THE AMERICAN GOOSEBERRY-MILDEW IN SWEDEN, 139 



ceased to carry on their destructive work. The historical examples 

 cited above call upon us to pay special attention to this new invader, and 

 to take strenuous measures against it. 



"At the commencement of the outbreak it was rather difficult to 

 ascertain in what manner the disease came into Ireland as well as into 

 Russia. It was at first supposed to be native in both lands, though not 

 before noticed there. At that time no one was aware of any importation 

 of gooseberries or gooseberry-plants from America. In the year 1902 it 

 became known, however, that two firms of florists in Ireland had, as a 

 matter of fact, some years previously imported gooseberry-plants from 

 the United States. The same year it was discovered further that fruit- 

 growers in Riga, Kaluga, and Tambor. in Russia, had imported gcoseberry- 

 plants from America. The disease was brought to Blekinge in Sweden 

 with plants which came from Mathiesen's nurseries in Denmark (Korsor) 

 in the summer of 1900. 



u On account of the immigration of the gooseberry- pest into our 

 country, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture has at once circu- 

 lated through the kingdom a leaflet, in which the notice of the public 

 is directed to the new enemy, and the necessary instructions are given 

 for dealing with it. 



" The following measures were proposed in that leaflet : — 



u (1) The public should not be allowed to buy gc oseberry-plants 

 except from nurseries the owners of which hold a written statement, 

 issued by a scientific specialist or by a District-gardener, certifying that 

 the disease does not exist in the nurseries in question, and that all plants 

 offered for sale have been cultivated in these nurseries for a sufficient 

 length of time — at least two years — to enable one to judge their state of 

 health. 



" (2) If the disease has already gained a footing in a garden, all 

 severely diseased bushes ought to be rooted up and burnt, with their 

 berries : this practice should be carried out as early in the summer as 

 possible, since the spread of the disease takes place principally in the 

 early summer. Where the bushes have grown, the taith ought to be 

 broken up and sprayed -with potassium sulphide (30 grams of potassium 

 sulphide to 10 litres of water). 



" (3) If the bushes have been only slightly attacked by the disease, 

 the shoots of the current year, on which brown mycelial patches with 

 embedded fruit-bodies are to be seen, should be cut away and burnt 

 towards the end of the autumn. The following spring, just before 

 the buds open, the plants ought to be sprayed with the same solution 

 of potassium sulphide : this spraying must be repeated every eighth to 

 fourteenth day, especially after heavy rains, until the berries are half- 

 grown. 



" However, it seems to me that we may very well ask whether, besides 

 the measures described above, additional steps ought not to be taken by 

 the Government in order to check the spread of this new disease in the 

 country. Therefore, I venture to address to you. Sir, the following 

 proposition. Taking into consideration the fact that the gooseberry is 

 the most important of our cultivated bush-fruits, and recognising that a 

 serious disease attacking this plant must result in a considerable national 



