316 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The treatment with Bordeaux mixture as recommended in the spraying 

 calendar will do much to hold the disease in check, and if persistently kept 

 up will prevent it from gaining a foot-hold. The treatment should begin 

 early and should be frequently repeated. 



SHELLING OF THE GRAPE. 



In some seasons numerous complaints are received of the shelling of the 

 grapes from the bunches, the stem breaking short off next to the berry, 

 instead of drawing out from the fruit, as is the case in healthy berries. 

 As a rule, the berries at the lower end of the cluster or at the extremity of 

 the shoulder are the first to shell, and the bunches nearest the extremity 

 of the canes generally suffer most. 



The disease does not seem to be of a fungous nature, but, as a rule, it is 

 due to something that has caused a weakness in the plant. This may be 

 due in whole or in part to some fungus that has attacked the foliage and 

 has injured the assimilating powers of the plant. If the fungus has proper 

 treatment there will be no danger of injury from this source. While 

 insects are seldom, if ever, the direct cause of the disease, it is possible 

 that some of them, particularly those that suck the sap from plants, may 

 serve as the inducing cause. In many cases it has been found that the 

 application of mineral fertilizers to vineyards has given crops free from the 

 trouble. This may be attributed to the fact that the soil was deficient in 

 either potash or phosphoric acid, particularly the former, and that they 

 served to give a firm growth and to check the tendency of the plants on 

 soils unduly rich in nitrogenous matter to waste their energies in the pro- 

 duction of shoots and leaves, at the expense of the ripening crop. On 

 cold, poorly drained soils, where the plants could not get a proper supply 

 of food, the disease has also been troublesome. 



As a rule, there will be little trouble from this disease if the vineyard 

 is on soil of a suitable character, and where the plants receive suitable food 

 and cultivation, avoiding the use of stable manure for the most part and 

 depending for an artificial supply of plant food upon wood ashes, ground 

 bone, and similar mineral fertilizers. 



INSECTS OF THE GRAPE. 

 GRAPEVINE FLEA BEETLE (Haltica chalybea 111.). 



The worst enemy to the grape early in the season is this little steel-blue 

 beetle (Fig. 30). Before the buds burst the beetles are gnawing into them 

 and often destroy whole vineyards before it is time for leaves or blossoms 

 to appear. Usually they destroy only a portion of the buds and then feed 

 on the leaves, first as the imago and later as the larvae from the 

 ggs deposited on the leaves by the parent beetles. The young 

 are dark-brown, hairy, and minute. When full grown they are 

 considerab y less than half an inch long, and are a dirty, light- 

 brown. At this stage they drop to the ground, bury them- 

 selves, transform, and,- a few days later, appear as a second brood 

 to again feed on the leaves. This brood does little harm corn- 

 Fig. 39. pared with that of the first, though they and the larvjB often 

 riddle the leaves with holes and eat all but the arger veins. 



