New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 349 
the memory of the present generation of investigators. Flowers 
of sulphur is the form most convenient of application, and the one 
in common use. More thorough and accurate observations in recent 
years, together with a better knowledge of the plant maladies which it 
is intended to disperse or prevent, have demonstrated that the useful 
application of sulphur is more limited than previously supposed. 
For additional remedies, attention has naturally been turned to the 
compounds of sulphur, and especially to the sulphates, sulphate of 
iron and sulphate of copper being found of service in combating a 
number of forms of plant diseases. 
Some two or three years ago the sulphides began to receive atten- 
tion in Europe, particularly the sulphide of potassium, which was 
found a valuable exterminator of the surface or powdery mildews. 
The same agent was tried to some extent in this country last year 
(1886), a few brief accounts being given in the agricultural and gar- 
dening journals. 
At the opening of the present season (1887), it was planned to give 
this substance a thorough trial upon several diverse forms of plant 
diseases, not only on those which grow upon the surface of the host 
and are therefore easily reached by topical application, but on the 
endophytic forms which grow, with the exception of their spore- 
forming parts, inside the host. 
Gooseberry Mildew. — On June 4 a solution of the strength of one- 
half ounce of the sulphide of potassium to a gallon of water was 
sprayed over two plants of considerable size of the Industry goose- 
berry, an English variety, the ends of the branches and a part of the 
fruit being quite completely enveloped with the common gooseberry 
mildew (Sphserotheca Mors-uvse B. and C.) In places the mildew had 
passed the first or conidial stage, when it is glistening white with 
powdery spores, and had reached the second stage, forming a brown 
felted layer on which are produced minute black fruit-dots containing 
the winter spores. The mildew had already affected the growth of 
the plants, having caused the new growth of stems to become more 
than normally thickened, and also stunted the development of the new 
leaves. Some seedling gooseberries of two years' growth, almost as 
much diseased, were also sprayed with the solution at the same time. 
The spraying was repeated on June 9, 20 and 27, each of these dates 
being subsequent to a shower which presumably washed off the 
sulphide from the bushes. 
The beneficial effects were noticeable from the first; most of the 
fungus in its early white stage was killed, and the production of 
summer spores fully checked for the time being. The part of the 
