THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. XVII. No. L 



APRIL, 1910. 



THE SCLEROTINIA (BOTRYTIS) DISEASE OF 

 THE GOOSEBERRY, OR "DIE-BACK." 



E. S. Salmon, F.L.S., 



Mycologist to the South- Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent. 



The Sclerotinia disease of the gooseberry — or 44 die-back," 

 as it is called in some districts in Kent — has already received 

 some attention in this country.* In the present article some 

 fresh facts are given as to the life-history of the fungus, and 

 certain measures are described which in practice have been 

 found successful in dealing with the disease. 



The disease is widespread in England, and is liable to 

 occur wherever gooseberries are grown, whether in planta- 

 tions or in the private garden. It attacks bushes growing on 

 stiffish clay as well as bushes growing on light, gravelly or 

 stony soils. I have seen it doing considerable mischief in 

 Kent (especially round Sittingbourne and Faversham, and in 

 the Sandwich district f ), Surrey and Sussex, and specimens 

 have been sent to me from Hampshire, Herefordshire, Wor- 

 cestershire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, 

 Essex, Berkshire, and Middlesex. 



Reports from various parts of the country have been re- 

 ceived of young plantations — very probably planted up with 

 diseased cuttings taken from affected bushes — having suffered 

 severely from the outset. Within the last few years bushes 

 killed by Sclerotinia have been sent in by growers under the 

 impression that the American Gooseberry Mildew had 

 invaded their plantations and done this mischief. As a 



* A. L. Smith, in Journal of Botany, 1903, p. 19 ; W. Carruthers, in Jour. Roy. 

 Agric. Soc. of England, vol. 63, p. 291, and vol. 67, p. 262. 



t In East Kent the variety known as "Sandwich Yellow" or " Coitsins' 

 Seedling " is very subject to attack. 



B 



