THE PHYLLOXERA, OR GRAPE LOUSE OF THE VINE. 129 



explanations. But I would simply express with emphasis the great 

 necessity for saving the vines in all of the provinces. Regardino- that 

 which has been said of the winter eggs, it is certain that if it were 

 possible to take action in all of the provinces at the same time, the 

 phylloxera would be completely destroyed and all the vines, whether 

 American or European, would not be liable to fatal injuries. 



" To preserve a vine from phylloxera, it is necessary to have some 

 preventive treatment. 



" The winter eggs must be destroyed. If they are not destroyed, the 

 generations produced must be destroyed. To do the above is" neither 

 long, difficult, or costly. The annual barking of the vine-stalks should 

 be done during the winter, when vegetable growth is at a stand-still — 

 work not nearly so long as one would suppose, when a stem has been 

 barked once. Annually, also, one should sprinkle the vine at its first 

 vegetation, when the leaves have attained the diameter of three or four 

 centimetres, with finely-powdered lime, thrown with a pair of bellows 

 during the night dews. The caustic action of the lime is so strong 

 and so instantaneous that one may see immediately the dead of the 

 young phylloxera, freshly hatched, spread above and under the leaves. 



" Any small insect, not only the caterpillars of two centimetres in 

 length, and also the larger snails, provided they have not their live 

 part completely covered by their shell, are instantaneously destroyed. 

 The lime so spread will not allow the growth of any other vegetation; 

 then the vine need fear absolutely no danger. 



" I have practised the barking since 1874 and the liming since 1877. 

 These two operations are made annually, and constitute the prevew^i-ue 

 treatment. This is an extra dressing (or mode) of 10 to 12 francs per 

 hectare. When a vine carries the phylloxera on its roots, whether it 

 be European or American, it is necessary to relieve them of it quickly, 

 or it will succumb to the attacks. The lesser cures are well enough 

 known and experimental ; here are the most useful and efficacious : — 



" 1. The submersion. This is always efficacious, if the under-soil 

 permits — if it is drainable, and if the water is abundant enough to 

 cover entirely the whole surface of the vine, to submerge it during four 

 days in the month. If the water is not fertilized, if it is not slimy, a 

 manure might prove profitable. When the subsoil is compact and 

 hard to drain, submersion is fatal to the vine. 



" 2. Sulpho-carbonate of potassium, when its application is possible, 

 is the best of insecticides, because it brings to the vine a thickness (or 

 strength) of vegetation of sufficient recompense. 



" 3. Sulphur of carbon, much as has been said against it, is also an 

 excellent insecticide. It becomes almost a necessity for the strengthen- 

 ing of the vegetable growth. 



" Never inject a solution into damp soil, especially in clayey (argilla- 

 ceous) soils, because the diiiusion of the poisonous gases has no effect 

 beyond the sides of the hole made by the injector ; the best time for 

 injecting the solution is during the months preceding the dormant stage 

 of vegetation, which varies, of course, with the climates. 



