New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT SraTion. 207 
tunity to study this case thoroughly no statement is made as 
to its cause. 
BLACK KNOT. 
A considerable number of specimens of this disease were found 
in an old vineyard at Middle Hope. At a distance of from six 
inches to two feet above the ground the stems showed warty 
excrescences of spongy texture. (See Plate XVII.) No knots 
were found on the roots or at the crown. ‘These excrescences 
bear a striking resemblance to the black knots on plums and 
cherries caused by the fungus Plowrightia morbosa (Schw.) Sace., 
but they have an entirely different origin. Kuropean investigators 
hold that they are due to the action of frost.” 
The disease appears to be rare in the Hudson Valley, but in 
Central and Western New York it is met with frequently. It is 
also reported from Pennsylvania,” California” and Canada.* 
From American writers on plant diseases it has received very 
little attention, although it has a considerable literature in French, 
German and Italian. 
PEACH DISEASES. 
WINTER INJURY. 
The Hudson Valley peach crop of 1899 was almost a complete 
failure owing to the hard freeze in February which killed nearly 
all of the fruit buds. There were very few orchards that bore 
any fruit. In many orchards the twigs also were much injured 
and in some the trees were killed outright. The severe attack 
of leaf curl in 1898 probably made the trees unusually suscep- 
tible to winter injury. 
25See Frank, A. B. Die Krankheiten der Pflanzen, 1: 209-210. Breslau, 
1895. 
26 Galloway, B. T. Botanical Div. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 8: 63. 
27 Woodworth, C. W. Cal. Exp. Sta. Bul. 99: 2. This, however, may be 
a different disease. 
28 Fletcher, Jas. Canada Experimental Farms Rept. for 1889: 87. 
