THE AMERICAN GOOSEBERRY-MILDEW IN EUROPE. 



107 



mycelium, which was at this date (June 17) turning brown and producing 

 many hundreds of young perithecia. 



Writing later (June 24) this correspondent added : "On enquiry I 

 find that this disease has appeared in three gardens at Newtownards during 

 the last two years. The mildew appears first on the fruit. My gardener 

 has found to-day two berries affected in an orchard where I have 3,600 

 gooseberry-bushes, but he can find no others. I will remove and burn 

 this tree at once. I have now begun to clear out and burn the 250 trees 

 in my garden, as you advised. The local nurserymen have a large con- 

 nection with America for Roses, and I have no doubt that they import 

 plants from that country, as well as from the Continent." In a letter 

 dated March 1904, the following was added : " I have dug up my plot of 

 250 bushes, and burnt them. I have not been able to make out that the 

 nurserymen in this neighbourhood have imported any gooseberry-bushes 

 from America, and I do not think they have." 



From another garden at Newtownards the following report has been 

 sent : " The disease appeared here three or four years ago, and I am of 

 opinion that it was brought into my garden on a few new trees purchased 

 from local nurserymen. The garden is on light soil, and runs north-west 

 and south-east. I have always had hitherto a splendid crop of goose- 

 berries, of the old sorts — Yellow Amber, White Dutch, and Eed. The 

 bushes are fairly old, and there was no disease in my garden until I 

 noticed it on the small plot of bushes referred to. I fear that there are 

 now no varieties in my garden untouched ; the bushes on which the disease 

 obtained a good hold are valueless. I have burned all the new bushes, 

 and some of the old which were in contact with them, but I know the 

 disease was on some of the bushes last season, which I have still." 



Co. Westmeath. — The disease has appeared at Athlone, and the 

 following report has been sent from a private garden : " The disease 

 was first noticed in May, 1903. About thirty bushes, or, roughly speaking, 

 about one-third of my plants, have suffered from it. My varieties are not 

 named, but the 1 Sulphur Yellows ' have suffered most, and next to them 

 the 1 Greens ' ; while apparently none of the Red Gooseberries have been 

 affected. I have lost on the affected trees about one- third of the crop. 

 The mildew appeared first on the berries, so far as I can discover. I 

 had the mildewed berries all very carefully picked and burned, and my 

 trees have all been sprayed twice. After this had been done the fresh 

 developments of the disease have appeared more on the young green 

 shoots ; in these cases all the diseased parts have been cut off and 

 burned. My gardener will now adopt the system of spur-pruning which 

 you suggest. We have had a dry summer, until this week (July 17), 

 when there has been a considerable rainfall ; this does not seem to have 

 caused any spread of the disease. My garden is walled in ; the soil is 

 limestone loam, about 1 foot deep, with limestone gravel and drift 

 subsoil— this in its natural state ; but in the garden from long cultiva- 

 tion and imported soil it is about 18 inches to 2 feet deep. The aspect 

 of the garden is to the west, on a slight slope.* 



* In the May 28 (1903) issue of the "Fruit-grower, Fruiterer, Florist, and Market 

 Gardener " (London), p. 347, there is a statement to the effect that a fungua on 

 Gooseberries sent by a correspondent from Lymington, Hants, was probably £. mors- 



