84 , (iBAPE CULTURE AND 



result, the old vines, as well as the new " resistant " ones,, 

 have died from sheer inanition. 



They have been planted where no vine ever should be, if it 

 is to yield decent returns in soils underlaid at a few feet by 

 impervious hardpan, and where the roots would remain 

 drenched in cold water until late in spring. They have not 

 resisted, as it was best they should not. 



Cuttings, or rooted vines, have been planted in holes from 

 which dying phylloxerated vines had just been extracted. 

 They have found the cumulative pressure of having to take 

 root in fresh ground, and at the same time to feed a swarm 

 of half-starved phylloxera coming from the outlying roots of 

 the old vine, too much for them. They have failed to resist 

 what no young plant could be expected to survive under any 

 circumstances. Some have survived to the second, and even 

 third year, struggling against these adverse conditions, but have 

 finally succumbed, as they might have been expected to do 

 before. And again we hear of a damning example of the 

 failure of the resistant vines. 



Adaptations of Vines to Soils. But beyond such cases as 

 these, which are intelligible and avoidable under the guidance 

 of common sense alone, there is another class of reported 

 failures which is clearly referable to the want of special adap- 

 tation of the vine chosen as a resistant, to the particular soils 

 or location in which they were planted. 



It is not reasonable to suppose that a vine which is naturally 

 at home in rich, heavy lowland soils, should not only flourish 

 but supply extra strength against attack from without, in thin, 

 meager uplands, or on land exhausted by long cultivation; 

 nor that a vine whose hardy roots resist the phylloxera when 

 growing in its natural location on dry, rocky uplands, will 

 necessarily retain this character when grown in rich, moist 

 lowland. To a certain extent, cultivation does modify and 

 equalize the natural soil-conditions, especially when it is thor- 



