If you’re around when steam travel is beginning between Europe and America, be aware that the unprecedented speed of these ships will allow pale yellow American “phylloxera” insects—all of whom used to perish on the previous, longer oceanic crossings—to survive the voyage. When these insects arrive in Europe, they will become an epidemic, destroying vineyards there for generations. The eventual solution will be to graft European grape plants onto the rootstock of phylloxera-resistant American grape species: the sooner you come up with this, the more you will alter the history of the world (at
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