THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. VIII. No. 1. JUNE, 1901. 



GOOSEBERRY MILDEW. 



(Mzcrosphcerta grossu laricz. ) 



During certain seasons, when a warm, moist spell of spring- 

 weather is followed by a sudden lowering of the temperature, 

 the leaves of gooseberry bushes become more or less covered 

 on both sides with delicate white patches of mildew, which 

 soon appear powdery as if sprinkled with flour. 



The fine powder consists of myriads of spores of the summer 

 form of fruit of the fungus, which unless destroyed are blown 

 about by wind and infect neighbouring bushes. 



Later on in the season a second form of fruit, under the 

 form of minute black points, just visible to the naked eye, 

 appears on the mildewed patches. This second form of fruit 

 ripens on the dead fallen leaves during the winter, and infects 

 the young leaves in the following spring. 



When the disease is severe the leaves die and fall quite 

 early in the season, consequently the fruit is checked in 

 growth and remains small, and if the epidemic occurs for two 

 or three years in succession the bush becomes stunted in 

 growth or may be killed outright. 



The American gooseberry mildew {Splicer otheca Mors-uva) 

 met w-ith in considerable abundance in co. Antrim, Ireland, 

 during the summer of 1900, is much more destructive than 

 its European ally, as it attacks both foliage and fruit. It 

 first appears under the form of delicate white patches, which 

 *' B 



