TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-G ROWERS* CONVENTION. 105 



that there were 11,000 acres of vineyard in that district, 2,500 of which 

 were not then in bearing. Yields of nine and ten tons of grapes were 

 noted, with an average of over three tons per acre for a full-bearing 

 vineyard. 



The amount of destruction in eight years is shown by the canvass of 

 A. B. Lemmon of Santa Rosa, in 1893, who found that the acreage had 

 fallen off about one half. At that time 1,186 acres had been replanted 

 to resistants. The yield had dwindled to about a ton per acre, against 

 two and three tons for other districts in the county. 



At first men honestly differed as to the cause of ''sick" vines. Some 

 asserted that their soil was so rich that nothing but climatic influences 

 could check the luxuriant growth and regular crops. However, when 

 the vine-hopper stripped the third row from the fence line, arsenic and 

 bran were brought into use. When vines fell "sick" resistant stock was 

 planted, or the vineyard speedily became worth less than the naked 

 land. 



Acting upon the theory that vines were starved for lack of ground, 

 one man replanted an infested vineyard with the European vine, 

 giving them nearly double the room; but alas, the pest took all the 

 tender young vines before they bore a single crop. 



Another selected fresh alluvial soil, gave the vines ample room, and 

 gathered one crop and part of another before the phylloxera closed out 

 his vineyard experience with $40,000 on the wrong side of the balance 

 sheet. 



Emil Dresel made the first successful experiments with resistant 

 stock in Sonoma County. A man of liberal education, he was thoroughly 

 conversant with all of the details of wine-growing before he left Europe. 

 With his associates he made the famous purchase of vineyard property 

 in 1857, to which further tracts were added. The phylloxera was dis- 

 covered in these in 1874 and 1875. 



Experiments with resistants were begun in 1878, and in the twelve 

 years following the leading varieties of wine grapes were grafted upon 

 various resistant stocks and tested in infested land. 



Julius Dresel, his son, wrote a special article on the "Success of 

 Resistant Vines" in October, 1890, for the report of the State Viticul- 

 tural Commissioners, advising the general replanting of dead or diseased 

 vineyards to resistants. 



Speaking of the Lenoir and Riparia he stated that they should be 

 planted in the nursery for one year, remain two years in the vineyard, 

 be grafted during March, April, and May of the third year, and they 

 w T ould bring a fair crop in the fifth year. Cleft grafting is easily learned. 

 An experienced hand can finish from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred a day. Cut the stock half an inch above the ground, then heap 

 the soil in a mound around the graft to protect it from the wind and 



