Of insect enemies we have the phylloxera of bad eminence, which has so dismayed Europe.  The man who could discover and patent an adequate remedy in France might soon rival a Rothschild in his wealth.  The remedy abroad is also ours—­to plant varieties which are phylloxera-proof, or nearly so.  Fortunately we have many which defy this pestiferous little root-louse, and European vine-growers have been importing them by the million.  They are still used chiefly as stocks on which to graft varieties of the vinifera species.  In California, grapes of the vinifera or European species are generally cultivated; but the phylloxera is at its destructive work among them.  The wine-grapes of the future throughout the world may be developed from the hardy cestivalis and cordifolia classes.  In many localities, even in this new land, varieties like the Delaware succumb to this scourge of foreign vineyards.

The aphis, or plant-louse, sometimes attacks the young, tender shoots of the vine.  The moment they appear, take off the shoot, and crush it on a board with the foot.  Leaf-rollers, the grape-vine sphinx, and caterpillars in general must be caught by hand and killed.  Usually they are not very numerous.  The horrid little rose-chafers or rose-bugs are sometimes very destructive.  Our best course is to take a basin of water and jar them off into it—­they fall readily—­and then scald them to death.  We may discover lady-bugs—­small red or yellow and black beetles—­among our vines, and many persons, I fear, will destroy them with the rest.  We should take off our hats to them and wish them godspeed.  In their destruction of aphides and thrips they are among our best friends.  The camel-cricket is another active destroyer of injurious insects.  Why do not our schools teach a little practical natural history?  Once, when walking in the Catskills, I saw the burly driver of a stage-load of ladies bound out of his vehicle to kill a garter-snake, the pallid women looking on, meanwhile, as if the earth were being rid of some terrible and venomous thing.  They ought to have known that the poor little reptile was as harmless as one of their own garters, and quite as useful in its way.  Every country boy and girl should be taught to recognize all our helpers in our incessant fight with insect enemies—­a fight which must be maintained with more organized vigor and intelligence than at present, if horticulture is ever to reach its best development.

Wasps and hornets often swarm about the sweet and early ripe varieties.  A wide-mouthed bottle partially filled with molasses and water will entrap and drown great numbers of these ugly customers.  Some of our favorite birds try our patience not a little.  During the early summer I never wearied of watching the musical orioles flashing with their bright hues in and out of the foliage about the house; but when the early grapes were ripe, they took pay for their music with the sang-froid of a favorite prima donna.