 1900. In the same way the Italian production has varied between 5S3 million gallons (1895) and 793 millions (1901), and the Spanish between 331 million gallons in 1896 and 656 millions in 1892. Consumption. — It is only natural that the consumption of wine should be greatest in the countries where it is produced on the largest scale, but the discrepancy between the consumption of different countries is little short of astonishing. Thus, at the present time, the consumption per head in France is practically a hundred times that of the United Kingdom and twenty times that of Germany— the latter, it must be remembered, being itself an important wine-producing area. The following table will give some idea of the relative consumption of wine in different countries. — Average Consumption of Wine per Head of Population.