GRAPE INSECT-PESTS. More than 200 species of insects have been observed preying on the grape vine in America. The principal pest is the phylloxera (Ph. vastatrix), which first attracted attention by its ravages in the vineyards of France about 1865. It now oc curs in vine-growing countries all over the .world, and is the worst of the very few insect pests that have emigrated from America. It caused the destruction of 2,500,000 acres of vineyards in the United States in 1884. The phylloxera is a minute brownish plant-louse of the aphid family. (See APHIS). The winged females appear in Europe from August to October. Each lays about four partheno genetic ova on the under surface of the vine leaves. These ova develop in late autumn into males and females — wingless and without the characteristic piercing and sucking mouth organs — which migrate to the stem of the vine. There each female lays a single egg under the bark. This egg lies dormant through out the winter, and develops in April or May into a wingless but voracious This form may pass to the leaves, on which it lays parthenogenetic eggs, and forms galls; but in Europe it attacks the roots, and lays its eggs there. From these in about eight days young develop, which become mature females in about 20 days, and lay more eggs in the roots. Half a dozen or more of these parthenogenetic gen erations follow in rapid succession throughout the summer. The roots become knotted and deformed; the whole plant suffers, and, though it may survive for several seasons, eventually dies. In midsummer, among the subterranean forms, a generation is born whose members, after four, instead of the usual three, moltings associated with adolescence, become the larger winged females with which we commenced.
The destruction of this scourge of the grape vine, without also injuring or destroying the plants, has proved exceedingly difficult when attempted upon a large scale, where the expense prevents the use of chemicals or methods effective in a smallgarden. Water, wherever it can be applied to the soil so as to saturate and keep it saturated for a time, has proved a safe and effectual destroyer, because the insect cannot live in a medium saturated with water for long. Chemical remedies, such as bisulphide of carbon, have succeeded, when injected into the soil about the roots. In some of the French vineyards grafting the culti vated vines on certain of the native vines of America has been tried with some success. Al though the insect seems to feed on the roots of these vines, the greater vigor of the Ameri can stocks appears to enable them to resist the injuries inflicted on them.
An important vine-pest in certain parts of the United States is the grape root-worm (Fidia viticida). Injury is chiefly due to the work of the larva or eroot-worms," but the beetles also injure the plants by gnawing many holes in the leaves. Arsenical sprays, the de struction of the beetles by jarring and of the pupae in the ground by cultivation, are all use ful. One of the most troublesome enemies of the vine is the rosechafer (Macrodactylus sub spinosus), which is best kept in subjection by planting trap-crops of plants bearing white flowers which blossom at an earlier date than the grape, such as white rose, blackberry, spi rem and deutzia. The grape-vine flea-beetle (Haltica chalybea) does considerable damage at times to grape leaves, but can readily be de stroyed with an arsenical spray, and may also be caught in the same manner as the plum curculio, by jarring the insects onto collecting frames saturated with kerosene. Nearly every where leaves will be seen drawn together and slowly assuming a brownish hue, and when these are opened a small caterpillar will be found actively wriggling about. This is the grape leaf-folder (Desmia funeralis): When vines are sprayed for leaf-feeding insects some of these leaf-folders will be destroyed, but picking and burning the affected leaves is more effective, taking care that the larva do not escape to the earth during the process. Leaf hoppers do much injury in some localities, par ticularly on the Pacific Coast, and several other important enemies of the grape are known. in cluding cutworms, which climb and defoliate vines at night, the grape-berry moth, which de stroys the berry, and the grape curculio, which has the same habit. Consult Cornu, 'Etudes stir le Phylloxera vastatrix' (1879) •, Lichten stein, 'Histoire du Phylloxera' (1878) ; Riley, 'Sixth Annual Report of the State Entomolo gist of Missouri) (1874) • Saunders, 'Insects Injuribus to Fruits' (1883) ; Bruner, 'Report of the Nebraska State Horticultural for 1895, which gives an extensive bibliography; Marlatt, C. L. 'Principal Insect Enemies of the Grape' in Farmer's Bulletins Nos. 70 and 284, United States Department of Agriculture (Washington 1898).
is a combination of small cannon balls put into a thick canvass bag, and corded strongly together, or fixed in a cylin drical frame, the diameter of which is equal to that of the ball adapted to the cannon. The number of shot in grape varies according to the service or size of the guns; usually, how ever, a round of grapeshot consists of nine balls in tiers of three. Grape-shot is now sup planted by shrapnel (q.v.).