Plant Pests and Legislation. 
127 
The important difference in this new Order — which affects 
all the counties mentioned on p. 126 and also Herefordshire — 
was the substitution of the words italicised in the following 
paragraph : — The occupier of infected premises is required 
to destroy by burning or other effective method, and by 
a date to be specified in the notice, either the whole bush, 
or, if he so prefer, all wood formed in the current or preceding 
year on the bush , which wood shall for that purpose be pruned 
to the satisfaction of an inspector of the Local A uthority. 
The important point to be noticed here is that if this 
second Order is carried out to the letter the grower is required 
to cut off and burn “ all wood formed in the current or 
preceding year on the bush.” In the Annual Report of the 
Intelligence Division of the Board of Agriculture for the year 
1907 (which has just been published) we read the official 
account of this part of Iflie new Order, and of the manner in 
which it was hoped it would work. As this is the essential 
part of the Gooseberry Mildew Orders now in force, it will be 
well to quote this account : — “ The fungus is only found on 
young wood of the current or (during the winter months) of 
the previous season’s growth, the wood of greater age being 
too hard to admit of infection. If, therefore, the whole of the 
young wood of that nature were pruned off, not only would 
all the sources of infection be taken away, but also, in the 
case of summer outbreaks, all the shoots or branches which 
were capable of receiving the disease. A new Order was 
therefore issued in December, requiring the occupier of 
infected premises either to burn or otherwise destroy diseased 
bushes, or if he should so prefer, to prune them in the manner 
already described.” 
Experience has now shown — as I predicted would be the 
case in a letter to The Times a year ago 1 — that no systematic 
pruning and burning of all the young wood on diseased bushes 
has been able to be enforced in the infected districts. As a 
matter of fact growers with many acres of diseased bushes 
are now being allowed simply to tip those branches which 
are diseased, and are not required to cut off all young wood. 
From a long study of the habits of these mildews it is my 
firm conviction that the drastic measures embodied in the 
first Order are necessary if the aim is to stamp out this 
mildew, and also that the measures which are at present 
being employed will not even stop it from spreading. It 
may be observed that if the Government had acted seven 
years ago, the problem of combating this mildew — which is 
the most serious pest known of the gooseberry — would have 
been very much easier. 
1 December 23, 1907. 
