264 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Specimens of diseased pine and photographs were then passed to each 

 member present and a discussion followed among those present as to the 

 elimination of the disease. 



Prof. F. C. Stewart, Botanist, Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 Geneva, N. Y. — I might say that all I know about this matter is what is 

 printed in our Technical Bulletin No. 2 (I think Mr. Pettis has distributed 

 among you a copy of that bulletin), it is entitled " The Epidemic of the 

 European Currant Rust." In the fall of 1906 we found that our currant 

 plantation, at the Geneva Station, containing a large number of varieties 

 and representing several species, was thoroughly infested with this disease. 

 It appears as a rust underneath the surface of the leaves. We do not know 

 how we got it. It is true we have been importing currants from Europe 

 but the last importation we made was in 1904 and this outbreak occurred 

 in the fall of 1906. Now, to the best of our knowledge, the disease cannot 

 live from one year to the next on the currant; it is in the leaves only on 

 the currant, and when these leaves drop off the disease is gone, so far as 

 the currant is concerned. It must come to the pine before it can come back 

 to the currant again, and we were unable to determine how we got the dis- 

 ease. We inspected the pine trees in the vicinity, and there were very few 

 in the immediate vicinity; there were two young pine trees within twenty- 

 five feet of the plantation of currants, but these were perfectly healthy and 

 have remained healthy to-day; we watched them carefully, and they are 

 still healthy and there were none of the pines that could have this disease 

 close by. I immediately saw that the disease attacks only those pines 

 which have their leaves in clusters of five. We were, of course, very much 

 worried over the matter; we did not want the disease to get started at the 

 Experiment Station; we did not wish to be the agent of introduction, and 

 so we very promptly eradicated the disease in the whole plantation. That 

 was in the fall of 1906, and we did not plant any more currants until a year 

 ago this spring; that is, we missed one year. We have not seen any rust 

 on our currants since, and none has appeared on the pines, so far as we 

 have been able to detect. I think there is one very hopeful feature about 

 this situation, and it is this, that although we have been importing from 

 Europe for a considerable number of years and in considerable quantity, 



