New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1383 
rants in the Hudson valley in the autumn of 1900. In a planta- 
tion at Rochester we found a few currant bushes quite severely 
attacked by G. ribis, August 30, 1900; but this was the only case 
of the disease observed in western New York last year. The 
season was an excessively dry one. 
During the past season currant anthracnose became epidemic 
in the Hudson valley about June & By June 13 many leaves 
were falling and it was already evident that the crop would be 
considerably injured. In some plantations one-half the foliage 
was gone by June 26 and by July 10 the bushes were completely 
defoliated except for small tufts of leaves at the tips of some of 
the canes. The fruit commenced to ripen about June 26 and by 
July 10 the harvest was in progress. About July 1 there was a 
week of excessive heat with a clear sky. As a result, currants 
throughout the Hudson Valley suffered severely from sunscald. 
Most of the leaves having fallen, the fruit was left exposed to the 
direct rays of the sun.. However, it is likely that the injury 
was not all due to exposure to the sun. Some of it was prob- 
ably due to the inability of the defoliated canes to supply the ber- 
ries with water notwithstanding the fact that the soil was filled 
with water owing to frequent showers. The loss from sunscald 
and shriveling of the berries was enormous. Mr. Hepworth has 
18 acres of currants from which he sold, in 1900, 50,000 quarts of 
fruit. In 1901 the same plantation yielded only 26,000 quarts. 
This loss of nearly one-half the crop Mr. Hepworth attributes to 
the effect of anthracnose and the accompanying sunscald. In the 
five-acre plantation mentioned in the introduction to this bulletin 
the loss was estimated to be about two-thirds of the crop. The. 
fruit set as well in 1901 as in 1900 and there was no other disease 
besides anthracnose except cane blight, which was no more 
destructive in 1901 than in 1900. Therefore, had it not been for 
the anthracnose the crop of 1901 would probably have been as 
large as that of 1900. Moreover, the loss on the present season’s 
fruit crop is not all. The dropping of the leaves so early in the 
Season must seriously interfere with the proper ripening of the 
