308 PHYLLOXERA VASTATRIX, OR 
buted for the most part to unusual atmospheric causes, 
and to others arising out of the geological formation, 
and the character of the cultivation. 
I have, &c, 
(Signed) Dupont, 
Secretary-General of the 
Agricultual Society. 
[Inclosure 4 in No. 5.] 
* Report addressed to the French Minister of Agri- 
culture and Commerce by the Commission 
appointed to inquire into the new disease 
which is afflicting the Vine. 
Several large vineyards in the South of France have 
been invaded during the last few years by a formidable 
and entirely new disease. The vines attacked by it 
succumb as a rule at the end of the second year. 
This disease, the origin of which is unknown, 
appeared for the first time in the valley of the Rhone 
during 1864 or 1865, but it was not until 1867 that it 
attained sufficient proportions to excite alarm. In 
1868 and 1869, J however, it had become a regular 
scourge. Then it was that those wholesale desolations 
of extensive vineyard properties were seen which 
struck terror amongst the vignerons, and appeared to 
be so much the more dreadful because the first indica- 
tions of the evil had perhaps been overlooked. From 
that time the disease did not cease to spread, and it 
now extends from the department of La Drome to the 
confines of La Crau, more particularly on poor, dry, 
gravelly soils, and naturally wet lands. The district 
* Translated from the French. 
