THE BLACKBERRY PEST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 197, 29 November 1910, Page 3

THE BLACKBERRY PEST

PROPOSED INTRODUCTION OF FUNGUS. . | (From Our Own Correspondent). - A meeting of farmers from the Kent! road and surrounding district was held I in the Kent School on Wednesday night. to discuss the information received from the United States re the blackberry blight. A good many settlers turned up and expressed their views, but all seemed unanimous that the Government •should experiment to see if the American blight is effective in New Zealand in do-', stroying the blackberry. ! The chairman, Mr. j" A. Rowlands, said he wanted the meeting to decide if thev were prepared to go any further with the matter or if they would drop it altogether. Mr. MaeMahon said that considering the encouraging information contained in the letters from the States, he thought it would not be wise to drop it at present, and lie had much pleasure in moving—"That this meeting of fanners ask the Taranaki Agricultural Society to urpe the Government to thoroughly experiment with the various blights referred to by the United States Department." The motion was seconded by Mr. Harold Rundle and carried.

I The chairman thanked all for turning' up,_and said 'he was pleased to get their assistance in this deeply important subject. The information received from the United States through the Taranaki Agricultural 'Society reads as follows : The ' disease to which you refer is probably I our orange rust of the blackberry, which very often partly destroys and sometimes wholly destroys plantations of certain varieties of cultured blackberries in this country. It is a native disease on our wild blackberries and other species of I bramble. Our interest in this disease I has been to find means for controlling I the disease, preventing its injuring the blackberries, which are cultivated for their fruit. They are only occasionally a | pest, yielding readily to cultivation. ""It' might be. possible to introduce the orange i rust of the blackberry into your conn- j try by the same methods which are used in importing nursery stock—that is, take J the dormant infected plants, pack them in moss, shipping them by sea and then transplanting so as to make the plants grow where, introduction is desired. The |'life history of the blackberry funsus is not too well worked up. It might not be possible to secure full virulence of I this disease without getting it to fruit in its mature form, wlik-h is supposed to ; be puccinia peciante. The destructive , form of this fungus is the "accidial." The ; myeelflim- of this form lives perennially in . the stem and undergrown root stocks of . the blackberry.