WIKK-MAKINC; IX CALIFORNIA. 87 



pact bunch of sweet berries. Several hundred Muscat grafts 

 were made upon this stalk when two years old, with scarcely 

 any loss; and more lately some Huasco cuttings, obtained 

 from the University, were similarly engrafted. Both are 

 bearing heavily and regularly, while the Vinifjra vines around 

 have long since been destroyed by the phylloxera. 



4. Vitis Riipestris, the sugar or rock grape of Missouri, is 

 a very hardy vine, at home on rocky knolls and hillsides, 

 where its wiry roots extract nourishment from the scanty soil 

 and the crevices of rocks, in a climate already partaking 

 somewhat of the aridity of the great plains. It would, there- 

 fore, seem to be of considerable promise for the foothills of 

 California especially; of its resistance to the phylloxera there 

 can be no question. It is, however, not easy to root from 

 cuttings, being, in this respect, like the cestiralis varieties. 

 In my personal experience I have found it to be of slow 

 growth on rich upland adobe, even more so than the Riparia, 

 so that when the top of the stock is sufficiently stout for graft- 

 ing, that portion generally tapers off very rapidly downward, 

 so as to afford very little " grip " for the graft, which has to be 

 tied in very thoroughly. Whether from want of care in this 

 respect or from the use of too many small stocks, my success 

 in grafting j;he Rupestris the third year from the cutting has 

 been very slight. The successful grafts, however, have shown 

 a vigorous growth, and seem well joined. The multitude of 

 wiry suckers which the stock persists in putting forth to the 

 end of the season, constitutes an inconvenience, shared to 

 some extent by the Riparia, and least of all by the Califor- 

 nica, which soon gives up sprouting its easily detatched suck- 

 ers. The Rupestris is least subject to mildew of all the re- 

 sistant stocks. 



Vitis Californica, the California wild grape (not, as some 

 still imagine, the " Mission " vine, which is very sensitive to- 

 ward the phylloxera), has been prominently brought forward 



