238 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
of faith shown in it by our earlier ampelographers. The fears which I 
expressed in the same report as to the danger of the intreduction and — 
spread of the Phylloxera in California have also been more than justi- 
fied, since many vineyards have already been seriously injured or totally 
destroyed by the insect. I am glad to be able to confirm in this connec- if 
tion the truth of the statement of Mr. P. J. Berckmans, of Augusta, Ga., 
namely, that this insect does not eccur in that lecality. While spend- 
ing a few days with him last September I was able to verify its non- 
occurrence there; and here let me remark that, however much contempt 
there may be for the Seuppernong, no one can witness the prolificacy or 
experience the delicacy and sweetness of such varieties as Tender-pulp 
and Thomas, as they grow in Georgia, without having a due apprecia- 
tion of their value for the Southern States. 
Regarding the range of Phylloxera, it had often been asserted that 
around Washington the root insect was not to be found; yet I have 
found it extremely abundant, both in the vineyards of the district and 
of those just across the line in Virginia, some of the latter suffering to 
such an extent that the whole crop was a failure, though the owners 
were unsuspicious of the cause. 
After reviewing in the 8th Missouri Report all that was then known of 
the habits and natural history of the grape Phylloxera, I drew certain 
practical conclusions to the effect that complete knowledge of its habits, 
instead of simplifying its destruction, showed that it was almost if not 
quite hopeless to expect its destruction by any possible or praeticable 
means, and rendered preventive measures ail the more urgent. I ex- 
pressed my doubt as to the value of decortication of the vines, and the 
burning of the bark in winter, or any means which aimed at the killing 
of the winter egg upon the branches and canes of the vines. Diligent 
search had failed to reveal these winter eggs in anything like the quan- 
tity one might expect, and the fact remained that the insect could go on 
propagating under ground for at least four years without the necessary 
intervention of the impregnated egg. Further research made since con- 
firms me in the belief that the normal mode of hibernation of the species 
is as a young larvaupon roots. From the results of the deliberations of 
the International Phylloxera Congress, held in 1877 at Lausanne, as well 
as from those held in 1878 at Berne and Montpellier, it was conelu- 
sively proved that decortication, as I had anticipated, was of little or 
no avail. 
NOTES ON THE APPLE-WORM. 
7 
Mr. J. Savage, of Lawrence, Kans., in a recent number of Colman’s 
Rural World, remarks upon the freedom of Michigan apples from the 
werk of the Apple-worm (Carpocapsa pomonelia), This same freedom 
was generally noticed in 1878, not only in Michigan but in many parts 
of New York, and it doubtless obtained elsewhere. It will be well for 
us to endeavor to arrive at the reasons. To my mind the following, first 
urged by me in the New York Tribune, may very properly be given: 
ist. The very general failure of the apple crop in 1877, as exemplified in 
the reports for that year, which we find both in the proceedings of the 
Michigan Pomological Society and in these of the American Pomologi- 
cal Society. This failure was in many localities so nearly total that 
scarcely any apples were grown, and it follows as a consequence that 
very few codling moths were produced to perpetuate the species the fol- 
lowing year. A second reason, so far as Michigan is concerned, may be 
found in the fact that in no State in the Union have more intelligent 
