New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 151 



As some changes contemplated by the owners necessitate the 

 destruction of a portion of the experiment plantation, the experi- 

 ment was brought to a close in the autumn of 1912. 



COMMENTS ON KESULTS. 



Our observation of this experiment forces us to the conclusion 

 that currant cane necrosis can not be controlled by summer prun- 

 ing. Theoretically, it should be effective, but when put to experi- 

 mental test it has failed. At no time was there any indication that 

 the treatment had materially checked the disease. Each spring 

 treated and untreated plats showed an equal number of diseased 

 canes so far as could be determined. Also, the yield of fruit on 

 treated plats was even less than that on the checks. 



Although the disease was not as destructive in the experiment 

 plantation as in some others, it is believed that it was sufficiently 

 abundant to make the test a fair one. Why the treatment failed 

 is not entirely clear. Much difficulty was experienced in com- 

 pletely removing affected canes. In numerous instances it was 

 observed that the disease had continued to work downward from 

 cuts made in a previous pruning. Often it was found difficult 

 to make the cut low enough to remove all of the fungus without 

 sacrificing considerable living wood. Moreover, in spite of the 

 most careful pruning the fungus often succeeded in reaching the 

 crown of the plant where it could pass from one cane into another 

 with impunity. Although no method of disinfecting the pruning 

 knife was used it seems improbable that the fungus was spread by 

 means of the pruning knife. It was deemed sufficient to occasion- 

 ally wipe the knife-blade on the coat sleeve or trousers to remove 

 adhering particles of diseased wood. 



Another thing which may have been a factor in the failure of 

 the treatment was the difficulty in finding all of the diseased canes. 

 In the first pruning of the season diseased branches' are to be 

 detected chiefly by their being leafless. Accordingly, this 

 pruning should be made just as soon as the leaves have started 

 sufficiently to show readily which branches are dead. Probably 



