THG JOURNAL 



OF 



^fie department of Mgriculture 



VICTORIA, 



Vol. XVII. Part 8. 11th Aug-ust, 1919. 



APPLE CULTUUE IN VICTORIA. 



(Continued from page 295.) 



{By J . Farrell, Orchard Supervisor.) 



Bitter Pit. 



Incalculable losses due to the ravages of Bitter Pit are experienced 

 by apple-growers every year. This disease, or rather undesirable 

 degeneration and deterioration in the physical condition of the fruit, 

 particularly during its later development, is more prevalent in some 

 seasons than in others. Some varieties are very subject to infection 

 while others are partly immune. Cleopatra is probably the best example 

 of those in which free development of Bitter Pit is found, and Yates 

 may be regarded as the most resistant of those enjoying partial immu- 

 nity from it. 



The first evidence of Bitter Pit, when the apples become affected on 

 the trees, is the appearance of comparatively small, shallow, dark 

 isolated depressions in the rind of the fruit. These depressions, which, 

 in the case of moderate infection, occupy only the calyx end of the 

 apple, became visible in early varieties about the time they com- 

 mence to ripen. In these the pitting develops rapidly, but as a rule 

 not so extensively as in the midseason and late ripening sorts. The 

 late ripening varieties often show ]nt even before they attain fvill size, 

 but generally speaking, the fruit, when attacked on the trees, suffers 

 more during the ripening period than in any other stage. 



Plate 198 illustrates a Cleopatra apple affected with Bitter Pit. 

 This fruit was almost ripe when picked and photographed. Fig. 1 

 depicts it as a typical diseased specimen of this variety. Fig. 2 is the 

 same apple showing in the pulp of the portion from which the slice was 

 removed the deep-seated nature of the pitting. When a section of one 

 of the pits is made by cutting through the rind, and the diseased pulj) 

 beneath it, the skin is apparently quite sound, but the cells are brown 



9083. 



