200 Report of tup: Botanist of the 



Later, the work of the same insect was found sparingly at 

 Kinderhook, Iligliland and Clintondale and very abimdantly at 

 Tarrvtown ; but in all these cases on bearing bushes. 



It seems probable that the injuries of the four-lined leaf-bug 

 are often mistaken for fungous leaf spot. Currant growers should 

 learn to distinguish between these two kinds of leaf spot. The 

 insects, being small and very active, are not much in evidence. 

 The spots which they produce differ from fungous spots in being 

 transparent. They attack chiefly the leaves near the tips of the 

 canes. 



CANE BLIGHT. 



The most destructive disease of currants in the Hudson Valley 

 tbe past season was a cane blight. The leaves on one or more 

 canes in a hill suddenly wilt and soon thereafter the canes die 

 and become dry. The disease may be confined to a single short 

 branch or it may affect several large canes. The entire hill may 

 eventually succumb, but this rarely happens during the first sea- 

 son of attack. It commenced early in May and continued through- 

 out the whole season,' being most active while the fruit was 

 ripening. 



We first became acquainted with this cane blight in June, 1896, 

 when specimens of it were sent to us from Marlboro. From these 

 specimens it appeared that the trouble was due to a sterile fungus 

 working in the pith and under the bark. Through the kindness 

 of Mr. S. A. Beach it was learned that Mr. D. G. Fairchild had 

 made a brief study of the same disease in 1891 and had given a talk 

 upon it before the Botanical Club of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science at its meeting in Washington in 

 August, 1891. He attributed it to a sterile fungus. A short 

 account of this talk was published in the Botanical Gazette for 

 September, 1891, page 262. 



Before having an opportunity to study the disease in the field 

 we learned that Dr. E. J. Durand, of Cornell University, was 



