4 Jean White: 



does not mention this pitting either as a disease occurring in 

 apples and pears, or in his suggestions regarding the export of 

 fruit. As the coniinon diseases produced by fungi, e.g., Black 

 Spot, Bitter Rot, Mouldy Core, Scabs, etc., are dealt with in 

 his work, as well as canker in pears, and the physiological defect, 

 Water Core in apples, it is inferred that Bitter Pit was not 

 prevalent, or at any rate was not common in Victoria at the 

 time of the compilation of his book, nor could any reference 

 be found to any other disease which might be identical with 

 bitter pit under another name. 



Mr. Pole Evans states in his paperi on this subject, published 

 in 1909, that from the available literature it is clear that the 

 trouble was known at least 20 years ago in Australia, America 

 and Europe, but the first mention he definitely makes of its 

 being recorded in Australia is the reference2 to an article i3ub- 

 lished by Mr. N. A. Cobb in the Department of Agriculture, 

 New South Wales, in 1892, in which Mr. Cobb refers the disease 

 to some unknown cause. 



Mr. George Quinn, in 1905,3 remarks that he can cast back an 

 intelligent recollection of South Australian grown apples for 

 upwards of 25 years, but until more than half that period is 

 passed in retrospective vision, no recollection of the defect is 

 forthcoming. According to him, therefore, the disease was first 

 noticed in South Australia within the last 19 years, which 

 again takes us back to the early nineties. 



Information regarding this trouble has also been supplied by 

 Mr. D. McAlpine, who says in the Victorian Agricultural Journal, 

 1902,^ that many serious complaints have been made during the 

 last few years concerning the occurrence of bitter pit in apples. 



Mr. C. French, in the " Destructive Insects of Victoria,"^ 

 writes that owing to the simultaneous occurrence in Victoria of 

 the disease and the Harlequin fruit bug, Mr. Lidgett, farmer, of 

 the Pentland Hills, of the Bacchus Marsh district, asserted that 

 this insect punctures the fruit, and in this way is responsible 

 for the disease. 



1 Tra^isvaal Departnieiit of Agriculture, Technical Bull. No. 1, July 1909, p. 7. 



2 Ibi'd, p. 4. ' 



3 Defects in export apples, Department of Aj,a'ic'ulture of South Australia, Bui!. No. 7, 

 1905, p. 9. V , . 



4 Journal of Ayfriculture, Department of Victoria, 1902, vol. i., p. 804. 

 I Destructive Insects of Victoria, pt. i., 1891, p. 89. 



