232 
of the vine in the colony is decidedly inferior to that which it holds in 
colder climates where the soil is not so dry during the period of 
vegetation. 
* The mischief having been once clearly ascertained, what action 
should be taken in the matter? It was obviously reasonable to follow 
the method adopted in France, where the problem has been studied these 
twenty years past by men who, from a scientific pont. of view, are 
thoroughly competent and whose labours are well kno This wise 
course has been chosen instead of delaying action by ie. repetition of 
studies already worked out, and experiments made long ago, and upon 
which definite conclusions have been founded already. 
“It was prudent also, to jako coun of the s oar which are 
very different here from those ing in Fra There e farmers 
are of old date, and well cetur uu zi ea "appliances which are out 
of the reach of the Cape Viticulturist. Hence it follows that remedial 
measures of proved efficacy in Europe, such as kaini the employ- 
ment of bisulphide of carbon, and the alkaline sulpho-carbonates, could 
not be universally applied here. The same taig may be said of the 
reproduction of the vines upon American stocks, a i 
attention and considerable outlay, and even then with no absolute 
certainty of success. Nevertheless, I have been gratified to observe 
that the Cape Government has in this direction had the foresight to 
establish, by means of seedlings, a spif T phylloxera-proof stocks, 
which may be turned to account when n 
* But all the measures hitherto ‘eeu de no more than establish a 
modus vivendi between the vine and its enemy, without completely 
exterminating the latter. Hence follows the necessity of destroying the 
insect outright, if possible, by the extinction of its mpun centre of 
Oe pe e word, by destroying all contaminated gro 
“In France this drastic mode of procedure, proposed in r 1873 by ecd 
Phylloxera | Cana, » unfortunately cou 
already too late. The def was too widel 
* But in Switzerland, and also in Algeria, this s pro rocedure, recommended 
he Commission in 1873, had been eminently successful, although in 
the latter a its application was merely tentative. Not o nly is the 
progress ot the plague arrested by ins uprooting of the original centres 
numerous winged swarms which would proceed from the infected 
stocks, and would for several years continue to proceed from thence, to 
found at a distance new colonies, in numbers ever increasi ng, like the 
terms of a geometrical series. So rapid is this 5 Progression, that the 
original Je of infeetion in the south of France spread in six years 
over an are À 30,000 hectares (— 37,500 Cape morgen) th in ten - 
years had covered 15,000,000 hectares (— 10 million Cape morgen). 
The ren hea “result has been a period of enormous disaster. Ew 
