Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/179

Rh, with copperas and rape-seed; potassic salts, with guano; soot and cinders, are, among other applications, most favorably mentioned.

—As already intimated, the insect is indigenous to the North American Continent. I have been able to trace its existence, with absolute certainty, as far back as 1834; for, in the herbarium of Dr. Engelmann, there are specimens of Vitis monticola (Buck) that were gathered that year in Texas by the botanist Berlandier, and which have Phylloxera galls upon the leaves; while specimens of riparia in the same collection, and gathered in Missouri in 1845, also have the leaves disfigured by the same gall.

We find, in consequence, that the insect is very generally distributed over the States. I have myself found it in Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Ontario, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and have abundant evidence of its occurrence in Connecticut, District of Columbia, North Carolina, Texas, and as far south as Florida. It doubtless occurs in all the intermediate States. There is every reason to believe, however, that, like so many other animals which occur on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, but are unknown on the western slope, this Phylloxera is not indigenous to the Pacific half of the continent. I have, so far, been unable to trace its existence with any certainty in California; and to its non-existence there the California grape-growers doubtless owe, in great part, their success in the cultivation of the European vine. Yet I have strong evidence that around Sonoma the insect already occurs, and has done much damage; and it may have been introduced either from the Eastern States or from Europe into other parts of that country. It, therefore, behooves our friends of the Golden State to carefully look into this matter, and to endeavor, by taking the proper precautionary steps, to prevent a repetition of the disasters which have followed the introduction and spread of Phylloxera in Europe.

—In this country, where, compared with Europe, land is so rich and abundant, we are apt to think lightly of injury to our crops, except when such injury becomes very great and wide-spread. It is a fact, long ago remarked by Dr. Fitch, State Entomologist of New York, that while in Europe the whole people become alarmed if a fifth of a given crop is destroyed by insects, the farmer here often thinks himself fortunate if he can save half the average yield from insect depredations. Vines have died year after year in our vineyards, and very little notice has been taken of the fact; while certain varieties have continually failed until they have come to be discarded as unprofitable and useless. Yet the day is fast coming when the growing of superior varieties, which have for the most part failed, will alone be remunerative; and I believe that nothing will so tend to enable us to successfully grow them as a thorough knowledge of Phylloxera, which is, in reality, the principal