6 BULLETIN 903, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



after the replanting of the 3 acres, the committee of the Viticultural 

 Club discovered the phylloxera on the roots of several of the replants. 



The history of this vineyard proves conclusively by direct and cir- 

 cumstantial evidence that the trouble was due to phylloxera. It 

 localizes the infestation, describes the progress and spread of the 

 injury, and, by fixing dates, determines the period of time the prog- 

 ress covered. Finally, the presence of the insect is discovered and 

 its identity determined. 



In 1861 Gov. Downey, of California, appointed three commis- 

 sioners to work in the interests of the grape industry, two of the 

 members of this commission being Don Juan Warner and A. Ha- 

 raszthy. The latter was sent to Europe to purchase for the State 

 for distribution different varieties of grapes, and the result was the 

 importation of 200,000 cuttings and rooted vines, comprising 1,400 

 different varieties of grapes from all the vine-growing countries of 

 Europe and also from Asia Minor. It may be that some of these im- 

 ported rooted vines harbored phylloxera, which already had caused 

 considerable damage to vines in France, although the insect was only 

 discovered in that country the following year (1862). It is quite 

 likely that a good portion of the 70,000 vines planted out on the 

 Buena Vista vineyard in 1862 and referred to in Appleton's report 

 were propagated from this importation and that the pest may have 

 been introduced simultaneously with the planting of the vines. The 

 rapid destruction of the vineyard, as stated, however, could have been 

 brought about in the case of the young vines just as well by infesta- 

 tion communicated by the old vineyard. 



The history of the Orleans Hill vineyard furnishes an insight into 

 the methods of establishing vineyards with varieties of grapes im- 

 ported from Europe in the early days of grape culture in California, 

 and helps to give grounds for the belief that the earliest and original 

 introduction of phylloxera into this State was due to eastern varieties 

 of grapes only. 



Data of this history are contained in a report, dated 1880, submitted 

 by the owner of the vineyard (4, p. 112). In 1853 the owner im- 

 ported from Nassau, on the Rhine, in Germany, 15 varieties of grape 

 cuttings (vinifera) and planted them in his garden near Sutters 

 Fort, Sacramento, where they flourished splendidly and showed no 

 signs of disease. In 1859-60 many vines were propagated here for 

 planting the Orleans Hill vineyard in Cache Creek Canyon, Solano 

 County. This vinej^ard was set out in two different situations, part 

 being on a hillside and part in a flat. In the latter situation the 

 soil was of a stiff clayey nature and the vines did not do as well as 

 on the more friable hillside soil, and this necessitated replanting, for 

 which there were procured later from Napa some Zinfandel vines. 



