.■82 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



(IS) A very conclusive proof of the perfect efficacy of iiiundatiou, and at the same 

 time of the fact that Phylloxera is the sole and direct cause of disease, will be found in 

 the Keport recently made to the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, of a visit to the 

 vineyai'ds of M. Faucon and neighborhood, by a commission appointed from the De- 

 partment of Herault. With the exception of M. Mares, who is cautious in recommend- 

 ing submersion lest the vines suffer, every other member (31. Yialla, M. de Saint Pierre 

 and M. Gaston Bazille) considers the testimony conclusive that to inundation, and to it 

 alone, is due the resuscitation of M. Faucon's vineyards, and highly recommends it» 

 adoption wherever feasible. 



In 1870, M. NicoUas, of Crau, lost a large vineyard on the banks of the Marseille 

 canal, thiough Phylloxera. In 1872, finding that another vineyard which he owned 

 was attacked, he saved it by complete inundation with water from thePeyrolles canal— 

 Comptus liendus de I. Ac des Sc, Ixxviii, p. G97. Many similar instances might be cited 

 of the perfect success of this remedy where properly applied, and proving that the 

 success is owing solely to the drowning out of the insect, and not to any peculiar 

 chemical properties in the water. 



(19) M. Faucon discontinued the summer inundations last year because, first: he 

 deems them not absolutely necessary; secondly : they cause a number of weeds to get 

 the start which it is afterward difticult to repress ; thirdly : because where the ground 

 is not under-drained, the water, settling and heated by tlie summer's sun, injures the 

 vines in the lower places and depressions. 



(20) Late last fall I received a box of grape roots with an accompanying letter from 

 Mr. G. L. Wratten, Secretary, on behalf of the Sonoma Wine-growers' Club. The letter 

 described an insect which might be the Phylloxera, but the earth around the roots had 

 dried to a powder, and I could find no possible trace ot the insect after the most care- 

 ful scrutiny. In answer to my request for further specimens, i received a letter under 

 date of January 13, 1874, from which I extract the following, and thus the matter rests 

 for the present : 



We are extremelv sorry that the specimens sent did not arrive in good order. I 

 took pains in the packing. "Since the receipt of your last letter, myself and members of 

 the Club have examined fully one thousand vines in dittVrent vineyards, where we had 

 no dirticulty in finding them'before our winter rains set in, but now we can find none, 

 and the only indication is a little of the yellowish mold Irom the old wood, and a few 

 insects dead, swollen, filled with water, that the least touch bursts like a bubble. Before, 

 we could pull oft' a little of the old outside bark and either remove the insects with a 

 knife, or place tliem under a glass and see them full of litV', but now the ground is full 

 of water. We have now had about fifteen inches, and tlie prospect is that this will 

 be a wet season. The vineyards, a week ago, could not be gone into at all, without 

 sinking down six or eight inches. We expect before the season is over ten or twelve 

 inches more of rain, and if we get it, we hope never to see or hear of these pests again. 



* * Many parties ai-e pulling 'up every vine that sliows any symptoms of 

 having been attacked, intending to let the ground be vacant a year, treat it with lime 

 and strong manure, and then plant with strong rooted vines. 



* " -X- -X- * -"r 4<- * * * * * 



(21) Mr. A. S. Fuller, of Ridgewood, N. J., informs me that in Mr. C. W. Grant's cel- 

 ebrated vineyards atlona, nearPeekskill, N. Y., vines were frequently dug up on account 

 of the nodosities, as far back as 1858 ; that the men were in the habit of combing out 

 the roots of young vines to be sent ofT, with their fingers, to get rid of the knots ; also 

 that vines there suffered much in 18G0. 



Mr. W. N. Barnet, of New Haven, Connecticut, writing to the Country Gcntlenian, 

 under date of April 28, 1873, says : 



There is one other question which I would like solved, viz. : a remedy for the 

 insect that infests the roots ot some luu'sery grown vines. Choice varieties that I have 

 ■bought from large propagators have had this disease — a bloated root — and such vines 



