436 BUSH-FBUITS 



The characters of this disease are less prominent than those of 

 the gooseberry mildew, and it has attracted far less attention. 

 The currant crop suflPers serious injury by the premature falling of 

 the leaves, which may be due to several species of fungi, this 

 being one of them. This defoliation not only injures the fruit 

 then on the bushes by preventing its proper development, but 

 also materially shortens the croj) of the succeeding year by pre- 

 venting the proper completion of wood growth. 



The spots appear on the upper surface but within the tissues 

 of the leaves, in June or early in July. The infected parts are 

 dull brown in color, the leaves soon turn yellow and fall, so that 

 the bushes may be wholly denuded by the middle of August. 



Remedies. — Definite reports from spraying for this particular 

 disease are not at hand, but there is good reason to believe that 

 thorough spraying with Bordeaux mixture will overcome all the 

 diseases which cause the premature fall of currant leaves. 



The Currant Tubercle 



Tiibercularia vulgaris, Tode.— Order Hyphomyceteae. Family 

 Tubercularieae. 



Saccardo, Syll. Fung., 44 :638. Durand, Bull. Cornell Univ. Exp. Sta., 

 125 : 23-38. For synonymy, see Sacc, 1. c. 



On living curr.ant stems and many kinds of dead wood. 



This is the imperfect form of a fungus which in its perfect 

 stage is known under the name Nectria cinnabarina (TodeJ, Fr. 

 It is very common upon dead and decaying wood of different 

 kinds. Recently it has proved itself an injurious parasite upon 

 living currant bushes in New York and New Jersey, Its presence 

 is first manifest by wilting of the leaves and premature coloring 

 of the fruit. The clusters are usually small and straggling, and 

 both fruit and leaves soon shrivel and fall. This is m turn fol- 

 lowed by the death of the barren canes. In some c^i^es the entire 

 plant dies; in others, some canes may partially escape. Some- 

 times the plants die even before the leaves unfold, 



Eemedies.— This threatens to be a difficult enemy to fight. As 



