Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-26
AGRICULTURAL.
MATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
THE RECORD UNION"
The Phylloxera Follow Exhaustion-or-
gsnization Of Wheat-growers-
Late-sown Wheat.

In looking for the cause of the attack of
phylloxera on the vineyards, Ne think that
exhaustion will generally be found one of the
chief causes of the disease. Young and Wig
o-ous vines are seldom troubled with the
presence and ravages of the insect, while old
vines that have been cropped heavily and
have not been nursed and MANFRED with the
ingredients that the grape demand for their
production and maturity, are the ones
among the roots Of which to look for the
phylloxera. Such is the lesson that nature
teaches not only with reference to vines, but
with reference to all the vegetable and even
the animal kingdom. If we would follow
the teachings Of Nature a little more closely
in our searches after truth, in reference to all
material matters at least, we should the more
generally find what We seek. 1t is an in
structive fact that the grape vines of France
are generally planted much nearer each other
than we are in the habit of planting them.
Six feet and even less is the common distance
apart of the vines in the French vineyards.
Added to this, the soil generally devoted to
vines in France is not of the best quality, and
as rule the vineyards are old. The vines
have been drawing the same ingredients
from the soil for generation or more, and at
last have taken all these ingredients the soil
has in it. The consequence is that the vines
have become weak aud sickly, and just in
condition to be attacked by disease of any
and every kind to which they are liable.
One of these diseases is the phyl-
loxera, or the grape louise, and true to
exhausted vine invites it, just as
lice appear on animals whenever, from want
of proper care and plenty of appropriate
food, they become poor and weak and sickly.
Now, when animals become lousy, most peo-
pie begin TO apply outward applications to
kill the vermin, and it often happens that
this same application proves a serious injury
to the animal, rendering it less able to resist
the attack of its enemies. So in seeking a
remedy for the grape louise in the vine-
yards, the first thought generally is
to apply some remedy that will kill
the vermin, and not injure the
vine. But years have been spent in ex-
periments to find such remedy, and the
question is still unsettled. Various COM
pounds have been found that are sure death
to the insects, bat if applied to the roots of
the vines they are found to be just as sure
death to the vines. Now all stock-men know
that stock that are well fed and well cleaned
and groomed are seldom if ever troubled with
lice, and the most successful breeders OF stock
have long since adopted this plan as a pre-
ventive of the disease rather than to be
driven to the application of remedies that,
while they may cure the disease, leaves tie
animal weakened and still more liable to
second attack, with less power to resist. Ii
the French had spent the same amount of
money and the same skill in the finding out
of fertilizers that wou restore to the soil the
exact ingredients the vines extract from
it that they have in looking for insectoids that
kill the phylloxera and not injure the vine,
we have hut little doubt that the problem
how to get rid OF the insects would have been
much nearer a satisfactory solution. 1t would
seem that the naturally rich soils of our State
ought to have resisted the introduction and
spread of the vine pest longer than they
have, but since they have not and the phyl-
loxera are in our vineyards, we should en-
deavo to apply common sense in our efforts
to get rid of them. Ii our vineyards are
planted too near together, let US cut out the
alternate rows and thus give those left
a greater surface from which to draw
their food; and if our vineyards are
old and have been allowed to, in
a measure, exhaust themselves in the produc-
ton of heavy crops, let US feed them and re-
plenish them with the food and fairness that
will restore them to their natural vigor and
strength to resist diseases of all kinds.