61 



Its progress in Europe has been most alarming, inflicting untold losses in the wine- 

 making districts. The destruction it has occasioned in France has been so great that it 

 has become a national calamity which the Government lias appointed special a<^ents to 

 inquire into ; large sums of money have also been offered as prizes to be given to any one 

 who shall discover an efficient remedy for this insect pest. At the same time it has made 

 alarming progress in Portugal, also in Switzerland and some parts of Germany, and 

 among vines under glass in England. It is a native of America, from whence it has 

 doubtless been carried to France ; it is common throughont the greater portion of the 

 United States, and in one of its forms in Canada, but our native grape vines seem to 

 endure the attacks of the insects much better than do those of Europe. Recently it has 

 appeared on the Pacific slope in the fertile vineyards of California, where the European 

 varieties are largely cultivated, and hence its introduction there will probably prove 

 disastrous to grape culture. Already many vineyards are seriously affected, and it is said 

 that some grape growers have had to root up hundreds of vines and destroy them, in con- 

 sequence of the roots being so crowded with the lice. After the sad experience of 

 European vineyardists it is not surprising that the grape-growers of California are much 

 exercised over this subject. The phylloxera has also occurred in several of the Southern 

 States. 



This insect is found in two different forms : in one instance, on the leaf, where it 

 produces greenish red or yellow galls of various shapes and sizes, and is known as the 

 type Gcdlaecola, or gall-inhabiting; in the other and more destructive form, on the root 

 known as the type Radicicola, or root-inhabiting, causing at first, swellings on the young 

 rootlets, followed by decay, which gradually extends to the larger roots as the insects 

 congregate upon them. These two forms will, for convenience, be treated together. 



The first reference made to the gall-producing form was by Dr. Fitch, iw 1854 in 

 the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, where he described it 

 under the name of Pemphigus vitifolice. Early in June there appear upon the vine leaves 

 small globular or cup-shaped galls of varying sizes ; a section of one of these is shown at 

 d, figure 76 ; they are of a greenish red or yellow colour, with their outer surface some- 

 what uneven and woolly. Figure 75 represents a leaf badly infested with these walls. 

 'On opening one of the freshly formed galls, it will be found to contain from one to four 



orange-coloured lice, many very minute shin- 

 ing, oval, whitish eggs, and usually a con- 

 siderable number of young lice, not much 

 larger than the eggs, and of the same whitish 

 colour. Soon the gall becomes overpopulated, 

 and the surplus lice wander off through its 

 partly opened mouth on the upper side of 

 the leaf, and establish themselves either on 

 the same leaf or on adjoing young leaves, 

 where the irritation occasioned by their 

 punctures causes the formation of new galls, 

 within which the lice remain. After a time 

 the older lice die, and the galls which they 

 have inhabited open out and gi-adually be- 

 come flattened and almost obliterated ; hence 

 it may thus happen that the galls on the 

 older leaves on a vine will be empty, while 

 those on the younger ones are swarming 

 yj„ 75 with occupants. 



These galls are very common on the Clin- 

 ton grape and other varieties of the same type, and are also found to a greater or less 

 extent on most other cultivated sorts. They sometimes occur in such abundance as to 

 cause the leaves to turn brown and drop to the ground, and instances are recorded where 

 many vines have been defoliated from this cause. The thin leaved varieties of grape 

 suffer most, those with thick leathery foliage being seldom injured to any considerable 

 extent. Such varieties as Concord, Hartford Prolific, Moore's Early, and Rogers' Hybrids 



