OBSERVATIONS ON THE CALIFORNIA VINE DISEASE 147 
observed on sufficiently fresh material that includes both the 
apical and basal portions of the shoots. 
IV 
Nature of the California vine disease 
When empiricists agree, their opinion may be taken as having 
some foundation in fact. The grape-growers of California have 
always considered the California vine disease as a “ top disease,” 
and the facts undoubtedly support this opinion. 
Nearly every observer who has written upon the California 
vine disease has dwelt at length upon the foliar characteristics of 
this malady, and either stated implicitly or expressly that it travels 
downwards, not upwards. Morse observes that “ scattering vines 
which appear not to have made good growth last year, are dried 
up and dead to the roots, which in nearly all cases still contain 
sap." Dowlen is of the opinion that the disease travels down- 
wards. “The disease always travels downwards,” he says, 
“both in vines and cuttings.” “Some cuttings were purposely 
planted in an inverted position, still the result was the same; the 
disease always started at the end which was naturally farthest 
from the main stem, whether that end was placed in the air or 
in the soil"? That the disease does not affect the roots is ап 
opinion that has been largely held by viticulturists, if we may 
judge from a letter published in the Pacific Rural Press of 
October 20, 1888.3 “Тһе published accounts of the disease which 
I have seen," writes Scribner, “ assert that the roots are perfectly 
sound." But this is not exactly his opinion, for in the very next 
sentence we find him saying—" In every case examined by Pro- 
fessor Viala and myself we found the ultimate rootlets dead 
often for a foot or more from their tips." Scribner does not | 
state, however, whether the vines examined were in the first or 
last stages of the disease, but I am inclined to believe, from the 
ing the seasons 1885 and 
' Morse, F. W. Report of the viticultural work dur 
1886, College of Agriculture, University of California, 177. | 1886. Ca 
Dowlen. Report of Board of State Viticultural Commissioners for 1889 
90, 
Cal. 
1890. 
3 Letter of Е. L. Scribner to Benj. Pratt, of Orange, 
