The Black Rot. Why California Grape Vines have been free from the, Disease.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 341, 9 February 1889, Page 3

The Black Rot. Why California Grape Vines have been free from the , Disease.

Washington, December 4. — The Department of Agriculture has issued a bulletin on the subject of black rob in grapes, written by F. L. Scribner of the Section of Vegetable Pathology and Pierre Viola, Professor of Viticulture, in the National School of Agriculture, at Montpelier, France. The report says that " thus tar California has been one of the few States exempt from this dreaded disease of the vine. This immunity from black rot is due to several causes. The climate is very different from that of tho Eastern States, and important physical characters completely isolate it from the latter. The Rocky Mountains form an important barrier from north to south, and to this added on one side by the Sierras with nearly a parallel course, and on the other side extending in the same direction nearly continuous heated and arid areas which form the deserts of Colorado, Mojave and Nevada. The transportation of fungi by drying winds across these vast regions is impossible. Furthermore the climate of California is comparatively dry, especially in the Southern vineyard?, and this to-, gether with the fact that importations of cuttings from the East has only recently been carried on, sufficiently explains why diseases common to the Atlantic Coast have nob yet invaded the State. It is certain, however, that sooner or later the black fob will invade the northern vineyaids pi Calinia, where the climate conditions of certain sections are favourable to the deyeldptmenb of para&itic fungi. This is especially 'true in the region about San Francisco, including the vine-growing countries of Napa and Sonoma.

Wellington crops aro in capital conditior, ml the yield is expected to be considerably ver the average.