380 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 9 9 
A preparation of sulphur, lime, and water called “‘liquid grison” 
has proved an effective remedy for the powdery mildews. Three ~~ 
pounds each of sulphur and lime are boiled in 6 gallons of water un- 
til the whole is reduced to 2 gallons. The clear liquid is poured ~ 
off from the top and mixed with 100 parts of pure water, when the _ 
remedy is ready for use. The preparation is best applied through a_ 
spraying watering-pot or hose pump with a fine nozzle. This sub- 
ee is fully treated under ‘‘ powdery mildew of the grape” in Bul- 
etin No. 2 of the Botanical Division, pp. 26-28. The gooseberry- — 
grower who is troubled with the mildew should try one or more of — 
the recommended remedies for the downy mildew of the grape, and 
note the results. The following is especially urged for trial: 1 
pound powdered sulphate of copper, 10 pounds air‘slaked lime, and - 
15 pounds flowers of sulphur. Mix thoroughly and apply with a 
sulphuring bellows. Evident success in the treatment of this disease 
has attended the use of sulphide of potassium. Spray the bushes 
when first attacked with a solution containing one-half to 1 ounce of 
the sulphide to the gallon of water.* 
The Powdery mildews are lovers of dry, hot weather, and there- 
fore care must be observed not to credit to any particular remedy — 
what belongs to the season. Remedies need to be tested for a term 
of pets to.establish their value. With a proper use of fungicides 
and the improvement of our native species of Ribes and their crosses 
with foreign sorts, there is no reason why gooseberry culture may 
not be profitabie in the United States. 
14.—SMUT OF INDIAN CoRN.t 
Ustilago Zee-Mays. 
(Plates XII, XIII, XIV, XV.) 
(a) HISTORY. 
Corn Smut, in common with the smuts of other cereals, has re- 
ceived the attention of agriculturists and botanists from an early 
time. The earliest article in which Corn Smut is distinctly treated 
and given a name was published anonymously in 1760 ; the name was 
Lycoperdon Zee. 
Most early writers and even some in the first quarter of this cen- 
tury considered smuts to be excrescences or degenerations, products 
of the plant or a symptom of sickness. Linnzeus and Jussieu, how- 
ever, recognized them as plants. The Corn Smut was long considered 
only a variety of the wheat smut and first was designated a variety 
in 1805 by DeCandolle,t who called it Uredo segetum, var. Mays Zee. 
In 1808 this author refersit, apparently for the first time, to the sub- 
genus Ustilago, and under that subgenus it is called Uredo segetum - 
var. Zece Mays. In 1815 he recognized it as a distinct species and 
called it Uredo Maydis. : 
The first mention of it as an American fungus appears to be that 
of Schweinitz,§ in 1822, by whom it was called Uredo (Ustilago) 
*Arthur, Sixth Rept. N.Y. Exper. Sta., 1887, p. 348. 
+ By A. B. Seymour, 
§ Syn. Fung. Car.. p. 71. 
