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watercourses as to allow making use of it for fully 40 days during each winter, the phylloxera being then suffocated by drowning; but this remedy cannot be much used in this colony.
"After each submersion the vineyard must be slightly manured.
"3. The sulphuret of carbon, injected through an apparatus during winter in the ground, and at the rate of 40 grammes of sulphuret for each vine, in three different holes, bored not too close to the plants.
"4. The sulpho-carbonate of potassium injected during both summer and winter by wet days, 50 grammes dissolved in a quart of water being spread in holes dug for the purp seround each vine. The last remedy I have seen giving excellent results in the Charente, especially on the vienyards belonging to Mr. S. Moullon, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Special Committee of Viticulture of Cognac, who kindly explained himself on the spot all questions connected with same. I must add, also, that a large quantity of water is indispensable for the carrying out of the remedy, as well as a subsequent strong manuring.
"The effects of the sulphuret of carbon and of the immersion are also undoubted in the numerous vineyards where they are adopted. The vineyards alongside the Garonne and in the south of France are all submerged; every year, and do not in any way suffer from the phylloxera; but, besides being expensive, it is said that it is doubtful whether this remedy will not ultimately prove very damagable by rotting the vines after a number of years.
"The remedy by the sulphuret of carbon is a very costly one; it has proved very successful all over the St. Emilion district, near Bordeaux, and also in the surrounding territories of Montpellier, but has been reported as not adapted to compact soils. However, wherever these last three remedies have been adopted, they have been found to destroy the phylloxera, to save the vintage and the vines for the first year; the second year the results are much more satisfactory again; and after the third year there would not be any further reason to employ them if all the neighbouring vineyards were themselves free from phylloxera.
"Wherever any of the above remedies have not been followed, or have proved too expensive with respect to the quality and commercial value of the wines obtained, the European vines have been given up, or either replanted in sandy soil, or replaced by American vines. I have had opportunities to see large vineyards planted in sandhills close to the seashore, all along the Mediterranean coast, from the border of Span to the vicinity of Marseilles. The results already obtained are reported upon very favourably, and there is every reason to admit that the phylloxera cannot invade these vineyards, the soil of which consists of at least 70 per cent of very fine sand ; the finer sand the more difficult it appears for the insect to find its way through it ; should, however, the nature of the soil be in any changed by the mixture of stronger earth or frequent additions of solid instead of liquid manure, it is doubtful whether the same immunity would exist, for the phylloxera has been found in soil consisting of as much as 50 per cent. of sand.
"The danger and risk of invasion of the phylloxera in Europe, according to the theories most generally adopted, was originally from America only, but the dreadful beetles have now become so numerous in Europe that these colonies have to provide against its arrival here from Europe as well as from America. On such a question as this, unanimity of action should certainly prevail among the several Australian colonies, for if the Phylloxera once penetrates on a corner of Australian territory there is no safety for any part of this continent. I am aware that it has been said that the phylloxera had been found in the Geelong district of Victoria, that by energetic and prompt measures its progresses have been prevented, and the indemnities have been paid to winegrowers whose vineyards had been destroyed for the public good. But it must be said that it has been a narrow escape, and that the insect has turned out in this case of very easy dispositions, behaving quite differently from the way in which it does in any other part of the world. Steps should certainly be adopted by the colonies jointly, or by every one separately, for a similar and uniform organisation of a proper service and the appointment of competent men to prepare an energetic check as well as uniform means of resistance against any invasion or spreading of this insect. There is this to be added again – that the danger for Australia is so much greater that at the present time vines from Australia as well as from Europe are in existence in these colonies. In New South Wales there are vineyards planted with no other species than American vines, and, what is worst, with species of the most dangerous character, as being unable to resist the phylloxera; such ae the Isabelle and the Lambruscat. It has, in fact, been a matter of surprise for the most learned men in Europe that so large quantities of American vines of these non-resisting species should have been introduced and kept growing in New South Wales without any phylloxera having reached this country, as has been the case with more southern parts of Australia.
"No time should therefore be lost by the interested parties in providing against which protection should be obtained. But none are so injurious as the phylloxera, which has been destroying as much as 250,000 acres of vineyards within each twelve months since its first acquisition in France. To stop its progress, against which nothing was known for years, it should have been necessary for all growers to combine together their efforts and means. But this general action has never been found. Many people would not believe they were in danger until their vines were almost destroyed. They hoped to be more spared and to have better luck than their neighbours, or they trusted to their own individual and separate knowledge an action, with the result that whilst remedies were resorted to in one part of a district with some success the insect simply passed on to some neighbouring territory, where full liberty was left to it to multiply itself again, thus rendering void the expenditure and trouble endorsed by any other people.
"Without wishing to create an unjustified alarm, or giving any undue cause of anxiety to colonial growers, this report must insist upon something being done while it is yet time, and before it is too late, towards being ready for the protection of colonial vineyards against a possible and most probable danger."
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(Yusmane)