41 



methods are those insecticides not mauurea, as carbonic sulphide, turpentine, petroleum, 

 gas-tar, and phenic acid not diluted. The committee came to this conclusion: that 

 manures, especially those rich in potash and nitrogenous substances, benefited the af- 

 affected vines. 



The trials were continued in 1874 on the thirty-three squares already improved, 

 one-quarter of each being left to see if the improvement was permanent. The total 

 number of experiments made was two hundred and fifty-nine, extending over two 

 and one-half hectares. The squares which were benefited in 1872 and 1873, have in 

 some cases this year almost returned to their original vigor, but the phylloxera has 

 not disappeared. 



As regards the fruit, the following treatment has given the best results : 1. Yard- 

 dung, wood-ashes, aud sal ammoniac. 2. Yard-dung, wood-ashes, and fat lime. 3. 

 CoAV-urine and fish oil. 4. Cow-urine alone. 5. Oil-cake. 6. Potassium, sul- 

 phate, and urine. 7. Cow-uriue and gas-tar. 8. Soot. 9. Sulphur, salt of Berre, 

 ferric sulphate and colza-cake. The vines surrounding the squares treated were also 

 visibly affected. 



The experience of 1874 confirms and completes the results of 1872 and ]873, showing 

 a diseased vine may at least tempoi-arily be restored to vigor by energetic treatraeut. 

 The commission considers itself justified in asserting that manures, rich in potash aud 

 nitrogen, mixed with alkaline or earthy sulphates, refuse of salt-works, soot, wood- 

 ashes, ammonia, or fat lime, have increased the productiveness of the vines and allowed 

 the fruit to ripen. 



According to M. Mares the vine-disease is the result of combined causes, and subject 

 to several conditions, viz : 1. The nature of the soil, it as affects the vine and the in- 

 sect, frequently a determining condition. 2. The influence of climate on the vine, and 

 also whether or not it favors the extension of the insect. 3. The strength or vigor of 

 growth of the viue itself, which varies according to the variety aud mode of culture. 

 The wild viue does not jierish ; the stock nearest approaching it is hardly attacked. 



M. Laliman spoke next, affirmiug that rooted American cuttings had been cultivated 

 in localities where the phylloxera had as yet failed to appear, either on the American or 

 native stocks. . .., ,^, 



M. Plauchon then discussed th,^ Americans, dividing them into three principal 

 groups: 1. The Lambrusca; Iberries with foxy taste. 2. OEstivalis; berries small, 

 leaves deeply indented, wooly on the veins. 3. Cordifolia, of which the Clinton is a 

 variety ; leaves smooth, berries small. The Scuppernong, derived from the Cordifolia, 

 attains a prodigious development, one stock covering one-third of a hectare, but it is too 

 wild. All these resist the phylloxera better than our varieties, perhaps because they have 

 not been so long in a state of cultivation. The insect does not extend its ravages beyond 

 the small roots of the American varieties. But while the Americans do extremely well 

 in France, they should not be imported -where j^hylloxera is unknown, for fear of intro- 

 ducing it, as the speaker is decided in asserting that it originated in America. 



M. Max Cornu gave a summary of his experiments. He confined himself to substances 

 giving off poisonous vapors, among which sulpho-carbonates gave the best results. 



M. Bouchet de Bernard, in a communication, advocated grafting French vines on 

 American stocks, thus obtaining good wine and roots capable of resisting the attacks 

 of the phylloxera. M. Leissoniere supported these ideas, asserting the positive inferior- 

 ity of the American wines. M. Terrel de Chenes stated that during five or six weeks 

 the phylloxera left its subterranean abode and crawled up the stock, hiding under the 

 bark six inches above the ground. M. Douysset told how well the American vines 

 grew at Roquemaure. And the session terminated with a communication from M. 

 Petit, of Nimes, who lauded the value of coal-tar against the phylloxera. 



At 8 o'clock, 29th October, the members assembled at Comedy square, to visit the 

 field of Las Sorres, and view with their own eyes the results spoken of by M. Marfes. 

 The experimental field should give some consolation to our brethren of the South, for 

 the squares of green vines in the middle of general desolation show the genius of man 

 may triumph over the phylloxera, as it already has over the Oidium. 



The cellar of Saporta belonging to M. Vialla was visited, and the excursion termin- 

 ated at the vineyard of M. Gaston Bazille, near Lattes. His yards join others not yet 

 treated for the phylloxera, and we can hardly describe the extraordinary difference in 

 the vines. Here they are digging up the stocks to throw away ; there they are covered 

 with leaves and vigorous branches. A part were treated with cow-urine and calcium 

 sulphate, a part with uriue alone. In another place, submersion has been tried with 

 success and new ditches are now beiug dug. 



In the session of October 30 M. Lichtenstein continued an essay by M. Roessler, dele- 

 gate of the Austrian government. In his country the grape-growers believe the phyl- 

 loxera came from America. They are opposed to destroying the vines, and believe in 

 studying the insect and fighting it with manure and phosphates, ammonia, and potash. 

 This treatment succeeds in porous soils, and to obtain this porosity the learned delegate 

 had made use of dynamite, raising the ground thus from a great depth without injuring 

 the vines. He then puts some chalk and phosphorus at the foot of the stock and irri- 

 gates. A gas is disengaged by the humidity, which destroys great quantities of insects, 



