8 



cultivation, that those requirements do not apply to Victorian 

 vineyards, the assertion most frequently advanced being 

 that our vineyard soils do not require such deep cultivation 

 as is necessitated in Europe for reconstitution. In other 

 words, that our vineyard soils are naturally better suited to 

 the vine without deep cultivation than those of France, 

 Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland,* Italy, Roumania,t 

 and other European countries, where deep cultivation is 

 accepted as an essential preliminary in planting American 

 vines, and, therefore, that our usual procedure of shallow 

 cultivation is ample. We have no hesitation in condemning 

 this fallacy, as the assertion does not tally with the poor 

 average yield of Victorian vineyards, or with the frequent 

 occurrence of pourridie (a cryptogamic disease, attacking 

 both European and American vines, for which no direct 

 remedy is known at present). 



Other viticultural countries, besides European, have blun- 

 dered over the preliminary preparation of the ground for 

 American stocks, notably California, in quite recent years, 

 where vine-growers confidently ignored previous European 

 experience. We would do well to profit by the Californian 

 failures. Judging by some of the opinions expressed adverse 

 to deep cultivation for American vines the exercise of a 

 little discretion and common sense will save some of our 

 local vine-growers, about to reconstitute, from a repetition of 



* The reconstitution of vineyards in Switzerland with American stocks 

 was sanctioned by .the Swiss Government in 1896 (Rapport de la Commis- 

 sion administrative sur I'exercice 1895. Neuchdtel, 1896), in consequence of 

 the very limited success of the costly annual treatments involved in the 

 attempts at extinction of the phylloxera. 



The first Swiss State nursery of American vines was established at 

 Au vernier as far back as 1889. There are now State nurseries for the pro- 

 pagation of American stock in almost every canton. These nurseries 

 occupy over 15 acres. The area of Swiss reconstituted vineyards is 

 increasing rapidly every year. (J. Dufour, Les Vignes Amdricaines et la 

 Situation Phyttoxerique. dans le Canton de Vaud. Lausanne, 1899.) 



t G. N. Nicoleanu, La lutte contre le phylloxera en Romame. Bucarest. 

 1900. 



