SEJ'ENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 



"Since June 1st, over two months ago, scarcely any rain has 

 visited this vicinity, and every day sees the trees and gardens 

 shrivel more and more under the hot rays of a relentless sun. 

 The official figures show that since June 5th only 2.94 inches 

 of rain have fallen, when in former years the normal has been 

 at least 8 inches for the same period." This drought was 

 not broken until August 24th. 



To offset these unfavorable conditions of spring and sum- 

 mer, however, the fall was favorable and somewhat longer 

 than usual, the first frost not coming until October 1st and 

 then only partially killing the tender vegetation. So some 

 crops partially recovered from the ill effects of the drought ; 

 others, like tobacco, seemed to have come out better than 

 expected, but, after curing, really had such a poor quality that 

 the final injury was still great,* some others, as potatoes and 

 celery, never succeeded in making their normal growth. 



I have thus enlarged on the weather conditions, because 

 these not only acted unfavorably upon plant growth, but like- 

 wise upon their fungous parasites, which, with few exceptions, 

 did comparatively little injury and then chiefly in the early 

 spring or the late fall. 



There was considerable injury caused by the blackberries 

 and raspberries drying up, and even the fruiting- canes dying 

 at the time of their fruiting season, especially if the plants 

 had not been thoroughly cultivated to conserve the moisture 

 of the soil. Some growers thought this due to a fungous 

 trouble similar to the wilt- fungus, but so far as could be 

 ascertained, it was only one of the consequences of the 

 extremely dry weather at that time. 



The only new fungous troubles of our fruits that I have 

 to report were both found on the currant. As I have not 

 studied the diseases of this host so thoroughly as L have those 

 of most other fruits, it is quite probable that these are new 

 to the State only in the sense that they have not been reported 

 before. The downy miller {Sphacrothcca mors-m'oe) was 

 found in a small nursery at Storrs doing some damage to the 

 red currants. Its prominent growth of dirty brownish-white 

 mycelium was confined to the ends of the young twigs and 



