143 



summing up his conclusions the writer of the report expressed 

 the view that w the injury was clue to the fruit being subjected to 

 too high a temperature during the period of ripening. Whether 

 this occurred previous to or during the voyage could not be deter- 

 mined. The fact that the lower half of each apple that was buried 

 in the packing material remained perfectly free from disease 

 suggests that if the fruit was completely covered with packing 

 material so as to exclude the free access of air, no injury would 

 be sustained." 



In his covering letter Mr. Davis explains that he appreciates the 

 fact that the writer of the report approached the subject dealt with 

 under some difficulty, and the additional information he appends 

 is sent in the hope that it may be of some assistance to the investi- 

 gator in arriving at a solution of a somewhat difficult problem. 

 How real the difficulty is may be gathered from the fact that the 

 writer of the report found in every instance the lower half of each 

 apple that was buried in the packing material perfectly free from 

 disease, and that this is borne out by the lower of the two figures 

 in the plate which accompanies the report. That figure, it is 

 hardly necessary to say, represents, as accurately as it is possible 

 by means of a photograph to represent, the conditions present in 

 what was justifiably considered a typical instance of the disease as 

 exemplified by the apples in the consignment submitted for report. 

 It is therefore interesting and instructive to find that Mr. Davis 

 has to say that this plate " does not give a clear impression of 

 the disease. This originates much nearer the core of the fruit in 

 nearly every case, and apparently develops towards the outside of 

 the apple." 



With regard to the possibility that the injury may be due to the 

 fruit being subjected to too high a temperature during the first 

 period of ripening, Mr. Davis says :— " I have seen apples 

 ripen perfectly for many years past in climates hotter than that 

 from which the specimens came on which the report was made. 

 I have also watched them in Cape Colony, and it is only within 

 the past few years that this disease has been observed. Apples 

 are shipped to this colony from Australia, Tasmania, and Canada ; 

 the disease is apparent in consignments from each of these colonies, 

 also in America, both in the Eastern and Western States." With 

 regard to the possibility that the condition is the effect of sub- 

 jection to too high a temperature during the voyage, and to the 

 suggestion that if the fruit were completely covered by packing 

 material no injury would have occurred, Mr. Davis writes : — 

 H I would state that I have unfortunate lv seen thousands of 

 specimens having identically the same appearance as those sub- 

 mitted hanging on the trees ; have packed them, examined them 

 and found no difference between them and others which have 

 been picked from the same trees, wrapped and packed completely 

 over with suitable material, excepting that the latter seemed to 

 develop the disease more rapidly. Cold storage experiments made 

 with fruit half ripe and nearly ripe, placed in storage without sign 

 of mark on them, have shown that when taken out disease has 

 developed to even a greater extent than in the previous cases with 

 the same peculiar susceptibility to pitting at the calyx end of the 

 fruit only." 



