New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 137 



Concerning the outlook for currants in 1902, it is safe to pre- 

 dict that the crop in the 'Hudson Valley will be somewhat short- 

 i-ned, owing to the premature falling of the leaves last summer; 

 but the virulence of anthracnose will probably depend very 

 largely upon the nature of the weather next spring The preva- 

 lence of the disease in 1901 is certainly favorable to another 

 epidemic in 1902, provided the weather conditions are favorable. 

 The new wood and fallen leaves are everywhere covered with 

 multitudes of the spores ready to start infection again next 

 spring if they have a chance. In the Hudson Valley, the spring 

 of 1901 was a very wet one as was also the spring of 1889 when 

 the other epidemic oecurred; so it appears that the disease is 

 favored by wet weather. 



TREATMENT. 



If it becomes necessary to fight currant anthracnose resort 

 must be had to spraying, which seems to be the only promising 

 line of treatment, except, perhaps, the planting of resistant 

 varieties. Spraying with the copper compounds, particularly 

 Bordeaux mixture, is effective against many fungous diseases 

 of foliage and there is little doubt that currant anthracnose may 

 be controlled in this way. However, there is but little experi- 

 mental data bearing on this point. Prof. Pammel^^ at the Iowa 

 Experiment Station, has conducted more experiments on the 

 spraying of currants than any one else in this country and shown 

 that ^S(!l)toHa ribis and Cercospora angidata may be controlled by 

 spraying with Bordeaux mixture; but Gloeosparium rihis was not 

 a factor in any of his experiments. Dr. Halsted^ made the fol- 

 lowing experiment: " In a row of eight gooseberry bushes, two 

 were selected for treatment. Beginning April 2.5, three appli- 

 cations of Bordeaux were made previous to May 22. The bushes 

 were again sprayed August 13. The foliage was somewhat 

 injured by an anthracnose (Gloeospovium rihis Lib.), but there was 



'Tamniel, L. H. Iowa Agr. Exp. Stn. Bui. 13:45-4G; Bui. 17:419-421; 

 tJul. 20:710-718; Bui. 24:987-088; Bui, 30:289-291. 

 ="H:)lsted, B. D. N. J. Agr. Coll. Exp. Sta. Rep. for 1895, p. 331. 



