STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 403 



The subject of mildew being iutrodnced, one member said he 

 never remembered having mildew on his currants. Another 

 member said his mildewed very badly last year. 



Mr. Gilpatrick spoke of a case where whale oil soap had been 

 used very successfully on mildewed bushes. 



MULCHING AND CULTIVATION. 



Mr. Pearce asked whether or not it was not best to mulch cur- 

 rants before cultivating in the spring. Mr. Gilpatrick said that 

 whenever he had tried mulching the currants had done well. 

 It was asked if corn fodder was not good for mulching after cul- 

 tivating, in place of straw and manure. Mr. Hooper said his 

 experience with corn was very discouraging. Mr. Chalmers 

 said he was going to mulch his about a foot deep, after he had 

 cultivated them once or twice, with straw and marsh hay. 



Mr. Busse said that on clay subsoil he had found that the best 

 thing to do was to thoroughly cultivate in the spring, taking a 

 spade and digging around the bushes, and then to take rubbish 

 or manure and mulch. After the fruit is picked give another 

 cultivation. If there are any weeds pull them up. A spade is 

 a good thing to use in cultivating around bushes. 



Mr. Dean said there were two objections to mulching. One 

 was that the roots grew too near the top of the ground and dried 

 out in the hot weather. Another is that insects are more liable 

 to breed in the straw than they would be if the land was thor- 

 oughly cultivated. He didn't think that land could be made 

 too rich for currants. 



Mr. Pearce. I think that it is the nature of plants to feed 

 from the surface. I know of no plant that draws its nourish- 

 ment from the surface so much as the currant. I took a patch 

 once and covered it thick with straw, and the bushes grew more 

 rapidly; the currants were larger than where cultivated. I ex- 

 amined the roots under the straw, and found that there were 

 thousands and thousands of little roots there that came right up 

 to feed. The currant is a surface feeder; and nearly all trees are 

 more or less that way. 



WORMS AND BORERS. 



Mr. Pearce said the leaves indicated when borers were pres- 

 ent. The wood turns black. He had cut hundreds of little 



