17 



to the outside. Naturally, those are farthest away from the 

 water supply, so when the water begins to be pulled away from 

 the current and there isn't water enough to supply the whole 

 apple, the little tips of the sap tubes out around the blossom 

 end and the cells which surround them, have no water. 



You get all degrees of injuries, too, from cells that are dead 

 to those more or less injured. You put those apples in storage 

 and not having enough water in the apple, those cells, slightly 

 injured cannot draw it, and they die; and it gets w^orse and 

 worse until you have large numbers of those spots under the 

 skin, running into the heart of the apple and turning brown, 

 and it dies. That is the explanation given for bitter pit. 



The only thing that can be done, as far as I know, is to 

 make every effort to maintain a uniform water supply during 

 the season. If you have a wet spring and dry weather follows, 

 anything you can do in the way of cultivation to ease that 

 drop from much water to a little water and to keep a high 

 amount of water in the soil will tend to reduce the amount of 

 Baldwin spots. 



The fewer apples you have on the tree, the more injury there 

 will be. I do not understand it well enough to explain, but 

 that is the general theory. I have never myself carried on 

 investigations on the thjng, but there were extensive investi- 

 gations recorded some few years ago on the disease in Australia, 

 where the disease is bad. Th>e evidence we collected year after 

 year in the State of New York indicates that bitter pit, or 

 Baldwin spot, is the result of sudden changes in the water 

 supply during the season. We never have Baldwin spots in 

 the State of New York when we have a uniformly wet season 

 or uniformly dry season, because then the balance between 

 root and leaf is not disturbed. 



Chairman Jenks. A question is asked, is it worse with trees 

 in sod than those in cultivated areas? 



Professor Whetzell. I have no data on that. My opinion 

 would be it was likely to be, particularly if the sod pumps the 

 water out. It tends to emphasize the change. It may or may 

 not. It depends on the season, and depends on the conditions 

 in your orchard. Probably in that orchard, if the grass was 

 cut and used as a mulch, you might not get that effect. 



