[27] THE GRAPE-SEED FLY. ]39 



the dot marking the entrance of the inclosed grub in short, 

 all infested clusters. Or, the clusters might be buried, with a 

 foot of solid ground above them, through which, the perfect 

 insects if developed under such circumstances, would not be 

 able to penetrate. 



Regarding so serious an attack upon the grape as of great 

 economic importance, and with our knowledge of it limited to 

 an experience in a single locality, I deemed it proper to request 

 of the gentleman from whom its announcement had been re- 

 ceived, a detailed statement for record, of the circumstances 

 and conditions attending it, as an aid toward working out the 

 life history of a dangerous insect pest, of which so very little 

 was known. 



He kindly communicated the following statement : 



DEAR SIR Your favor of 17th November is received. 

 Please accept my hearty thanks. I will gladly take pains to 

 learn what I can next year about the insect and inform you. 



I only have a small place in JMew Jersey, where I live, and 

 in my garden I have some twelve or fifteen vines only. The 

 place I purchased five years ago, built my house and made 

 my garden. The lot was a portion of an old neglected apple 

 orchard. The soil is a light sandy loam, with a sub- soil 

 of clear sand and gravel, running down probably twenty feet. 

 Most of my grape vines are set in a border facing the south- 

 west, trained on a post and wire trellis, with an ordinary 

 picket fence about two feet in the rear so they have an 

 abundance of light and air. 



About 150 feet from this trellis, facing it (hence a north-east 

 exposure), is the rear of my house. On a piazza here I have 

 a Croton vine, very thrifty, and not far away, against an out- 

 house, I have a Oatawba, with a south-eastern exposure. 

 These two vines bear largely and are the only ones in my 

 yard, apparently free from the attack of this insect. 



Where I previously lived, I never had any trouble worth 

 mentioning with grape enemies, and so was not on the look 

 out for this insect. My grapes bore a very little two years' 

 ago (first crop), and I do not remember any appearance of dis- 

 ease. Last year they (or some of them) bore quite a crop, 

 and the grapes were badly injured. Gardeners and fruit grow- 

 ers in my neighborhood, thought the trouble came from heavy 

 and continued rains following a dry spell, the sap starting 

 so vigorously as to burst the berry ; I therefore gave the mat- 

 ter not much thought. This year, as you know, many of my 

 vines fruited largely notably the Concord, Martha, Walter, 

 Croton, Catawba, with a smaller fruitage of Delaware, Hart- 

 ford Prolific, etc. With the exception heretofore mentioned, 



