12 THE BITTER ROT OF APPLES. 



Practically all of the publications in regard to the bitter rot until 

 1887 were mere reprints of the articles already mentioned, and the dis- 

 ease was treated apparently as a rather uncommon one and not of 

 much importance. 



Galloway seems to have been the first to treat upon the subject of 

 thisdisease from an economic standpoint, the first accounts dealing with 

 the bitter rot as a destructive orchard disease being published by him 

 in 1887. He called attention to the damage caused and the results of 

 experiments made to check the disease. At that time the bitter rot had 

 appeared in many States from the Atlantic seaboard to Kansas, and the 

 destruction of apple crops was large. These experiments were fol- 

 lowed by many others: Garman (1889), Galloway (1889), Jennings 

 (1890), Curtiss (1890), Galloway (1890), Churchill (1890), Chester (1890), 

 Garman (1890), and others. The results of these various experiments 

 were very conflicting. A few investigators succeeded in totall} T check- 

 ing the disease even after it had become well established, while others 

 had no success whatever. In the more northern States experimenters 

 seemed to succeed in checking the disease by spraying affected trees 

 with the ordinary fungicides. In the region south of the fortieth par- 

 allel, i. e., in the territory extending from the eastern coast to Kansas, 

 Indian Territory, and Texas, where the fungus seems to flourish best, 

 it was found much more difficult to control the disease. Spraying- 

 experiments indicated that the disease could be checked to some, extent, 

 but only in one or two instances was it stopped entirely. From the 

 time of its first appearance in July until the latter part of September 

 the bitter-rot fungus was active. What became of the spores, where 

 they remained over winter, and how they infected the fruit the fol- 

 lowing year was unknown, but the opinion was generally accepted 

 that many of the spores survived in the mummified fruits which 

 remained on the trees or on the ground throughout the cold season. 



Up to within three years ago it was generally accepted that Gloeos- 

 po7'ium , fructigenuru Berk, was the cause of the bitter rot of apples. 

 During the last two years, owing to the increased ravages of the dis- 

 ease, attention was directed toward the investigation of the life history 

 of the bitter-rot fungus, with the result that a number of new facts 

 of considerable importance have been determined. These facts have 

 been discovered almost simultaneously by a number of observers, and 

 their exact bearing on preventive measures has already been tested. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE BITTER-ROT FUNGUS. 



GEOGRAPHICAL, DISTRIBUTION. 



The bitter-rot fungus, like other species of the form genus Glceospo- 

 rium, has an almost world-wide distribution. In the United States it 

 has been found in nearly all of the States east of and including Kan- 

 sas, Oklahoma, and Texas. A careful search through the mycological 



