THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 67 



reason to suppose they would do so there; but, until further experi- 

 ence shall give more decided results, we must be guided by that of 

 M. Laliman, across the ocean, and our own here, as given last j'^ear 

 (Rep. 4, p. 64). 



With regard to the best method of grafting the grape-vine, it 

 may be well to state that such grafting requires the greatest care, 

 and that experienced autliors agree that it is best done under ground, 

 and soon after the frost is out in spring. Details will be found in the 

 standard works on grape-culture ; and I would refer to articles in the 

 last volumes of the Western Planter and of the Rural ^Vorld^ and 

 more particularly to the number of the last-named for February 1, 

 1873. 



NEW THEORIES. 



Quite naturally, there have been numerous persons abroad ready 

 to assert that the Phylloxera was the effect rather than the cause 

 of disease. Such opinions, from some quarters, would not cause sur- 

 prise ; but when intelligent naturalists like Messrs. Signoret and 

 Guerin-Meneville persist in such belief, it is difficult to give any other 

 explanation than that they are too much absorbed in closet studies to 

 make the proper field observations ; or are biased in favor of theories 

 hastily announced before any field studies were made. In the face of 

 the gradual spread of the disease from infested to uninfested regions, 

 and of the exemption which vineyards enjoy where the insect has not 

 yet aj)peared — in face of the demonstrable and hurtful results which 

 follow its puncture, and the isolated spots or centers of attack from 

 which it often originates — men still have the hardihood to compare 

 the disease with scrofula in man, to attribute it to '"meteorological 

 perturbations," and other equally illusive explanations. They invoke 

 some remote, mysterious cause, and prefer the vague to the definite. 

 Most of them would, of course, scout the idea of these mysterious 

 causes producing the lice, for they would scarcely go so far, even if 

 abiogenetically inclined; but 1 can not help likening their views to 

 those of the average Cockney, who so implicitly believes that the east 

 wind and certain atmospheric conditions peculiar to London, beget 

 and engender the myriad lice which blight his plants at certain sea- 

 sons. For my part, I want no better explanation than the greater 

 tenderness and susceptibility of the European vines compared with 

 those on which the lice have bred from time immemorial in this 

 country. 



In spite of the abundant rains that have, from all accounts, soaked 

 the vineyards in the infested districts of France without decreasing 

 the disease — in spite of the fact that other plants have not suffered 

 for want of min — the sophism is still reiterated that the disease is 

 owing to meteorological abnormities, and especially to drouth. The 

 poor wine-grower is told to wait for more rain, and that if he pursues 



