﻿166 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



June 7fh, 1875. — Examined at Sandhills. Angfusta, Concord, Ives, Grethe, Wilder, 

 Lindley, Maxatawney, Eumelan, Cynthiana, Brant, Cornucopia, Canada, Senasqua. 

 Croton, Caravvba, Warren; vines from two to seven years old; soil almost pure sand, 

 kept well cultivated and fertilized with annual top dressiners of bone-dust and leaf- 

 mould ; growth moderate in most varieties, owing to vines being closely planted and 

 defective pruning ; not a trace of insects. This vineyard is now yielding a heavy crop 

 of perfect fruit. 



July 30th — Examined a vineyard of a little more than one acre; vines trellised 

 and kept in cultivation annually ; vines four, six and eight years old. Catawba, Con- 

 cord. Delaware, Diana, Wilder, Lindley ; soil a compact whitish clay subsoil, com- 

 monly termed here crawfish land; top soil sandy ; situation very low, and soil reten- 

 tive of humidity, but well drained ; vines very luxuriant ; fruit abundant, sound and 

 not a trace of Phylloxera. 



August 10th — Dug up to-day a vine of White Chasselas, planted in 1858 ; vine 

 ■was injured several times and repeatedly broken ; first growth of the year was broken 

 off when it had attained six feec ; grew off vigorously, and set fruit on second growth ; 

 canes of latter six feet, very vigorous and healthy, and after submitting the rootlets to 

 close investigation, failed to find a trace of insect; soil a rich, gravelly loam, two feet 

 deep, and subsoil stiff, red clay. 



From these notes it is evident that the presence of the Phylloxera is still unknown 

 here; the vines examined at Sandhills had been received from various sources, north 

 and west. Mr. Hammond's foreign vines were brought by him from the garden of the 

 Luxembourg, Paris, in 1859. My foreign vines, of which I cultivated, in 1860-61, nearly 

 400 varieties, came from various sources ; some from Paris, Angers, Nice, Hungary, 

 Crimea, and a large portion from Algeria. Not a trace of Phylloxera has ever been 

 discovered on any of them. 



These reports are most interesting, and while they confirm the 

 absence of Phylloxera in the vineyards examined, they also most elo- 

 quently support the views so repeatedly urged in my writings. 

 Where the Phylloxera occurs, I have shown that the European vine 

 languishes and by the third or fourth year perishes, while many of 

 our own varieties also suffer and some of them succumb. Here we 

 have instances, where no Phylloxera exists, of the European vines 

 flourishing and bearing healthy fruit, as also many native varieties 

 and hybrids, which in vineyards infested with Phylloxera, suffer or en- 

 tirely succumb. One other fact comes out clearly from Mr. Berckmans' 

 report: it is that the insect was not brought from any of the various 

 parts of Europe from which he imported his foreign varieties. Facts 

 like these are what we want, and not prejudiced opinions. 



While it is made clear, therefore, that the Phylloxera does not 

 occur around Augusta, the following letter from the Secretary of the 

 Atlanta Pomological Society will show that it occurs about 160 miles 

 westward of Augusta, in the same State ; and I have little doubt but 

 that the investigations of Mr. John T. Humphreys, who has recently 

 been appointed State Entomologist of Georgia, will show us that it 

 occurs more or less throughout the State: 



C. V. KiLEY— Dear -Sir; Your letter of Sept. 18th, and parts of Gth and 7th An- 

 nual Reports, were received, and my excuse for so long a delay in replying is absence 

 from home and pressing business engagements. Early in October 1 took four vines 

 from our vineyard that had the appearance of being unhealthy. Allen's Hybrid, Maxa- 

 tawney, Walter and Delaware ; all but the Walter had been planted three years — that 

 two years. 



'Upon examination, with an inferior single lens glass (I could not get a good one 

 in our city), I discovered insects, answering to the Phylloxera, on the roots of Maxa- 



