§ MR. LAURENCE HARDY (Kent, Ashford)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether he can give the total number of outbreaks of American gooseberry mildew in the occurring stage which have occurred this year, and the counties in which they have severally occurred; and whether these outbreaks have occurred in plantations where the instructions of the Board as regards pruning in winter have been carried out.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) Seventy outbreaks of American gooseberry mildew in the summer stage have occurred this year in the following counties, viz.:—Herefordshire (2), Warwickshire (4), Norfolk (10), Isle of Ely (7), 69 Worcestershire (13), and Huntingdonshire (34). With the exception of one outbreak in Herefordshire and another in Warwickshire all the cases have occurred in plantations where the disease appeared last year. They are probably due to imperfect pruning. I may add that fruit growers are now willingly complying with the requirements of our Orders and are taking all necessary steps to get rid of the disease.