" THE LEAVES OF THE TREE were FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS." 35, 



with the disease, and were uprooted and destroyed. The infection, in some cases, 

 had evidently been of long standing, and the vineyards throughout the district 

 generally presented a most delapidated appearance. Unfortunately, the inspectors 

 were appointed too late for any beneficial measures to be taken, for the flight of the 

 winged insects was already nearly ended. The inspectors therefore confined their 

 report to certain observations and recommendations. They expressed their opinion, 

 aggreeing with experience elsewhere, that the disease was not due to poverty or 

 neglect (! !) bat that it had bsen imported into the Geelong district, and spread 

 either through the agency of the winged female, or the distribution of rooted vines 

 or vine catlings. They ascer tained that the flight of the winged insects commences 



about the end of December, and continued till the first week in February an 



observation which is of value in considering the work of eradication. The inspect- 

 ors concluded their report by recommending the adoption of prohibiting measures 

 in regard to the importation of rooted vines and vine-cuttings and the uprooting of 

 all uncultivated vine-yards, at the expense of the proprietors. 



" Daring December, 1879, by direction of the chief Secretary, some experiments 

 with bi-sulphide of Carbon were made. The more immediate object of the work 

 was to test, as nearly as circumstances would admit, the effioacy of bi-sulphide to 

 stay the spread of phylloxera, when used in the manner patented by Mr, Rohart, 

 of Paris. The Rohart method, in brief, is to bury, at convenient distances and 

 depths, around the roots of the diseased vines, cubes of porous wood previously im- 

 pregnated with bi-sulphide of Carbon, and coated with a varnish the composi'tion 

 and manner of application of which is a secret reserved by the patentee. The 

 experiments were devised and conducted by Mr. Manly Hopwood, Chemist and 

 Analyst to the Department of Agriculture. At the time they were carried out the 

 country was very dry and the season much advanced, circumstances which militated 

 greatly against the success of the trials. In lieu of the patent cubes of M. Rohart, 

 Mr. Hopwood used small chip boxes, filled with dry sand, and cubes of " Infusorial" 

 earth, baked to expel moisture. Both these substitutes were charged with bi- 

 sulphide of carbon at the moment of use, and buried around the vines in holes 

 made with an iron bar to the depth of from ten to twelve inches. By experiment 

 in the laboratory it had been found that the evolution of bi-sulphide of carbon 

 vapor from baked infusorial earth is comparatively slow and even. 



"Mr. Hop wood's experiments yielded results agreeing in the main with those 

 obtained in Europe, and led him to the conclusion that the employment of the 

 Rohart remedy early in the season would probably be efficacious in destroying the 

 underground phylloxera. But since the system is only applicable before the in- 

 sects have reached the surface in the winged state, he points out the great im- 

 portance of determining the proper time for the application, and rightly insists up- 

 on the necessity of early treatment. It is to be regretted that the experiments 

 made by Government do not appear to have stimulated private enterprise in the 

 same direction; for, so far as can be ascertained, no further trials of insecticides 

 have been made in the infected districts." (The real cause remained untouched.) 



Notwithstanding the Victorian Inspectors having agreed to believe that 

 the phylloxera "disease" in and around Geelong was not due to poverty 

 and neglect" the actual facts of the case told a very different tale, as it was 

 well known to many local residents that a similar process of vineyard 

 forming obtained in Geelong to what happened as stated by Prof. George 

 Hussniann, in California. To my personal knowledge the Geelong vine- 

 yard plots and much of the vineyard soil in other parts of Victoria, 

 Australia would only yield rank weeds such as thistles and sorrel from a 

 similar soil impoverishing cause when planted with vines. 



PROFESSOR F. W. MORSE 



In a work entitled " Observations on the Life, History and Habits of 

 the Phylloxera in California," made from 1881 to 1886 by Prof. F. W. 

 Morse, assistant in the United States General Agricultural Laboratory, 

 that dreadful insect's mode of attack is described as follows: 



