VINE PESTS.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2805, 9 February 1878, Page 4

VINE PESTS.

(To tbo Editor of the Evening Star.)

g IB| —My time lias been so occupiod, or I should ere this have redeemed my promise to give you a paper concerning above pests. There have been during the last thirty or forty years three distinct pests affecting the vineyards of the world. Ist. Caterpillar; 2nd. Oiwtjm Tpckebi; 3rd. A more recent disease termed PhylloxEba Vastatbix—the disease now affecting the vines of Victoria, a description of which is given in the Auckland Weekly News of January 12. The ravages of Caterpillar are well known in our colony, so I need say nothing about that. Oidium Tuckeri, however, is not so well known, ifc not having appeared until this season to plague the vino grower. This pesfcivas firstr observed in 1845. It broke out in the vines of a Mr Tucker, in the County of Kent, England, and* was observed in the vineyards of France about the same time. Those who wish for a. particular description of the nature of this disease will find it in late editions of several Cyclopoodias — in Chambers' for instance, volume 10. My purpose now is fivefold. Ist. To give the prediction regarding the affliction, and to show the reason of it; 2nd. To describe what 1 saw with my own eyes at the Cape of Good Hope, where the vine is extensively cultivated; 3rd. To show the cause of the disease; 4th. To describe what was done at the Capo to check the ravages of the pest nnd to save some of the produce; sth. To show the means adopted by many with a view to stamp out entirely the disease.^ The Iwediction concerning vine disease in the ast days and the reasons for its affliction will be found only in the Bible. To that Book, then, I must take the reader to establish these points. There is nothing occurs in the world without a reason and a cause; therefore there must be a reason why the vines of the earth are being destroyed, and not only the vines, for blight of one kind or another is manifesting itself increasingly and universally; in nearly all the growing crops of the world; also sickness in the flocks and herds of various countries. The Jewish prophets spdak particularly concerning the detruction of the vines. Isaiah in his 24th chapter, describing the trouble to come upon the earth in these latter days, says, "Behold, the # Lord maketh the earth empty and waste. The earth is to be wholly perverted—deteriorated—spoiled, and in this spoiling the vine is specifically mentioned, thus :" The new wine mourneth, the vinb langmsheth, all the merry hearted do sigh;" and again, 32nd Chap.,." Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women, for the vintage shall fail; the gathering shall not come." In most wine growing countries, women, we know, are employed mostly in the gathering of the vintage. Jeremiah speaks thus also, Bth Chap., " There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade." Joel also, thus, 1.5.: " Awake, ye drunkards and weep, and howl all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth." Habakkuk also speaks of several pestilences which shall 1 trouble mankind in these latter days, and the foreshadowings and forwarnings of them are even now very severe in many countries, among which he specially names the tine.' This prophet says: " The fig tree shall not blossom; neithbb

BHALL FSUIT BE ON THE TINE ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there.shall be no herd in the stall." It is simply the curse in all its literal intensity that affects the earth, and mankind suffers in consequence. But there is a more fearful picture in Rev. 18. The Book of Revelation is emphatically the book of these last days ; it is simply a summary of the old prophets, it -is the ■world's end literally and graphically described, and in the 18th chapter is given a long list of things which man lusts after, all of which come to nought, and wine is one of the things specially enumerated. It is Jesug Christ the despised one, but the great Prophet, that is speaking, not John, and he says: "The fruits that tht sotit lusted aftbb are departed from thee, and all things that were dainty and goodly are departed from thee and thou shalt find them no more at all." There then is the prediction, and there is the reason for vine and other diseases which desolate the earth. The hearts of the mass of mankind are set upon the things that they can taste, see and handle, and not upon the- Great Giver of every pood and perfect gift; hence the catastrophe, they are all taken away from them, and the earth becomes a wilderness. If any one can give a better reason let him try. I now describe what I Baw of Oidium Tuckeri at the Cape, where I resided 13 years, and where my business took me much about the country. The pest began in that country about 18 years ago, and lasted three years. During that period nearly every vineyard was partially or wholly destroyed. It began exactly in the same way as it has commenced at the Thames, in the vineyard of Gertsburgh. The grapes would all look healthy and beautiful to day, but during the night a wave of pestilential air would pass over a vineyard, and, behold, on the the morrow, a grey fungus, or mildew, looking somewhat as if a miller had shaken a flour sack over the Tines, would cover many of the grapes, and the undersides, particularly, of the leaves. In a few days after the grapes stricken would begin to shrivel up and the stalks to show unmistakeable sigus of disease, being covered with a series of reddish black patches which soon spread downwards and upwards until,,, all the young and tender branchl^!' were affected, and then into the trunk itself, and in a couple of years the whole plant would be affected down to the roots; the third year generally brought complete destruction. I have seen acres upon acres of plantations black to the roots, and no remedy was ever discovered, that I am aware of,

that would arrest the ravages and save the vineyard. The only thing that could be done, and that was done, was to root up the whole plantation, burn every scrap of the polluted mass, and plant afresh. Now, what was the cause of the pest? Unmistakeahly, a*deteriorated and pestilcntiul condition of the atmosphere. Highly heated humid air, with cold streams intermixed passed in waves over the vineyard, and did the mischief. The atmosphere was in a very bad state during these years of vine pest at the Cape, as proved by niurrian among the cattle, horse disease, sickness amoug the flocks, and a very bad influenza among the people. Now, I will aay what was done to check the ravages and save some of tho produce; and what was done at the Cape I should advise wine

growers to do here and at once, if they would check the ravages, and that is all they can do, for the vines cannot be saved. As soon as the grower sees the slightest sign of mildew on the grape or leaves he should " cut away every portion of the plant it has seized upon," so that there is not a spot of it left on grape, leaf, or stalk, and burn the parts cut away. To save the grapes, as yet untouched, get some sulphur, and pound it very fine, fill a flour dredger with the sulphur, get up early in the morning, when the dew is on the grapes, take each bunch of grapes in one hand, and dredge away lightly all over the bunch, the dew on the grapes will make the sulphur adhere to them. By this means much of the crop was saved at the Cape, and may be here also. If the vineyard is a large one then half a dozen boys with dredgers will soon accomplish the job, and if it is done effectually once, no other application is needed. An apparatus* a sort of bellows with a nozzle like a watering pot, was used in the large Cape vineyards to expedite the process, but the dredger would do all that is necessary here, as we have no very large vineyards as yet. Now, lastly—ln order to stamp out entirely the disease many vine-growers at the Cape burned the whole plantation, root and branch, and then replanted with seedlings obtained from the seeds from the best sort of raisins and muscatels. Four years were required to obtain a vineyard in bearing order by this means, and when I left the Cape the vineyards were pretty generally restored, and I have heard nothing of grape sickness in that Colony since. The same plan, I believe, will have to be adopted here, for I look upon it that our vines are condemned, so the sooner it is set about the better, for Oidium is all over the field. I should certainly not think of planting a vineyard with any sticks from a plantation that bad Oidium Tuckeri in it. Now to close. I advise nono to despair. It is truly a grievous thing to see the labor and carefulness of years all cut off at a stroke, yet, " Whatsoever thine hands findeth to do, do it with thy might and energy, for none can tell which shall prosper, this or that." Tilling the ground and dressing its produce is the natural employment of man, and although the curse is on the ground more or less, and has been ever since the fall, yet it produces many, very many, blessings; yea, nearly all our food. Large maises of men are now calling nature itself God. This is the God such people trust in; it is idolatry; so their God will fail them,, and will be cut off from them, that they may learn to worship the true God, who sustains all things," and who has for ages provided through the earth and the sea all the necessaries of this life for His numerous creatures. But we have the positive assurance that while the earth endureth, seed time and harvest shall not cease. Despair not then, but believe in God's word, for when the effects of the curse 7 are at their worst, as the prophets describe, and for a few years there is great and terrible scarcity and famine everywhere, there will yet be many nooks and corners of the earth untouched by pestilence and mildew, for the Lord will provide for all those who have faith in him. The Bible gives full information concerning the fast approaching, universal trouble for the mass of mankind, but it also gives those who believe it, Hope, that at the return of Christ from heaven, the curse on the ground and its produce shall be wholly removed and all animated nature rejoice in restored fruitfulness—in a real garden of Eden. Happy is he, whose sincere and earnest prayer now is—-" Come Lord Jesus, come quickly." There must be increasing trouble of every description until He does come. The Bible says so; it is therefore of little consequence who says nay, for that word is truth.

William Wood.