238 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



edly called to Washington, and is therefore unable to be with us, as he 

 had intended, but he has sent his paper, which the Secretary will now 

 read to you. 



THE ADAPTABILITY OF GRAPEVINES TO DIFFERENT 

 VINEYARD SOILS. 



By GEORGE C. HUSMANN, of Washington, D. C. 



Phylloxera was introduced into California either from this country 

 east of the Rocky Mountains, where it has existed on the wild vines for 

 ages, or indirectly from Europe, or both. It appears to have been in 

 California about as long as it is supposed to have been in France, 

 although it was not located in the State previous to the year 1875. 

 Preceding circumstances, however, indicate vines to have been affected 

 with it as early if not earlier than 1860. It was first detected in 

 France in 1863 and was most likely introduced on American vines 

 imported for propagation purposes at the time the total destruction of 

 French vines from oidium was feared, some ten or twelve years before 

 the insect was discovered in the Valley of the Rhone. In 1869 it had 

 gained a strong foothold in southeastern and southwestern France. 

 There would be no special object in giving data relative to the' time the 

 insect was located in other European grape countries. 



In 1882 the phylloxera was well established in Sonoma, Napa, Yolo, 

 Solano, El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties, 

 California. Records of the California vine disease were first published 

 in 1885 to 1886, although some claim to have noticed effects of it in 1882. 



Phylloxera and the vine disease have been the two principal 

 agencies in the destruction of vineyards in California. To give some 

 idea of the losses occasioned by them, I would state that in 1903 it was 

 estimated in conservative figures that the loss of acreage of vines 

 through them in California at that time amounted to at least $1,000 

 per day. In southern California from twenty-five to thirty thousand 

 acres of vines had been laid waste, while in northern California the 

 entire vineyards of several of the leading grape-growing valleys had 

 been destroyed, a number of the second plantings having , also 

 succumbed. In one valley where four years previously 6,000,000 

 gallons of wine were made, in 1903 the crop only amounted to 500,000 

 gallons. 



Innumerable remedies have been suggested, and as many tried, with 

 which to eradicate the phylloxera from vineyards, but no practical one 

 has been found, and it has become an accepted fact that the only way to 

 successfully combat the insect is to establish vineyards on resistant 

 stocks. 



The great diversity of soils and climatic conditions found in Cali- 



