THE JOURNAL 



\ jh, FOR i 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. XIV. No. 8. 



NOVEMBER, 1907. 



THE AMERICAN GOOSEBERRY MILDEW 

 IN WORCESTERSHIRE. 



Kenneth G 0 Furley, 



The American gooseberry mildew (Sphcerotheca mors uvcb), 

 has created almost as much sensation and roused as much 

 interest among fruit growers, nurserymen and market gardeners 

 during the present year as the Colorado beetle did some years 

 ago. It has been asserted that it is no new importation, and 

 persons have been found who declare they knew it thirty years 

 ago, and have had experience of it in many seasons since. 

 Such witnesses are, however, in no case botanists or persons of 

 scientific training, and are probably unable to distinguish the 

 American from the European gooseberry mildew, which latter 

 is a parasite of a much less serious nature, though undoubtedly 

 very common, and occasionally causing a certain amount of 

 loss. In many cases the damage caused by green fly has been 

 mistaken for the fungus. The positive testimony as to the 

 existence of the American gooseberry mildew in England for 

 more than four or five years is, therefore, very small, while the 

 circumstantial evidence as to probable importation of the 

 disease at some time about the beginning of that period is very 

 strong. There is, moreover, good reason to believe that 

 although the disease has appeared in several counties of 

 England, it was first introduced into Worcestershire, and that 

 the infection has spread from that district to the other places 

 where it has since been discovered. 



(2409) 2 F 



