TESTING THE SEEDLINGS FOR RESISTENCE, ETC. 39 







watched and kept clean from weeds by frequent hoeing and irri- 

 gated several times during the summer. 



Testing the Seedlings for Resistance Against the Phylloxera. 



In order not to waste time with vines, not resistant against the 

 Phylloxera, especially if a vine has been used as one of the parents, 

 which had only a slight resistance or none at all, pieces of roots 

 from a Vinifera variety covered with the insects should be buried 

 alongside the seedlings in June. Care should be taken, while doing 

 this, not to expose the insects to the sun or drying winds as this 

 might kill them. A moist sack wrapped around the roots, while 

 moving them, will prevent this. 



The seedlings should be watched closely, their "roots examined 

 at least once a month during the summer and if the Phylloxera is 

 found feeding on them to any extent, the vines should be pulled up 

 as soon as noticed. The insect will always attack those plants first, 

 which have the least resistance in the lot. So if the seed-bed con- 

 tains vines, having a resistant-coefficient of 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, it will 

 l)e found principally on the seedlings having a resistance of 4, and 

 very few on any other. As soon as these are destroyed, it will at- 

 tack the plants, having a resistance of 6, and so on. Before this 

 habit of the insect was known, numerous mistakes were made in 

 France, in supposing low-resistant vines immune, which did not 

 prove so at all as soon as they were planted by themselves in a field. 

 A Lenoir, for instance, is not attacked at all as long as Californicas 

 or Viniferas are near, and a Californica appears perfectly immune, 

 if healthy Viniferas are growing near it. For this reason it is best 

 to leave the young vines in the same place for another year and con- 

 tinue the experiment in examining the roots carefully every month 

 during the summer and pulling up everything that seems good feed 

 for the insect. Along in September of the second year the roots of 

 the remaining seedlings should be carefully examined to see what 

 effect, if any, the attacks of the Phylloxera had on them, as no vine 

 is entirely free from its presence, however high its resistance. 



At the end of the second year the young hybrids may be taken 

 up and then each one of them planted by itself a considerable dis- 

 tance from any other low-resistant vines. A good plan to follow is 

 to plant about one foot from every one of them a Rupestris St. 

 George (16) or a Champini (14) and then bury some phylloxerated 

 roots near them. If on examination during summer and fall the 

 Phylloxera has shown a preference for the roots of the seedlings, it 

 is plain, that their resistance is not as high as that of the accompany- 

 ing vines. If, on the other hand, the insect has preferred the roots 

 of the two vines mentioned, it is proof that the resistance of the 

 young hybrids is higher than that of the Champini or Rupestris St. 

 George. 



On examining the roots of the vines during August, if swellings 

 on the small rootlets to any extent or still worse, if any at all on the 

 larger roots are observed, the seedlings should be rejected. Accord- 

 ing to Prof. Millardet's (of France) resistance scale, if 40 nodosities 



