10 Director's Report of the 



best results. Tlhe Italian prunes, which were given this ti'eat- 

 meut, showed an average gain of 24^ pounds of fruit per tree at 

 an extra cost of less than one cent per pound. 



Cherry leaf spot. — Cherries ripen so early in the season that it 

 has not yet been found practicable to give them the thorough 

 treatment which is necessary to control the leaf spot, without 

 spotting the fruit with the spray so as to injure its appearance 

 when ripe. This question is still under investigation. 



Raspberry anthracnose. — In Bulletin 124 Mr. Paddock gives the 

 results of three seasons' work with the raspberry anthracnose. 

 He finds that it is best to set none but healthy plants and prac- 

 tice a short rotation of crops. The spread of the disease in in- 

 fested fields was successfully prevented by treatment, but the 

 yield of fruit was not increased enough to make the spraying 

 profitable. 



Oat smut. — The treatment of oat smut can hardly be called a 

 horticultural operation, but the general importance of the subject 

 to the agriculture of the State and the need of a bulletin to 

 furnish correspondents with instructions for treating this disease 

 made it desirable that some investigations concerning it should 

 be undertaken. In Bulletin 131 Mr. Close sets forth clearly the 

 results of investigations which wei'e conducted in 1897, partly at 

 the Station and partly on the farm of Messrs. King and Robinson, 

 Trumansburg, Tompkins County. Lysol, a fungicide which has 

 not heretofore been tried against grain smuts, gave excellent 

 results. The most inexpensive treatment, soaking with 0.2 per 

 cent formalin solution^, cost for the material 1.4 cents per bushel 

 of seed treated. 



Gooseberry mildew. — We have long wished to know something 

 definite as to the comparative value of potassium sulphide and 

 Bordeaux mixture for preventing gooseberry mildew. Mr. Close's 

 investigations on this point are published in Bulletin 133. The 

 best results were obtained when the treatment was begun early 

 in the season, and potassium sulphide proved superior to Bor- 

 deaux mixture, lysol and formalin for preventing the disease. 



