REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 47 



cessfully combat it is to reestablish the vineyard on resistant stocks, except 

 in the case of the vineyards which can be flooded cheaply and sufficiently 

 to kill the insect. 



Early Attempts at Resistant Stocks in This Country. 



The varying soil, climatic and other conditions on the Pacific Coast 

 which makes it possible to grow such a diversity of products in that region, 

 has proven a great stumbling block in the reestablishment of the vineyards 

 on resistant stocks. 



Records show introductions and plantings of resistants were made in 

 California as early as 1876. In the winter of 1880 to 1881 several large 

 orders were placed for resistant vine cuttings from east of the Rockies. 



Some of the earliest introducers accidentally chose varieties well adapted 

 to their locations and soil. For instance, near Sonoma, Vulpina, (Riparia) 

 introduced from Missouri, not only showed adaptability to soil and climatic 

 conditions, but also proved congenial stock for the Riesling and Chasselas 

 varieties which were principally grown there. 



At the lower end of Napa Valley, the Vulpina also did well. As a result 

 of such instances as these, Vulpina as a stock was planted indiscriminately 

 in high and low localities and on various soils, particularly in the Sonoma 

 and Napa valleys, the vineyards of which were the first to be destroyed by 

 the phylloxera. There being but few localities suited to Vulpina in Cali- 

 fornia, failures with them predominated. 



Then again, it was thought Vitis Californica might be resistant. With- 

 out any substantiation of this by 1883 at least three hundred thousand of 

 these had been planted. 



A few years later the Lenoir, having done remarkably well on some 

 soils, all who could secure them planted such. Had more vines been avail- 

 able more would have been planted. 



Since then, Rupestris St. George is being as indiscriminately used and 

 similar mistakes made with it. 



The resistant stocks mentioned and all others of merit, a number of 

 which had been introduced by the California State Experiment Station can 

 be expected to prove valuable only under conditions and soils suited to them. 



Furthermore, the work of selecting and breeding resistant stocks in 

 European wine countries has been largely influenced by their relative ability 

 to endure an excess of lime which is rarely met with in regions of this 

 country where the viniferas are commercially grown at present, so that the 

 resistant standards established by the French cannot be accepted as infal- 

 lible, or in fact serve more than as a general guide for American viticultural 

 investigators and vineyardists. 



The waste of money spent in reestablishment of vineyards in California 

 from the first appearance of phylloxera to the present time cannot even be 

 approximately estimated. It is more than likely, however, that at least two 

 hundred and fifty thousand acres of once flourishing vineyards have been 

 destroyed by phylloxera and other agencies during the last decades. The 

 claim is made that there are but few vineyards in California that are more 

 than ten years old at the present time, and we are sorry to say a large per- 

 centage of these are not on resistant stock. 



