6 



has been advocated; but the irregularity of the results, 

 and, above all, the necessity of reconstituting a vineyard in 

 the state of a patient who has to be doctored all his life, 

 forced the majority of vine-growers to abandon this method, 

 and in districts where practical men have already had a long 

 experience of phylloxera, reconstitution of vineyards on 

 other bases are preferred. These are : Planting in sand, 

 submersion, and the use of American vines. 



These different methods, the efficacy of which is not 

 contested in regions where they have been experimented with 

 for many years, have entered the period of cultural applica- 

 tion. The areas so reconstituted are increasing every year ; 

 we, therefore, deemed it advisable to collect all information 

 resulting from experiments made by viticulturists of the 

 South of France, and also those made at the School of 

 Agriculture of Moiitpellier. This work, which does not 

 pretend to be complete, was written with the object of 

 preventing vine-growers from groping in the dark as the 

 pioneer experimenters had to do. All facts which seem to 

 be established by practice and justified by theory have been 

 grouped and condensed methodically. 



The scheme of this book results from the following 

 considerations : If one had to classify the different means 

 of reconstituting vineyards, taking only into account the 

 facility of execution, one would naturally place in the first 

 rank planting in sand, which would simply be following the 

 old track ; then would follow submersion, which means 

 yearly cost, special precautions, but which has the advantage 

 of allowing the culture of varieties already known, without 

 being forced to study the question of adaptation and of 

 grafting, and finally, replanting with resistant stock. 



Unfortunately, we are not generally able to choose, and 

 circumstances almost always oblige us to adopt a given 



