42 GRAPE CULTURE AND 



remedy. It is easily perceived, however, that this is also a 

 tax on the mother vine, and allowance must be made for it in 

 pruning. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PHYLLOXERA QUESTION. 



That this is a serious one, likely to effect our industry in all 

 its branches, will hardly be denied by anyone. If we look at 

 the devastated vineyards of Europe, if we consider the ruin it 

 has brought to thousands of formerly happy and contented 

 homes in France, how its ravages have* decimated this leading 

 industry, so that now they do not produce wine enough for 

 their own consumption, but must buy where they formerly al- 

 most supplied the world; how its ravages are already felt in 

 Algiers, in Austria and wherever vines are grown, we will 

 hardly question that it is the great "disaster threatening every- 

 where, including this continent. Indeed, we have evidence 

 sufficient of its destructiveness in this State, to convince us 

 that it is the most formidable enemy of our industry which we 

 have to encounter. It is worse than useless to try to ignore 

 it, as has been done in some sections of the State, it will 

 make itself seen and felt, and no mechanical or chemical 

 means have as yet been found that are of real practical value. 

 All the insecticides that have so far been tried, have proved 

 too costly and impractical in their application; and we must 

 resort at last to the only practical preventative, now recog- 

 nized by all nations to be their salvation, viz., " American 

 resistant vines." 



