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94.02.00b

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Ferdinand von Mueller to the Editor, the Herald, 1894-02 [94.02.00b]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/94-02-00b>, accessed September 11, 2025

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Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The Phylloxera Pest: An Opinion from Austria of Interest to Vignerons', Herald (Melbourne), 27 February 1894, p. 3 (B94.02.04). It is introduced by 'Below we publish a translation of an article by Dr R. Schlumberger, published in the 'Neuefreie Presse' (Vienna) on the insect vine pest, phylloxera vastatrix, which has recently made its re-appearance in some of the vineyards of this colony. Before deciding upon the publication of this translation the original was submitted to an authority no less eminent than Baron Von Mueller, K.C.M.G., Government Botanist of Victoria, who has unostentatiously given much attention to the subject, as will be seen by what follows. It was desired to have Baron Mueller's weighty opinion as to the value of the article to Victorian viticulturists at this juncture, and that gentleman courteously gave it every consideration, with a result which will be gathered on perusal of the following letter we have received from him:—'.
Let me express my best thanks for your attentiveness in sending me the number of the 'Neuefreie Presse' from Vienna which contains Dr. R. Schlumberger's able article on the mutual and comparative advantages of using bi-sulphide of carbon, and also grafting vines of North American stock for coping with the 'phylloxera vastatrix.' That these two principal measures for subduing this dreadful insect should be resorted to in some respects in combination is well set forth in the communication submitted by you. Dr. Schlumberger urges anew that in Australia—as already done under the supervision of the Phylloxera Board—the carbon bi-sulphide should be utilised to retard or check the progress of the pest in vine plantations, so as to gain time, without extensive annihilation of the plants, for resuscitating gradually the whole cultures by substituting European vines on American roots, a measure which has already restored the treasures of viticulture to most of the vast vine areas of France. Here I may mention that forseeing the danger of the re-introduction of the vine phylloxera into our colony I procured, during the last three years, on my own impulse, an annual supply of fresh seeds of the best phylloxera resisting American vines and their hybrids for distribution among our vignerons,
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See, for example, M to N. McKay, March 1892 (in this edition as 92-03-00a).
so as to render American stock available should the vine disease from phylloxera unfortunately again break out here, and the Agricultural department has arranged for the importation of such seeds on the more extensive scale now needed. This process of using American roots for European vines would not, however, as Dr. Schlumberger again insists, supersede the use of the bi-sulphide of carbon altogether. Indeed, as he points out, this latter treatment is mostly relied on yet with the extensive outbreaks in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, and Algiers, and the effect is immediate, though not continuous nor quite complete. Every effort should be made here to render recourse to this at all events temporary auxiliary remedy as cheap as possible. In the great Herbarium which I have brought together [s]ince 1840 the carbon-bisulphide has been used for a very long time with marked success for preventing the inroads of all kinds of insects to which such collections are very subject.
Now suddenly an opening has also arisen here for quite a new branch industry in viticulture, inasmuch as we ought to have expert, experienced and dexterous specialists to provide on an extensive scale vine plants on American roots, at a price as low as possible, for such of our vine growers as cannot very well enter themselves on the somewhat complicated and tedious process to advantage. The Vienna article points out that the price of established grafted plants in France is about L10
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£10.
per thousand. It has also, generally speaking, been found out there that the growth of the ordinary vine on American roots is more vigorous, and hence the plants have afforded in many instances a proportionately heavier vintage than before but this involves necessarily subsequent increased manuring.
Most valuable is the advice given by Dr Schlumberger that vine cultivators in each district should unite into special societies for mutual aid, so that should the phylloxera invade any locality all should act in unison at the very outset to combat with the pest, all contributing at an equitable rate towards the expenses on the vineyards where the phylloxera may make its appearance, all being interested in stamping out the parasite, or at anyrate in keeping it from increasing to any great extent.
Even for the so-called phylloxera-proof American vines and their crosses no absolute immunity against the phylloxera can be claimed but through the greater structural firmness of their roots and the greater adstringency of their root bark, not much headway can be made by the phylloxera. Its multiplication should therefore become far less when the grafted plants are used, and the evil thus reduced to a minimum. Special associations, for mutual protection, would have the additional advantage of prompt vigilance being locally exercised to watch for any invasion of phylloxera at its very earliest stage, so that the best of all methods, the absolute destruction of the insect by eradication in any sufficiently circumscribed and isolated area, which was so boldly entered upon in Victoria on a former occasion, can be adopted in time, with every prospect of speedily accomplishing the object.