282 State Horticultural Society. 



years ago as now, in proportion to the quantity of fruit grown. In the 

 past it took the fruit as badly as it does now. I do not think it causes 

 as much damage as the apple scab fungus, a^thing we often pass by 

 without paying any attention to it. The scab does a great deal of damage 

 to the tree. The reason we notice the damage by the bitter rot more 

 than that by the scab is that a tree may be loaded with fine fruit until 

 August or September, and we begin to count the apples before th^^ 

 are picked, and in a few days they may all be gone. Even up to pick- 

 ing time they may be all right and then be almost a total loss. I know 

 a man who expected to pick t,8oo barrels. He got only seventeen — 

 not 1,700, just seventeen barrels. 1 know of another man who had a 

 fine crop on twelve acres. He was delighted and said, "Now I see how 

 I can send my boy to college." The bitter rot struck his orchard and 

 he did not get enough apples for his own use. In 1901 the loss in one 

 county in Illinois was more than $1,500,000 from this one disease. It 

 occurs over the entire lower part of the apple growing country, with us 

 mostly south of latitude thirty-nine degrees. It is the southern part of 

 the state which suffers, not the northern part. It is due to a fungous dis- 

 ease and not to anything wrong inside the tree. It grows and dies like 

 other plants. It does not affect the leaves and has nothing to do with 

 the foliage. Its circle of life can be followed just as certainly as the life 

 of bigger things, but the eye needs to be aided by the microscope. It 

 ■does not affect the foliage. In this respect it is very different from the 

 apple scab. It was not known till last year that it aft'ected any other 

 part of the tree than the fruit. Sometimes it is called ripe rot ; but in- 

 correctly. It may spread considerably upon winter apples as early as 

 July. In September with warm, damp weather it may go ahead with 

 great rapidity. 



In July, 1902, it was found upon some other parts of the tree than 

 the fruit. It was noticed that the apples first attacked on the tree had 

 3. cone-like form with the point at the top. You can not notice this later 

 in the season. Mr. Simpson noticed dead spots upon .the limbs at the 

 point of the cone. Examination proved this to be very frequent. It 

 was called canker upon the limbs. Perhaps it would be a preventive 

 to cut out these cankers. I have here some branches with cankers on 

 them. In some cases old apples may carry the infection over to the 

 next year; but every reason goes to show that the "mummy" apples are 

 very rarely the origin of the outbreak. The outbreak is caused by the 

 cankers. It would do little good to clean up the old apples on the ground. 

 What can be done in the way of cutting out these cankers? For the 

 most part they are only annual. In some instances they may extend the 

 next year, but this is rarely the case. It is practically impossible to look 



