48 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



rots of fruit where the fungi are capable of penetrating the thin 

 skin and invading the living cells. Others can only get in 

 through bruises or wounds in the fruit. We also have a class 

 of fungi which normally are confined to dead wood but 

 wherever there is a cut or a bruise on the tree, for example, a 

 pruning cut which is improperly protected, then these fungi may 

 get in and actually cause a slow destruction of the tree. These 

 slow acting fungi do much more damage in the orchard than is 

 usually supposed. 



Fungi are made up of little threads, usually colorless, which 

 in the case of parasites penetrate the tissue of the fruit, leaves, 

 or wood, killing the living cells and drawing their nourishment 

 from them. 



Fungi are reproduced by means of minute bodies called 

 spores which take the place of the seeds of higher plants. Many 

 fungi produce more than one kind of spores, and frequently 

 special bodies are formed for the production of spores, for 

 example, the little black spots on the surface of an apple affected 

 with black rot contain and give off hundreds of spores. The 

 shelflike growths on the trunk of an old apple tree are but spore 

 bearing organs of a fungus growing within and causing decay. 

 These spores are carried about and distributed by wind, water, 

 insects, etc.. and when they fall upon other plants or other parts 

 of the same plant under right conditions, germinate and enter 

 the tissues to continue their destructive work. 



In this hasty discussion of fungi there are one or two things 

 which I wish to emphasize. First, that every decaying limb, 

 every rotten apple on the tree and on the ground, every bit of 

 rubbish alloived to collect and remain in the orchard may be a 

 breeding place of trouble and daily give off thousands of 

 spores, each capable of causing a new center of disease. That 

 picturesque shelf -like growth on the old neglected apple tree in 

 the fence row or by the roadside, or that rough light colored 

 growth on the under side of a limb killed by the frost two win- 

 ters ago, or that untreated limb canker is yearly producing a 

 crop of millions of little spores, each ready to fall in the 

 exuding sap of a wound in some nearby tree, germinate therein, 

 and throw out little tubes and threads to penetrate the heart 

 wood and thus begin the slow but sure process of decay right 



