68 MANUAL OF MODERN VITICULTURE. 



does not acquire at first the size and abundance it would 

 reach in years to come ; we must assist the development of 

 these qualities by the selection of cuttings, repeatedly 

 grafting and layering, rather short pruning, and cultivation 

 in first-class soil. 



When the object is to obtain graft-bearers, the young 

 plants may be utilized in two ways, as it is possible either 

 to use the young plant itself or cuttings from it. 



Seedlings of forms growing rapidly, such as wild 

 Riparias, Solonis, Ac., can often be grafted with the cleft 

 method the first year, but the vigour and the aptitude of 

 each plant not being equal the resulting plantation would be 

 irregular. It is preferable to use cuttings only, these 

 cuttings being selected amongst the strongest and those 

 having the greatest vegetation. 



However, before using seedlings we must ascertain their 

 degree of resistance to phylloxera. The use of a rapid and 

 sure method is necessary, for the fact of a vine dying in 

 phylloxerated ground does not mean that phylloxera is the 

 cause of its death ; it might be a defect in the adaptation, or 

 any other cause. Further, the action of phylloxera is very 

 slight, and sometimes nil in certain soils, so that if trials 

 are made in such soils we may conclude that the resistance 

 is sufficient when, in fact, this is not the case. The study of 

 the lesions produced by phylloxera on the roots is the only 

 means of ascertaining quickly and surely the degree of resis- 

 tance of each type. When the roots, of a vine recently 

 attacked by the insect are examined a great number of 

 swollen radicles are to be seen, distorted and forming 

 nodosities; the larger roots bear protuberances, which have 

 been termed tuberosities. These different swellings alter 

 with time, and penetrate more or less deeply into the tissue 

 of the root, resulting in the death of the root when they 

 develop in great numbers and acquire considerable size. The 

 degree of probable resistance to phylloxera can, therefore, be 

 ascertained by studying the number and the size of these 

 tuberosities. Vines not bearing any trace of the action of 

 phylloxera, although growing in phylloxerated land, may be 

 regarded as indemnified. ( V. Rotundifolia alone fulfils this 

 condition.) The others may be classified according to the 

 scale of resistance which we have mentioned already. The 

 indemnified vines come first, then those bearing more or less 

 numerous nodosities on the rootlets without tuberosities 



