472 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Microscopical examinations of young shoots of gooseberries, healthy 

 as well as diseased, support the hypothesis, though to thoroughly prove 

 the truth of it may take many years of investigation. 



1 2. The Inspection of Nurseries. — The experiences gained in Sweden 

 during the years 1905 and 1906 prove plainly the worthlessness of such 

 inspections. In 1 September 1905 I and my assistant, Dr. T. Wulff, 

 examined all the beds of gooseberries at Experimentalfiiltet (Royal 

 Agricultural Academy, Stockholm), and Dr. T. Hedlund (Agricultural 

 College, Alnarp) inspected those at Ramlosa, near Helsingborg. Both 

 the nurseries were declared free from disease. In spite of this, the fungus 

 was found in the summer, 1906, universally and seriously attacking not 

 only both these nurseries, but many other gardens in different parts of 

 Sweden : gardens that had received plants from the nurseries in 1905 or, 

 in some cases even, in 1904. 



Thus it is impossible to ascertain with certainty, by means of inspection, 

 whether a plantation is really healthy or not. The only thing that can 

 be said after such an examination is whether the disease has been detected 

 in the plantation or not. 



IB. The Booting -up and Burning of Diseased Bushes. — The safest 

 step is to uproot and burn the bushes attacked, but this must be done 

 before it is too late. This is the only way of saving the gardens still free 

 from disease. No new bushes must be planted in infected localities. 



In localities where the disease already exists to a serious extent and 

 where it is already too late to adopt this precaution, private growers must 

 choose between (1) rooting-up and burning the diseased bushes, and (2) 

 pruning, spraying, and liming them late in the autumn. 



14. Can the Gooseberry -Culture of Europe still be saved ? — There is 

 hope of its being saved only if the authorities and growers unite in 

 fighting the enemy, and continue the combat with energy and persistence 

 for two or three years. The highest agricultural authorities of every 

 country ought to issue prohibitions against the importation of gooseberry- 

 plants, or parts of them, and against the transportation of them from 

 garden to garden, and ought also to order the private growers to imme- 

 diately destroy every diseased bush without delay. The authorities of 

 every country ought to beg the growers to strictly observe these decrees, 

 and should appoint officials under whose control the fight may be carried 

 out. Private growers must learn to understand that energetic and speedy 

 action will be the only way of saving the plantations which are still 

 free from disease ; and fortunately we can say that, in most European 

 countries where gooseberries are cultivated, the greater part of the 

 gardens are still healthy. 



[Note. — It may be well to point out, for the benefit of those fruit growers whoso 

 opportunities do not allow them to keep pace with current mycological research, since 

 an important recommendation rests chiefly upon it, that Prof. Eriksson's theory of 

 the presence of an invisible, or practically invisible, germ of disease in the cells of the 

 infected plant lias not found acceptance among mycologists in this country, and only to 

 a very small extent among foreign botanists. The majority regard it as an unnecessary 

 hypothesis, and many as being altogether disproved even in the case of the rust of 

 corn. -Editor.] 



