IRISH GARDENING 



91 



and Valentine's Seedling show so marked a 

 susceptibility to injury that they cannot be 

 sprayed. 



In early seasons spraying should !>:» com- 

 menced in mid-April, in plantations where the 

 disease appeared in the previous season : in 

 other circumstances, the lirst week in May is 

 early enough ; the s]u'aying should be continued 

 at intervals of about a fortnight until it inter- 

 feres with the marketing of the fruit, when 

 liver-of-snlphur solution or flowers-of-sul])hur 

 should b ' tried to stop the spread of mildew to 

 the fruit. By this means it should in most cases 

 b> possible to grow a clean crop of berries. In 

 cases, however, where the soil has been infected, 

 it will probably be 

 found that the 

 berries b?come 

 luildewedin spite 

 of s])raying. 



Whilst s]>raying 

 in May and .lune 

 with lime-siili)hur 

 before the 7nildeiv is 

 OH the b u she s , 

 a ]) p e a r s, with 

 many vai'ieties, to 

 be a practicable 

 means of prevent- 

 ing infection early 

 in the season, and 

 tlms of saving 

 the crop, it is 

 certain that the 

 s])raying of good- 

 sized gooseberry 

 bushes through- 

 out the growing 

 season is not com- 

 mercially advis- 

 able. Even if it 

 were thus possible 

 entirely to prevent 

 i n f e c t i o n (ex- 

 tremely doubtful, 

 considering t h e 

 constant growth 

 of the shoots), the 

 cost in laboixr of 

 the reijeated 

 applications would 

 b e prohibitive. 

 XeitluT linie -sulphur 



nor any known s])ray kills the winter-stage of the 

 mildew. and, as was observed repeatedly during 1!I13, 

 outbreaks of mildew frequently occur in which 

 the winter-stage suddenly a])pears almost simul- 

 tanef)usly with the summer-stage. It is alnuist 

 certain, therefore, that in every case of mildew 

 in a ])laiitation some " ti]tpiiig " of diseased 

 shoots must bs' done. After the cro]) has b(>en 

 gathered a good linal spraying with iime-snliihur 

 should be given. The mildew must then be 

 allowed, in most cases, to attack the later growtli 

 of the shoots. By August a greater or less 

 amount of disease will probably be found on the 

 tips of the shoots ; and this anu)unl of disease 

 must bi' expected until far more thorough and 

 systematic methods of control are devised and 

 generally adopted. With yoiing and valuable 

 ])lantations, close attention to the date of the 

 lirst appearance of mildew, and re])eated s]>ray- 

 ings to cover all fresh growth, may render it 

 possible to rear the bushes without having to 

 " tii> " tliem for disease to an extent that will 



Bom ARE A Caldasiana. 



seriously injure their growth. This will be pos- 

 sible, however, only if the diseased tips of the 

 shoots are collected and destroyed in good tinie 

 each season. 



Taking everything into consideration, tipping 

 in August or early in September before the leaves 

 have fallen is strongly to be recommended in all 

 easels where anything like a severe attack ot 

 mildew has occurred. In some seasons, and with 

 bushes of a certain age, no further growth of the 

 shoots will take place after this tipping is done, 

 and if all the mildew has b »en cut off, the bush 

 is quite healthy again, since the disease is strictly 

 external and confined to the young wood. If, as 

 ■will be ])robable in some seasons, a slight fresh 



growth is made, 

 and this becomes 

 i n f e c t e d with 

 mildew, the 

 grower will still 

 be in a better 

 p o s it i on, since 

 there will certainly 

 be much less dis- 

 ease to ba remov- 

 ed b3fore the 

 ])erithecia fall to 

 the ground, or 

 even should they 

 fall, owing to 

 ])ost])onement of 

 the second " ti])- 

 ping" through an 

 u n a V o i d a b 1 e 

 scarcity of labour, 

 there will be; nuuh 

 less severe infec- 

 tion of the soil 

 than if no tipping 

 at all were done 

 until October or 

 November. On 

 many large fruit 

 farms, as well as 

 on small holdings, 

 it is ixissihle to 

 tind labour for the 

 " ti]i])ing " of the 

 shoots during the 

 early part of 

 August (before 

 apple ])icking 

 begins). It 

 shcmld now be realised by the commercial 

 fruit grower that it will ]iay better to go over in- 

 fet-ted gooseberry plantations in August and 

 carefully remove and burn all diseased ti]is, 

 tlian to wait until latt' autumn, when laboui- is 

 again available. If ti])])ing is done in August, 

 the diseased leaves (with their winter-spores in 

 the ])erithecia) will be prevented from falling to 

 the ground, while the diseased shoots will be 

 destroyed b3<"ore the ])erithecia have b.'gun to 

 fall from them to any considerable extent. 



With strict attention })aid to the collection and 

 destruction of all berries whicl) show any winter- 

 stage on them, to tlie ti])liing ot the diseased 

 shoots in August, and to s])raying early in the 

 season with limc-sul])hur, it should be ])()ssible 

 and commercially ])racticable to grow a cro]) of 

 gooseberries tree from mildew. 



E. S. S.\T.MON, F.L.S. 

 — From The Journal of the Board of Agriculture. 



