14 MANUAL OF FRUIT DISEASES 



BlTTER-RoT 

 Caused by Glomerella cingulata (Stoneman) Sp. and von S. 



While this disease occurs on a great variety of hosts, it is of 

 most consequence on the apple. On this fruit it is almost 

 invariably called bitter-rot, in spite of the apparent unfitness 

 of the name. The affected flesh is not always bitter. The 

 names anthracnose and ripe-rot have also been applied to this 

 disease, but since the trouble occurs on both green and ripe 

 fruits, the latter term is an objectionable one. The name 

 anthracnose is reserved for another disease of the Pacific 

 Northwest. The disease on the limbs is called bitter-rot 

 canker. 



It is difficult to determine the origin of bitter-rot, but America 

 appears to be the only country in which apples suffer from it. 

 It was recorded in North Carolina in 1867, and with the devel- 

 opment of apple-culture throughout the central belt of states, 

 the range and destructiveness of this disease have gradually 

 increased. By 1887 bitter-rot had become a serious trouble 

 in many eastern states along the thirty-seventh parallel. It 

 now occurs in all the territory east of the Mississippi River, 

 and west including Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Ar- 

 kansas and Louisiana. Within this region bitter-rot is most 

 prevalent in a belt of states on the line of the Ohio River, from 

 Virginia to Oklahoma. Epiphytotics in many of the states in 

 this belt have occurred with great frequency and destructive- 

 ness. 



Bitter-rot is unquestionably the most ruinous of all apple 

 diseases in certain years; this is particularly true of the sec- 

 tion where it is most prevalent. This disease, more than any 

 other apple disease, is one to be feared by apple-growers. Its 

 sudden appearance after great expenditures of time, money and 

 energy 'have been made in producing a fine crop causes it to be 



