1404 G. PATANE. - SELECTION AND HYBRIDISATION OF AMERICAN VINES 



they ""give the best results on strong and light loams. They show well 

 marked affinity for the Marsala vines but are liable to " bramble-leaf " 

 (roncet) by which they have been attacked in several experimental vine- 

 yards in Sicily. 



G- 953 (Calabrese x Aramon Rupestris). This hybrid is a direct- 

 bearer and has given at Marsala on moist calcareous soils a good wine with 

 the proportions 16.2 per cent alcohol and 7 per cent of acidity (Vaiareei.o). 



Conclusions. 



From this brief account the following conclusions can be drawn : 

 i) The new resistant vines which are necessary for the reconsti- 

 tution of vineyards destroyed by phylloxera can be obtained (and have 

 already been partly obtained) by the selection of American vines grown 

 from seed, and by the artificial hybridisation (followed by selection) of va- 

 rious American vines partly among themselves and partly with European 

 vines. It was a mistaken policy to interrupt the work which had been 

 started on these lines, and to resort to the UvSe of hybrids and selected plants 

 imported from France. Indeed it is due to the clear-sightedness of some 

 workers on American vines (Ruggeri, Paulsen, Grimaldi, L,ongo) 

 that good plants produced and selected in Italy can be put into cul- 

 tivation today. 



2) Experience acquired during a number of yesLXS has shown clearly 

 that vines obtained and selected in France will not always live under con- 

 ditions different from those of the country of their origin, as in Sicil}^ Sar- 

 dinia, Calabria, and Apulia. The introduction of these French vines into 

 Italy was in many cases unsuccessful and consequently the workers on 

 American vines turned their attention once more to the production and the 

 study of indigenous resistant vines. It was a judicious action on the part 

 of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1914 to direct that the institutions under 

 Government control should resimie the work interrupted some years pre- 

 viously. 



3) The work of Paulsen, Grimaldi and Ruggeri, can be put to 

 profitable account to-day, for the hybrids due to them can, especially 

 in warm districts, replace the vines produced and selected in France. In 

 other districts it is inmecessary to give up French vines entirety, but the 

 Riparia and Rupestris selected by lyONGO at Velletri, besides the hybrids 

 of Paulsen can, with advantage, be introduced into general cultivation. 



