THE GRAPE PHYLLOXERA. 3 



the same year I also established the identity of the gall and root-in- 

 habiting types, by showing that in the fall of the year the last brood 

 of gall-lice betake themselves to the roots and hibernate thereon. In 

 1871 I visited France and studied their insect in the field ; and in the 

 fall of that year, after making more extended observations here, I was 

 able to give absolute proof of the identity of the two insects, and to 

 make other discoveries, which not only interested our friends abroad, 

 but were of vital importance to our own grape-growers, especially in 

 the Mississippi Valley. I have given every reason to believe that the 

 failure of the European vine ( Yitis vinifera) when planted here, the 

 partial failure of many hybrids with the European vinifera, and the 

 deterioration and death of many of the more tender-rooted native 

 varieties, are mainly owing to the injurious work of this insidious little 

 root-louse. It had been at its destructive work for years, producing 

 injury the true cause of which was never suspected until the publica- 

 tion of the article in the " Fourth Entomological Report of Missouri." I 

 also showed that some of our native varieties enjoyed relative immu- 

 nity from the insects' attacks, and urged their use for stocks, as a means 

 of reestablishing the blighted vineyards of Southern France. 



The disease continued to spread in Europe, and became so calam- 

 itous in the last-named country that the French Academy of Science 

 appointed a standing Phylloxera Committee. It is also attracting 

 some attention in Portugal, Austria, and Germany, and even in Eng- 

 land, where it affects hot-house grapes. 



The literature of the subject grew to such vast proportions that, 

 after publishing a biographical review, containing notices and summa- 

 ries of 484 articles or treatises published during the four years of 

 1868-'71, MM. Planchon and Lichtenstein gave up the continuance 

 of the work as impracticable. 



At the suggestion and with the cooperation of the Societe Centrale 

 d' Agriculture de I'Herault, the French Minister of Agriculture last 

 autumn commissioned Prof. Planchon to visit this country and learn 

 all he could about the insect and its effects on our different vines. 

 Prof. Planchon arrived here the latter part of August and remained 

 over a month, during which time he visited many prominent vineyards 

 in the Eastern States, on Kelley's Island, in Missouri, and in North 

 Carolina. His investigations not only fully corroborated all my pre- 

 vious conclusions regarding the Phylloxera, but gave him a knowledge 

 of the quality of our native grapes and wines which will be very apt 

 to dispel much of the prejudice against them that has so universally 

 possessed his countrymen, who have not followed our recent rapid 

 progress in viticulture and viniculture, but found their opinions on the 

 inferior results which attended the infancy of those industries in 

 America. Such, in brief, is the history of the grape Phylloxera. Let 

 us now take a closer insight into the nature of the insect. 



The genus Phylloxera is characterized by having three-jointed an- 



