TkMI\>KAK\ KkSKAKCH SfAllON Oi- THE DEPARTMENT OK AgRICLLTURE FOR THE In\ ESlHiATIoN 



OF Potato Diseases, Clifden, Co. Galway. 



Notes on Plant Diseases. 



Potato Diseases. 



THE potato is perhaps one of the most 

 important of our cultivated plants, but 

 unfortunately is subject to a consider- 

 able number of fungoid diseases. During the 

 past ten years or so great developments have 

 taken place in Ireland in the matter of spraying 

 the potato crop with Bordeaux mixture against 

 the most prevalent of these — viz., the ordinary 

 potato-blight — and with excellent results. It is 

 probably partly due to the increased attention 

 devoted to the crop in the matter of spraying 

 that those other diseases of the potato which 

 cannot be controlled by this means have been 

 brought into more prominence and that a desire 

 has sprung up for more knowledge concerning 

 the diseases themselves and for a means of 

 combating them. With a view to supplying 

 this, the Department of Agriculture and 

 Technical Instruction for Ireland established 

 last year in the neighbourhood of Clifden, Co. 

 Galway, the temporary research station, a 

 photographic illustration of which we publish 

 on this page. A general account of the work 



carried on there last summer was published in the 

 Department's Journal for January last, and we 

 understand that the investigations are being 

 continued during the present season, the work 

 on a large number of experimental plots being 

 now in full swing. Some of these plots are 

 shown in the photograph, while in the back- 

 ground the small laboratory will be seen. 



Gooseberry '' Giustcr-Cups." 



Judging from a number of specimens sent in 

 recently, the gooseberry " cluster-cup " fungus 

 seems to be somewhat prevalent this season. 

 The attack is first seen on the berries and 

 young leaves in the form of reddish spots, 

 which, as they get older, turn to a bright orange 

 colour. On the leaves these spots are more or 

 less cushion-like, and on the berries they cause 

 some distortion. After a time the surface of 

 the spots develops a more or less honeycomb- 

 like appearance owing to the development of 

 a number of minute cup-like structures which 

 contain the bright orange-coloured spores of 

 the fungus. The latter belongs to the large 

 group of "rusts," many of the members of 

 which are characterised by producing three 



