New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 115 



fruit was large and highly colored, or small and poorly colored, 

 or the quality good or bad. 



In a large fruit there was as often a small affected area as a 

 large one, and in apples below the average size there was no con- 

 stancy of the size of the affected area. But in no case did the 

 decay ever extend outside the core linfe. 



The conditions of ordinary storage under which the apples 

 were kept seemed to have no relation to the decay nor to influ- 

 ence it. Fruit from dry and well ventilated houses was as badly 

 affected as that from damp and poorly ventilated cellars. But 

 fruit kept in cold storage houses was found to be entirely free 

 from the trouble. 



In the Station orchard there are certain Baldwin apple trees 

 that have been fertilized with phosphoric acid for the two seasons 

 of 1 90 1 and 1902, and trees in the adjoining row that have not 

 been fertilized with anything during the same period. A com- 

 parison of the fruit from these trees gave a good opportunity to 

 determine if the fertilizer had any influence on the trouble. 

 Quantities of apples fronrt the trees that each year had been fer- 

 tilized with 8 lbs. 7 ounces of South Carolina rock per tree 

 were examined and in practically every case found to have the 

 decay. To compare with these quantities of apples from the trees 

 that had not been given any fertilizer were examined and the 

 decay found in every case. Apples from other trees in the same 

 orchard that had been fertilized with 9 lbs. of South Carolina 

 rock to each tree for several years were examined and the decay 

 found in practically every case. 



All of these apples were harvested and put in the Station 

 storage house on the same day, and were under parallel con- 

 ditions at all times. 



The constant presence of the decay in all of these apples indi- 

 cates that the use of phosphoric acid as a fertilizer had no 

 influence one way or the other upon the trouble. 



It was stated by experienced' apple dealers that the trouble 

 was confined to fruit grown upon sandy soil, but we have found 

 it as marked in apples grown on a stiff heavy clay as in those 

 grown in a loose, light, sandy soil. 



Tt has also been suggested that the decay is- a reeult of improper 

 ripening as is the case when a tree overbears. But as the trouble 



