6 How TO MAKE GRAPE CULTURE PROFITABLE IN CALIFORNIA 



fered a stroke on one side, to Cornichon, a much more resistant vari- 

 ety with me, I inserted a scion into the healthy portion of the stock. 

 The graft making but small growth the following two years, the 

 vine recovered. If this was a disease, permeating the vine from a 

 small beginning, recovery would have been impossible, considering 

 its fatal character otherwise. 



The gist of the whole matter is, the Viniferas and several Amer- 

 ican species are not exactly adapted to California soil conditions, or 

 rather moisture conditions in the soil as they generally exist in cul- 

 tivated ground. They cannot adapt themselves at first to an excess 

 of moisture and bountiful supply of food and within a short time 

 afterwards to great dryness and scantiness of nourishment. The 

 vine not being a rational and economical being, during the forepart 

 of summer throws out a much stronger foliage and sets a much 

 heavier crop than it can support properly without injury to its vital- 

 ity, although at the time without any apparent distress. This ex- 

 ceedingly free and excessive growth of the Viniferas, and still more 

 so of Riparia and Rupestris, during the early summer constitutes 

 a second cause to the disease. We cannot lessen the moisture sup- 

 ply of the soil during the forepart of the vine's growth very well, 

 except by quitting irrigation at this time where this is practiced, 

 but we can avert the weakening of the vine during the latter part 

 of the summer through preventive methods. These will be neces- 

 sary, as the susceptibility of the Viniferas to attack by the disease 

 increases from year to year, so that in the future no locality will be 

 exempt from its ravages without their employment. 



In conformity with my views the Lenoir has shown itself a re- 

 sistant. I shall state here, that whenever the word "resistant" is 

 used in this treatise, it means resistant to California vine disease, 

 unless otherwise stated. The Lenoir as is well known is adapted 

 to wet, heavy soils and also to dry ones, if these are clayey. It is a 

 hybrid of Vitis cinerea, adapted to heavy, wet soils, and a Vinifera 

 and Astivalis variety, best adapted to drier conditions. 



The Champini also has outlived almost any other vine in the 

 Santa Clara Valley. It is a hybrid of V. candicans with Rupestris, 

 The former is adapted both to very wet and dry conditions. Al- 

 though the Champinis are generally recommended for "dry" soils 

 only, they certainly must also have some resistance against excess 

 of moisture, as they take considerably after Candicans. For this 

 reason vines like Riparia, Rupestris and Vinifera, not possessing 

 the wide range of adaptation to the great changes from wet to dry, 

 as the two vines mentioned, have succumbed. 



It seems that such resistants can be obtained only by hybridiza- 

 tion and especially by hybridizing species, adapted to wet, with 

 some adapted to drier conditions. Certain it is, that by hybridiz- 

 ing varieties of different species, adapted to different climatic and 

 soil conditions, vines can be produced, possessing a much greater 

 power of adaptability than either one of the parents. But it is very 

 likely, that certain species, as the Cinerea, Cordifolia, Berlandieri 

 and especially the Candicans, have a great flexibility of adaptation 

 in themselves. Vines found wild on soils of a close or compact tex- 



