New York Agricultural Expeiriment Station. 125 



suddenly and become epidemic about June 8. When we made 

 our first observations, June 13, it was already so abundant that 

 fruit growers were cognizant of it. Ten days earlier we had 

 spent two days visiting fruit plantations in this same locality 

 and at that time we neither saw nor heard of any trouble with 

 currants except cane blight which is always destructive there.^ 

 Although we were seeking the diseases of raspberries rather 

 than those of currants, it is likely that the currant anthracnose 

 would have come to our attention had it been at all abundant 

 at that time. In a letter dated June 10, Mr. A. B. Clarke, of 

 Milton, states that it was very abundant in his plantation at 

 that date. 



During June the affected plantations were readily recognized, 

 even at a considerable distance, by the yellow color of the foli- 

 age; but in July this was much less noticeable. By July 10 the 

 few leaves still remaining on the bushes were scarcely at all yel- 

 low although thickly covered with anthracnose spots. By June 

 26 the fruit was beginning to ripen and thereafter the affected 

 plantations were to be recognized by their conspicuous red 

 color. The falling of the leaves left the load of ripening fruit 

 exposed to view. 



In addition to the leaves, the fungus attacked the leaf stalks 

 or petioles, causing conspicuous black, slightly sunken spots. 

 It also attacked the fruit stems, the berries and the new canes. 

 The spots on the fruit stems were black and resembled those on 

 the petioles. They were from one-fourth to one-half inch in 

 length and extended half way or more around the stem. On the 

 berries the spots were black and circular and bore some resem- 

 blance to fly specks. While the berries were green the spots on 

 them were fairly numerous and readily seen; but as the berries 

 ripened the spots became less conspicuous. This may have been 

 due to the fact that the small berries toward the tip of the 

 cluster were the ones most severely attacked and as a result 

 many of them dropped before ripening. The affected berries 

 did not rot; and the presence of the spots on the fruit stems 



'See Bill. 167 of this Station, p. 202. 



