ON VINE iMILDEW 



vegetative powers of the vines had suffered no essential injury, 

 and that consequently it was to be hoped that the health of the 

 plants would not be impaired tlie following year, since the inner 

 coats of bark as well as the wood appeared sound in that respect ; 

 so that, in general, only such parts were injured as must 

 naturally perish in the course of the ensuing winter. Tliis 

 supposition that the general healtli of the vine had suffered 

 no injury has been fully established in those districts which 

 I have lately examined (as also appears from information trans- 

 mitted from every part of Italy), though they have suffered more 

 or less during the "two previous years, for the development of 

 the shoots of tliis year has been most luxuriant, and the plants 

 exhibit as vigorous a vegetation as can be seen anywhere. In 

 this respect not the least difference can be found between those 

 vines which havejiever suffered from the malady and those -wliich 

 have been its victims for one or more seasons. 



My observations of this year agree also with those made in 

 Switzerland, in this respect, that as regards tlie physical condi- 

 tions of the locality, the geognostic character of the subsoil, the 

 dryness or moisture of the place, the exposure to different quar- 

 ters of the skies, &c., no definite relation could be found between 

 any of them and the appearance of the disease. Greater differences 

 of site cannot be imagined than between the vineyai'ds of Murano 

 which are planted in a constantly wet soil, situated but a few feet 

 above a subsoil saturated with sea water, and those situated in 

 the plains of the country from whence I write, where a channel 

 is formed between every two rows of vines, which are frequently 

 watered in summer; or again, between those on the dry southern 

 precipices of our steep mountains, ascending to a height of nearly 

 a thousand feet. Still in these different localities the vines were 

 in some places spared, in others, during the last year, diseased 

 to the total annihilation of the vintage, and all of them exhibited 

 during the past May and June a diseased growth. Single plants, 

 also, were often shown me by the proprietors which the year 

 before were diseased to a very high degree, but this year were 

 perfectly sound, and the contrary. When, as was the case in 

 some peculiarly damp situations, as Murano, the vines had suffered 

 from the influence of exuberant moisture, and their leaves had in 

 consequence assumed a yellow tinge, such plants were so far from 

 being more palpably affected by the fungus, than those which looked 

 perfectly sound and green, that on the contrary they were fre- 

 quently altogether free. These circumstances render it altogether 



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