50 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



dreds of little spores ready to fall out and infect other apples. 

 On October 17, Doctor Lewis and I saw a young Alexander 

 tree near Lake Grove, Auburn, where the entire crop of at least 

 four bushels had been entirely destroyed by this fungus. Some 

 still remained on the tree but every apple was either more than 

 half or wholly decayed. Here again, spraying along with the 

 removal of diseased apples and all cankered areas from the 

 limbs of this and surrounding trees would have insured a sound 

 crop in the place of total loss. We have also found black rot 

 on pears taken from a tree in Manchester and on quinces on 

 sale at an Orono market, but grown outside the State. 



We are now working upon the fungi which cause the decay 

 of apples in ]\Iaine and find that there are more of these than 

 we had any idea of. Doctor Lewis has isolated at least seven 

 dififerent species of fungi which apparently cause or are capable 

 of causing decay of healthy apples on inoculation. 



Some of these fruit decaying fungi were isolated from dis- 

 eased spots on the leaves, some from decaying fruit and some 

 from both fruit and leaves. In this work one interesting conclu- 

 sion has forced itself upon us, namely, that it is not always safe 

 to look at a diseased spot on an apple and say off hand that it 

 is caused by a certain individual fungus. For example, out of 

 one small decayed spot, Doctor Lewis isolated eight dififerent 

 species of fungi, and at present there is some evidence to indi- 

 cate that at least four of them can probably, under favorable 

 conditions, cause more or less decay independent of each other. 

 This is not an exception for several other cases have been found 

 where there were several fungi associated with a single decayed 

 area. It is possible, also, that certain fungi can only cause 

 decay when growing associated with certain others. We know 

 that pink rot makes use of scab patches to gain an entrance to 

 the fruit. Again the lesson comes home to us that thorough 

 spraying will tend to remove the danger of fruit decay by killing 

 ofif the spores and keeping the fungi in check during the sum- 

 mer. It also emphasizes the necessity of careful handling of 

 fruit, for many of these fruit decaying fungi are unable to gain 

 entrance except through wounds, bruises, or punctures and 

 tunnels made by insects. 



