142 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



nursery. About the first of July we can Vjegin to uncover the scions, 

 cut off the roots, and leave the grafts exposed instead of covering them 

 up again as we do in the other methods. It is good to give an irrigation 

 two or three days before uncovering the grafts. 



This method has given splendid results at the Moet & Chandon 

 Experiment Station in France, where it Avas devised. Over 1,500,000 

 bench-grafts were made as a test last year; the returns in the fall 

 of the year were 56 per cent for the grafts on Riparia and 54 per cent 

 for the grafts on Rupestris du Lot. When we consider that the growing 

 season in that district of France is short, being nearly at the limit of 

 the northern vineyard section, and that the ordinary method of bench- 

 grafting had been considered as impracticable, this result is highly satis- 

 factory. With our better soils, better irrigation facilities, and longer 

 growing season, w^e ought to get from 20 to 25 per cent more grafts. If 

 we can thus count upon 75 per cent of our bench-grafts, it will encourage 

 the vineyardists to plant on resistant stock, as it will nearly cut in two 

 the cost of good grafted cuttings. This would be still more the case if 

 the vineyardist should raise his own resistant stocks and thus bring 

 their price to what it ought to be — a couple of dollars a thousand. 



The Agricultural Experiment Station at Berkeley is going to carry 

 on in the spring an extensive experiment in bench-grafting to test 

 these different methods. This experiment will be made on a prac- 

 tical commercial scale; about 25,000 bench-grafts will be made. We 

 have found some new improvements to the hot-room method that may 

 give us still better results. 



I hope that we will be able to encourage planting on resistant stocks 

 wherever there is danger of being attacked by phylloxera; until this is 

 done the planting of vineyards in those districts will be a speculation 

 and not a safe investment. 



FRIENDLY INSECTS. 



By ALEXANDER CRAW, of San Frakcisco, 

 Deputy State Horticultural Commissioner. 



When Californians first suggested the idea of controlling the injurious 

 insect pests of our orchards by the aid of beiieficial or friendly insects, 

 some of the prominent entomologists of the country ridiculed the prop- 

 osition and one even advanced the statement that few pests meant few 

 parasites. Certainly if there were only few injurious insects, they 

 could hardly be considered pests, and few parasites would be required 

 to keep them in subjection. It is now a well-recognized fact that inju- 

 rious insects are those which have no parasites to keep in check their 

 excessive increase. 



Insects which live at the expense of growing plants, trees, or fruits 



