PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 47 



Mr, Hawley: And yet they took it there and pretended to investigate 

 it, and their report was very unsatisfactory, so I presume the nature of 

 the disease was very little known. 



Mr. Morrill: Has any one put it under microscopic examination? 



A. We pared the skin away and found black specks, streaks, running 

 in different directions. It is possible that they were right in Washing- 

 ton, but what insect it was they did not state. 



Mr. Haight: It has been suggested that it was caused by a defective 

 pit. 



Mr. Morrill. What causes the imperfect pit? Imperfect pollenization? 



A. I don't know about that. But that could not be the cause, because 

 many of the pits were all right. 



Mr. Gurney: I have had the matter under consideration. I have 

 noticed these spots on the Lombard plum and others. The curculio has a 

 bad name, and I do not know any other enemy that it would be better 

 to charge it to. I think the curculio, the second brood, will sting the 

 plum in August, and not every egg hatches that is deposited, and I think 

 the trouble is caused in that way. They tear a hole in the plum, deposit 

 an egg, and it does not hatch, and there is a blemish on the plum; and 

 many of these cuts are about the shape of their work. We did not know 

 what else to lay it to, except the curculio,. and I am inclined to think that 

 that is what it is. 



Mr. Haight: Inasmuch as the curculio has been in the country a long 

 time, and these were only found recently, it does not seen just reasonable. 

 They usually rise slightly above the surrounding surface of the plum, 

 and it dries and there is gum. 



Mr. McClatchie: It is a well-settled fact at our experiment station 

 that the curculio, the second lot, does not lay eggs, and if that be the 

 case it is not the curculio which causes the difficulty. I confess, I don't 

 know the cause; I would be glad to know what it is. We have noticed 

 the same thing and know no remedy, nor yet the cause. 



Mr. S. Wanmer: There is a good deal laid to the curculio, but we can 

 not lay this to him. I notice on my prunes, before they crack open, a 

 dark spot; in the dark varieties it is very dark, and in peeling it down I 

 have noticed that it comes sometimes from the pit; sometimes it does 

 not reach clear to the pit, but it is a good deal like dry rot of the potato, 

 and for a couple of weeks before they burst open you will notice this 

 dark spot, so I am satisfied that it is not the work of the curculio at all, 

 but some disease. Some years nearly all my prunes have been that way, 

 and I killed the curculio thoroughly; before I get them sorted this gum 

 rubs off, and it is not noticed on the fruit at all, with some exceptions, 

 and they are all right when you can them. 



Mr. Morrill: Your inference would be that it is a fungous trouble of 

 some character? 



A. I think so. 



Mr. Haight: I sprayed for this, but it had no effect. The plums do not 

 drop, do not seem to be injured at all, excepting that little hard spot, and 

 it is an eye-sore in the preserved fruit. 



Q. Do they show up badly after they are picked? A. In the green 

 plums it does show, but not in the blue plums. 



Q. It is present in the blue plums? A. In the prunes. 



