﻿FIELP AND FOREST. 199 



The Phylloxera and Insecticides, 



Some time ago we published in our columns a short account of the 

 results of the investigations of various scientific men in France into 

 the nature of the Phylloxera — that terrible scourge which is commit- 

 ting such wide-spread ravages among the French vineyards. Latterly 

 we have received some reports communicated to the French Academy 

 of Sciences dealing with the attempts which have been made during 

 the last three or four years to arrest the mischief done by the insect, 

 and ultimately to destroy it altogether, by means of some potent drug. 

 It is obvious that the remedy to be employed must possess two quali- 

 fies, viz., it must destroy the insect and it must not damage to any 

 great extent the vine. But, further, it is not sufficient that when put 

 in close contact with the roots of a plant — as in a pot — it should 

 prove fatal to the insect, it is necessary, if the remedy is to be of real 

 practical value, that it should reach and destroy the Phylloxera on all 

 the parts attacked by it in vines which are planted out in the open air. 

 This is a real difficulty to overcome, as the remedy, be it in the form 

 of solution or vapor, cannot easily permeate the soil, sometimes clayey, 

 sometimes sandy, in which the vine is growing, so as to reach and act 

 upon the smaller root branches whose nutrition the Phylloxera diverts 

 into itself. 



M. Mouillefert, a professor at the School of Agriculture at Grignon, 

 was the gentleman delegated by the Academy of Sciences to make the 

 necessary experiments for the purpose of determining what agent was 

 the most practically applicable to the destruction of the Phylloxera, 

 and the account of the numerous substances employed by him with 

 varying results fills no less than two hundred pages of a memoir pre- 

 sented to the Academy of Sciences. It is not our attention here to 

 do more than give a brief resume of the results at which he arrived. 



He divides the substances used by him into seven groups, the first 

 of which was composed of manures of various kinds, such as guano, 

 superphosphates, farm-muck, &c, ; the second of neutral substances, 

 as water, soot and sand; the third of alkalies, as ammonia and soda; 

 the fourth of saline products, amongst which were the sulphates of 

 iron, copper, zinc, potassium, ammonia and sea-salt; the fifth of veg- 

 etable essences and products, as decoctions of hemp, datura, absinthe, 

 valerian and tobacco ; the sixth of empyreumatic products ; and the 



