326 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [November e, 1889. 
MR. EOLAND TRIMEN ON " PHYLLOXERA." 
In going over an accummulated mass of papers 
recently, we came on a Oape Government notice 
to us by Dr. Trimen, which we annotated freely for 
publication, but which, with a vast number of other 
papers we were unable to overtake. Some portions 
of the paper may still be interesting. It is a report by 
Dr. Trimsn's brother, Roland Trimen, F. L. S. &c, 
as Cape delegate to the Phylloxera Congress which 
assembled at Bordeaux in 1881. Mr. Thiselton Dyer 
and Mr. Trimen were the only English members. After 
preliminary matter, the report ran thus: — 
The extremely animated discussion which ensued — es- 
pecially on the bringing up of the Report of the Second 
Commission (that ou the American Vines) — shewed very 
plainly that the French wine-growers for the present 
may be grouped in two grand divisions, viz.: (1) 
Those who still advocate the freeing of the European 
Vine from its enemy by the application of insec- 
ticides, and (2) Those who are strongly in favour of 
the more recent plant of restoring the vineyards by 
substituting American for European stocks. 
It is convenient to mention here that neither party 
disputed the efficacy of the two other modes of treat- 
ment, under which it has been sufficiently proved that 
European Vines can be successfully cultivated in spite 
of the Phylloxera, viz.: 1st. Total Submersion of the 
Vineyard; and 2nd. Glowing the Vines in ground 
consisting almost entirely of Sand. It is manifest, 
however, that neither plan is applicable to more than 
a few out of the great mass of vineyards. 
As regards submersion, it has been clearly shown by 
experience that, in order to drown the Phylloxera, 
the entire vineyard must be kept continuously under 
water, of a depth not allowed to fall below eight inches, 
for a period of not less than forty-five days. For 
this purpose the vineyard has to be banked all round, 
and, after the requisite period has elapsed, the water 
is not drained off, but left to evaporate. In any case, 
the cost and trouble attendant on this operation must 
be considerable, but it is apparent how greatly they 
increase when, as in most cases, the water has to be 
lifted and pumped on the land. Unfortunately, too 
■ — owing to the powers of terrestrial and aerial pro- 
gression possessed by the insect — the process of sub- 
mersion has to be repeated every winter. 
The growth of vines in pure sand and in soil ex- 
tremely sandy — viz.: in which the proportion of sand 
is not less than 80 per cent. — has of late_ years 
consideraly increased, and has lead to the cultivation 
and consequent large increase in value of lands formerly 
waste and almost worthless. The immunity from 
Phylloxera which vines so grown enjoy appears 
to be due to the simple circumstance that the fine 
grains of sand, by their smoothness and want of, 
cohesion inter se, hinder the subterranean progress of 
the insect, both along the line of the roots, and in 
its attempts to pass from one root to another. Large 
sandtracts close to the Mediteranean are now occupied 
by vines, and it is expected that similar districts in 
the Landes on the Atlantic seaboard will also be 
utilized as vineyards. The greatest objection to such 
localities is that they often contain an excess of salt 
in the sand, which is highly injurious to the vines. 
In considering the strongly-advocated remedy by in- 
secticide applications, it is impossible to fail in under- 
standing and even sympathizing with the great reluc- 
tance with which the growers of choice and exquisite 
varieties of European vines — the result of the skill and 
laborious tendance of generations— regard the proposed 
abandonment of their direct cultivation, and with the 
ardent desire they manifest to maintain the old order 
of things at any cost. And it is quite clearly estab- 
lished, on the unimpeachable evidence of the first 
Commission, and of numerous men of mark and ex- 
perience who spoke at the Congress, that the European 
vine can, in spite of its mortal foe, be successfully 
maintained in its normal productiveness, by treatment 
with either bisulphide of carbon, or sulpho-carbonate 
of potassium, combined with a careful and regular 
supply of properly-composed manures. But it is equally 
certain that this method of overcoming the Phylloxera 
is very costly, especially if sulpho-carbonate of potassium 
be employed ; and the cheaper of the two substances — 
bisulphide of carbon — injuriously affects the vines, if 
the dose be not most carefully measured, or if it be 
applied in very wet weather, or in humid ground with 
an impermeable subsoil. The Commission declared, 
and it was not disputed, that it was absolutely neces- 
sary to repeat the treatment every year; and the 
more costly sulpho-carbonate was recommended for 
general use on the grounds of its being quite in- 
nocuous to the vines, and more speedily effecting their 
recovery. The carefully estimated annual cost of the 
combined insecticide and manure was stated by the 
Commission to be as follows, viz.: — 
For the first year: — Bisulphide of Carbon, per hec. 
tare (nearly 2§ acres), 450 fr. (£18); Sulpho-Oarbonate 
of Potassium, per hectare, 700 fr. (£28.j 
For subsequent years: — Bisulphide of Carbon, per 
hectare, 300 fr. (£12); Sulpho-Oarbonate of Potassium, 
per hectare, 500 fr. (£20.) 
It is obvious that such expenses as these, however 
willingly borne by the great proprietors of world-famed 
vintages, are absolutely out of the question in reference 
to the mass of vineyards producing the bulk of ordinary 
wines; and it is thus no matter of surprise that 
throughout the Departments ravaged aDd in parts 
even desolated by the Phylloxera the only alternative 
generally applicable has been eagerly resorted to, viz. : 
— The replanting of the destroyed vineyards with vines 
whose roots more or less completely withstand the 
insect's attacks — these being the actual American spe- 
cies of the genus Vitis to which the Phylloxera is 
attached in its native country, and upon some of 
which it was originally introduced into Europe! 
The cultivation in France of the American Vines, 
either as direct producers or as stocks bearing grafts 
of European varieties, has thus of late years been carried 
ou with much vigour and with unquestionable success. 
It is not pretended that all American species and 
varieties exhibit equal powers of resistance to the 
foe — the observations and experiments of Riley, Plan- 
chon, Millardet, and many others, show that the 
countrary is undoubtedly the case: but, whereas neither 
in America nor in Europe has any European variety 
growing on its own root withstood the assaults of the 
Phylloxera, it has been satisfactorily proved (1) that 
all the American varieties resist in varying degrees ; 
(2), that some — such as Vitis Rip aria (=var. V. cordifolia 
apud Plauchon), and the variety of V. labrusca known 
has "York's Madeira" — are to all practical purposes 
altogether uninjured by the insect; and (3) that 
— as Professor Planchon himself observed in ad- 
dressing the Congress — the weakest of the American 
varieties has very much greater powers of resistance 
than the strongest European one. It cannot be doubted 
that this immunity, greater or less, of the American 
forms is simply due (as in a thousand similar cases 
to their having been obliged for innumerable generations 
to resist the insect's assaults in their native woods 
and that the balance between plant and insect has 
been so far struck that both contrive to flourish. Of 
course, both the vine and its parasite have numerous 
other enemies to contend with, so that the relation 
between them forms only a part of that complicated 
struggle for existence in which, like all other or- 
ganisms they have to engage; but it is that part of 
their life conditions with which the viticultor is con- 
cerned, and he may thankfully accept the happy result. 
Some millions of cuttings of American Vines have 
been planted in France, in tracts where the Phyl- 
loxera had absolutely destroyed the European varieties ; 
and the yield of wine both directly from their own 
grapes and from European grafts borne on their 
stocks has surpassed expectation. The facts and 
arguments adduced in favour of this mode of restoring 
the more than half ruined viticulture of France seemed 
