33 
as well as tlie fruit, and I think also on the branches. It is by no 
means confined to Indiana, or rare in any peach district in the United 
States. It is common along the Atlantic, in the region of the Great 
Lakes, in the Lower Mississippi Valley, and in California. In Maryland 
and Delaware it has been known for many years, and is so abundant 
that its presence is regarded as a matter of course. The choice early 
peaches and the middle varieties are little subject to it, but Smocks 
and nearly all late and inferior sorts are more or less spotted. So con¬ 
stant is this spotting that many peach-growers have come to consider it 
as characteristic of certain varieties and have no idea that it is abnormal. 
It injures the appearance of the fruit somewhat, and when very abun¬ 
dant the flavor also, unless I have been much deceived. Growers do 
not geuerally regard it as a serious evil, or indeed as a matter of any 
consequence. The loss in late sorts with firm flesh is nevertheless 
sometimes very considerable. So far as my own observation goes this 
results principally from cracking and rot, in much the same way as in 
apples and pears when badly attacked by Fusicladium. The half grown 
peach forms a protective layer of cork beneath the most thickly spotted 
surface. This cork layer is incapable of further growth and is ruptured 
in deep irregular fissures when the peach rapidly enlarges during the 
last few days of its growth. The spores of Monilia fructigena Pers. fall 
upon this exposed surface and rot begins immediately. The cracking 
appears to be worse in rainy weather, which is also the most favorable 
condition for the rapid development of the rot. In September, 1888, 
in the great peach region of Maryland and Delaware (the north part of 
the peninsula) fully one-half of the Smock peaches, aggregating many 
thousand baskets, were lost by rot during a rainy week. Cracking 
of the fruit often preceded this rot and was due in part to Cladosporiam. 
Nevertheless the loss would have been inconsiderable but for the pres¬ 
ence of this other much worse parasite—the rot fungus. 
In 1886 and 1887, two very rainy seasons Cladosporium carpophilum 
was abundant in Maryland and Delaware, and I am therefore inclined 
to think that dry seasons are not specially favorable to its growth. 
EXPERIMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF GOOSEBERRY MILDEW 
AND APPLE SCAB. 
Prof. E. S. Goff, of the New York Experiment Station, has kindly 
furnished us with the results of his experiments in the treatment of 
these diseases in 1888, which we give in full below: 
POTASSIUM SULPHIDE FOR THE GOOSEBERRY MILDEW. 
At the suggestion of Dr. J. C. Arthur,* formerly botanist to the 
* For results secured with this substance by Dr. Arthur in 1887, see Report New 
York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1887, pp. 248-252. 
20414—No. 1-3 
