544 



American Gooseberry Mildew. [dec, 



rice-meal, malt-sprouts and potato-residue (202,318 metric tons) 

 at about £1,000,000. Of these amounts 16,393 tons of oilcake, 

 42,946 tons of bran and 10,446 tons of rice-meal, &c, were 

 imported from Great Britain. The total imports of each class 

 increased in 1906 compared with 1905, those of oilcake by 3 per 

 cent., of bran by 10 per cent., and of rice-meal, &c, by nearly 

 50 per cent. The comparatively slight increase in the imports 

 of oilcake and oilcake-meal during 1906 is ascribed by some 

 persons to the exceptionally high price of raw materials, such 

 as copra, palm kernels, &c, and partly to the abundant crops 

 of all kinds of fodder in Germany last year. Others, however, 

 are of opinion that German agriculturists have of late years 

 been more in favour of using bran and rice-meal for feeding 

 purposes in preference to oilcake and oilcake-meal, and that 

 the causes of the comparatively smaller demand for the latter 

 in 1906 are not, therefore, of a merely temporary character. 



The disease known as the American gooseberry mildew, 

 Sphwrotheca tnors-uvae, Berk., is of a very serious character, 

 and has rendered the cultivation of 

 American Gooseberry gooseberries unprofitable wherever it has 

 Mildew.* appeared, and in some cases even im- 



possible. 



This fungus is much more injurious to gooseberry bushes 

 than the allied European gooseberry mildew, Microsphaera 

 grossulariae, Lev. (Leaflet No. 52), as it not only attacks the 

 leaves, but also extends to the shoots and fruit, stunting the 

 latter and rendering it unsaleable. f 



Such a description of the fungus is given here as will aid 

 fruit-growers to recognize the disease, and at the same time 

 it has been considered advisable to include (1) precautions 

 to be observed by gooseberry growers, (2) suggestions for the 

 prevention of the disease, and (3) instructions for the treatment 

 of infected bushes, the after-treatment of infected plantations, 



* Two memoranda issued by the Board on this subject appeared in the Journal^ 

 Dec, 1906, p. 560, and April, 1907, p. 44, and a short description of the disease 

 (with coloured and other illustrations) was given in the May number, p. 104. The 

 information given above is concained in the revised edition of Leaflet No. 195, which 

 will shortly be issued. Copies may be obtained free on application. 



t Occasionally the English mildew assumes a virulent lorm and attacks the fruit. 



