The history of the oldest rootstock mother block in South Africa

In 1864 - 1865 a then unknown insect started attacking French vineyards. The cause of the destruction of the vineyards was shrouded in mystery, due to the fact that the leaves developed strange galls, where after they perished. The losses, as a result of phylloxera, were so severe that a commission to combat the new disease of the grapevine (La Commission pour Combattre la Nouvelle Maladie de la Vigne) was founded by the Herault Agricultural Society in the spring of 1868. On 3 August 1868 Jules-Emile Planchon declared it to be an insect.