268 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Kice: Mr. President, 1 am going to say, in regard to the paper read 

 hj Mr. J^mitli, that to me he has presented -a new method of storing and 

 keeping apples. I was brought up among the apple orchards of western 

 New York, and we never thought of any such thing as that. He advised 

 with me early in the fall, and I told him I thought is was a very dangerous 

 thing to pile' apples so deep, that a great many apples would be bruised 

 and tliey would come out in very bad condition. Now, if his methods are 

 successful, it opens a new field for keeping apples, and it seems to me 

 that it is a matter really worth while for us to investigate. I hope that 

 we may hear some reports on the subject hereafter. I did not suppose 

 it possible to have piles laid more than two or three feet deep in a bin 

 without their bruising, and if they can be kept seven or eight or nine 

 feet deep in a bin, or in a large cellar like that, with the divisions that he 

 gives to the bins, it is a matter of a great deal of importance, because, 

 in a time like this, men in our part of the country have allowed their 

 apples to go to waste simply because it is too expensive to buy barrels in 

 which to store them, and they know of no other way of taking care of 

 them. 



Mr. Sherwood: Mr. Smith refers to Mr. Sebastian Smith's method of 

 cribbing apples. I will say I know of his experience, and he advises it, 

 particularly with the black spots we have found within the last two or 

 three years on some varieties, such as Baldwin and Greening; but Mr. 

 Smith's experience in that line has not been very favorable. Last year, 

 out of a crop of about a hundred barrels of BaldMins, if my memory 

 serves me right, he only got about fifteen or twenty barrels of No. 1 

 apples, and he concluded that change of temperature, or being exposed 

 in that way in the orchard, increased the spots on the apples, or brought 

 them out more, as he thought they were not on the apples when he put 

 them in the bin, and this year he has put some in bins and a good many 

 in his barn. That was his experience last year. 



Mr. Morrill: I would like to ask what is meant by this spot? It is 

 not a scab, it is a cloudiness in the skin — is that what you have reference 

 to? 



Mr. Sherwood: It is seen on the Baldwin, and it is a fungus, as I take 

 it, and if I am not mistaken it is called "bitter rot." The flavor is bitter. 

 It is particularly noticeable in Baldwin. It is a perfectly black spot, 

 about as large as a pea. It is found on the surface of the apple, it 

 changes the flavor of the apple, particularly the Baldwin. 



Mr. Morrill: It is on the surface only? 



Mr Sherwood: It penetrates under the skin a little way. It is a little 

 fungus growth, a little woody growth under the skin, 



Mr. Rice: Has not ventilating his bins helped that? 



Mr. Sherwood: No, sir; I do not think it has. 



Prof. Slingerland: I do not know what is meant by this black spot. 

 I have seen it very frequently, on Baldwins, and our attention has been 

 called to it this season, a spot which does not show so much on the skin 



