lo July, 1909.] '• Bitter Fit " of the Apple. 441 



most serious damage. There are some varieties mucii more susceptible 

 than others and there are e\en some which seem to escape it in one district 

 and yet succumb to it in another. The Cleopatra, for instance, is gener- 

 ally regarded as one of the most susceptible, but I have found Annie 

 Elizabeth, Shockley and Prince Bismarck equally bad. The following 

 i^ a list of varieties of apples more or less subject to this disease in 

 Victoria : — 



Annie Elizabeth Lord Wolseley Ribston Pippin 



Cat's Head Magg's Seedling Rome Beauty 



Cleopatra Munroe's Favourite Rymer 



Cox's Orange Pippin Newtown Pippin Scarlet Nonpareil 



Esopus Spitzenberg Nick-a-jack Shockley 



Five Crown Northern Greening Stone Pippin 



Gravenstein Northern Spy Stiirmer Pippin 



Hoover I'rince Alfred Winter Majetin 



Jonathan Princess Alexandra Vates (comparatively free) 



Late Wine Prince Bismarck 



Recommendations. — Although this disease has been known for at 

 least 30 vears, having been described in 1879 by Sorauer as occurring near 

 Berlin, and has received attention at the hands of scientists and practical 

 growers, we are still in the dark as to the real cause of it and conse- 

 quently no means of coping with it are known. Since no definite organism 

 has been found associated with it, one is led to the conclusion that it is a 

 -constitutional disease and the abnormal physiological conditions may be 

 due to a variety of causes. The advice to grow sorts that are not liable 

 to it is no remedy, any more than it would be a remedy to give up growing 

 apples altogether in districts affected with the disease. There is no doubt 

 .2i? to the .serious losses cau.sed bv it, and this, combined with the variety 

 of opinions expressed by leading growers as to the numerous factors tend- 

 ing to produce it, renders it imperative that a thorough investigation be 

 undertaken to discover the cause or causes of it and the exact conditions 

 under which it occurs so that some means may be devised for overcoming 

 it. 



Since the disease is common in several States of the Commonwealth 

 and as it is not one that can be properly investigated by any single State, 

 li would be the duty of a National Department of Agriculture to under- 

 take it. But since there is no machinery at present in existence for this 

 purpose I would strongly recommend that the different States particularly 

 interested, viz.. New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania 

 should provide the necessary funds and appoint a skilled investigator who 

 v.ould devote his whole time to an experimental studv of this serious 

 disease both in the latoratory and in the orchard. Experiments co'uld 

 then be conducted in each State and from the verv nature of the disease 

 its investigation would require the co-operation of the leading growers in 

 the respective States. E\ery possible factor which contributes to the 

 growth of the tree and the formation of fruit would require to be dealt 

 with. The nature of the soil in which the affected trees grow, the rain- 

 fall and the season, the cultivation, manuring and pruning, and even the 

 stocks used, as Northern Spy is liable to it, would all demand attention. 

 The chemical composition of the apple when diseased would require to 

 he ascertained at different periods of its growth, with special reference 

 to the sugar and acid content and the increase or decrease of tannic and 

 malic acids in the cell sap. To trace this di-sease to its source and find a 

 remedy for it will tax the energies of the trained specialist, and the in- 

 creasing los.ses due to it each year call for an exhaustive investigation 

 ■without delav. 



