98 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



In California it first made its general appearance in Anaheim in 

 Orange county, in the month of August, 1884, when vineyards of old 

 Mission vines suddenly stopped growing, and the grapes failed to color 

 and ripen, while many of the vines died the same year. The plague 

 attacks in preference vines growing on poor, sandy or alkaline soil, or 

 in vineyards underlaid with hardpan. The weak vines succumb the 

 first of any. This is the reason why so many vineyardists doubt the 

 existence of any particular disease, contributing the poor condition 

 of the vineyard to anything else than the true cause. 



N. B. Pierce, who has now spent a year in studying the vine plague, 

 has found many similarities between it and the mat nero of Italy; but 

 the descriptions of the foreign investigators are both contradictory and 

 insufficient, and, without a personal investigation of the Italian or 

 French vises, the identity of our vine plague with any foreign disease 

 cannot be established. It is to be hoped that the United States Con- 

 gress will make such investigations possible. At present we do not even 

 know whether the vine plague is original in this country or whether it 

 was imported from foreign countries. The general opinion in the first 

 attacked district is that the disease was imported there with grape- 

 vines brought from Europe. So far I have not been able to ascertain 

 when and by whom such vines were imported, but I am satisfied that 

 in the course of time it will be found that foreign grapevines were 

 imported to the vineyards where shortly afterwards this disease first 

 appeared. 



Damages. The damages caused by the vine plague may be summed 

 tip as follows: The leaves turn spotted and yellow, finally dry up and 

 fall off. The canes fail to mature, or mature only in spots. Later 

 in the fall, they die from the tips, which turn black and become 

 brittle. The berries either dry up or shrivel up, and fail to mature, 

 or at any rate become mawkish or bitter. The yield becomes less and 

 less every year, although, the first year that the vines are touched by 

 the disease, the yield is often unusually large. In severe cases the 

 vine dies in from one to three years, but a few may linger longer. 



Remedies. The vine plague has existed in this State for six or eight 

 years, but as yet few, if any, efforts have been made to extinguish it, 

 and only during the last year have any experiments been carried on. The 

 solutions of bluestone and lime which many expected would prove 

 beneficial to the vines attacked by the plague have, in my opinion, 

 done little or no good. Spraying the vines when in full foliage with 

 the I X Iy compound greatly benefits the vines, and proves a powerful 

 stimulant and the best remedy yet employed. 



LEAF-HOPPER (Erythronetira comes). 



Characteristics. This -pernicious little pest is a bug which multiplies 

 in enormous quantities and sucks the sap out of the vine leaves. 

 Many use the name of thrips to denote this insect, but this is incor- 

 rect, as the thrips is an entirely different, much smaller, insect, which 

 so far has never been injurious to the vines of this coast. In size the 

 leaf-hopper is, at maturity, about one-tenth of an inch. In color it is 



