THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAR SESSION 131 
taking place. Thus some exceedingly interesting and profitable results have 
been obtained in the Department’s Middle Atlantic States experiment vine- 
yard at Vineland, N. J. Here some sixty leading, improved, commercial 
American varieties are grown side by side in sufficient number under uniform 
soil conditions to compare them on six distinct pruning and t^rainjing 
systems. In five years after planting our experiments have shown con- 
clusively that the methods generally practiced by the grape growers in the 
vidinity only yielded half as much fruit as the poorest system, while the 
best system yielded more than four times as much, and better fruit was 
obtained. 
A study of the Pacific Grape District made by the writer in 190-2-1903, 
showed that the grape, raisin, and wine industry of that Coast then repre- 
sented an investment of more than $100,000,000 and gave employment to 
more than 60,000 persons. Sertious conditions were also threatening the 
industry. At least 75,000 acres, or about $15,000,000 worth of flourishing 
vineyards, had already been destroyed by the phylloxera, diseases, and other 
agencies. In one valley alone the crop had, in three years, been reduced 
from 6,000,000 to 500,000 gallons. Since then 100,000 acres have gone the 
same way. Two principal agencies were destroying the California vine- 
yards, namely; the so-called California vine disease, and the phylloxera. 
The varying soil and climatic conditions which make it possible to grow 
such diversity of products in California have proven a great stumbling block 
in the reestablishment of vineyards on resistant stocks. Careful, compre- 
hensive, and systematic investigations of existing difficulties, by the United 
States Department of Agriculture were undertaken upon urgent request of 
many interested parties to save the industry. 
Some of the more important problems that needed solution were: 
(1) A comprehensive test of resistant varieties of vines to determine 
their adaptability to the different vineyard soils and climatic conditions; 
(2) The congeniality of the vinifera to different resistant stock varieties; 
(3) The varieties best adapted to different localities; 
(4) The determination of the resistance of all classes of grapes with 
reference to their resistance to insects and diseases which had been doing 
serious injury to the vineyards, and, if found necessary, the originating of 
an entirely new class of grapes better adapted to Pacific Coast conditions. 
These researches are well under way and a number of important con- 
clusions have already been obtained. 
Ih the Muscadine regions, are being determined the best methods of 
planting, cultivating, tiaining, pruning, and utilizing the product of Musca- 
dine grapes, with particular reference to the determination of the adap- 
tability of known varieties and the discovery, origination, and dissemination 
of new varieties especially adapted to particular regions. An exhaustive re- 
search into the self-fertility and sterility of the species has been made. 
To develop the viticultural industry as it should be, a number of im- 
portant things must be accomplished. Past failures made by the growers 
were, in most instances, due to lack of knowledge, which, through infor- 
mation gained by research since, can now be overcome accordingly; w T e 
must study our soil, climatic, and other conditions and train, prune, trellis, 
fertilize, and cultivate, and otherwise care for our vines in such manner 
as to bring about the best results. 
