52 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY t^eb., 



after being stored. A perfect pip presents no opening 

 into the body of the apple, while those termed " open " 

 are spreading, broken down, cracked more or less deeply 

 and often show that they have been the door way through 

 which some marauding worm has entered. But open 

 pips do not account for all the mouldy cores, in fact, they 

 account for only a small portion of them. Worms often 

 enter the apple by way of the pip, oftener perhaps than 

 from other points, and they are the parties responsible 

 for most of the mouldy cores. 



The spores of mould are universally disseminated and 

 wait only a lodgment and the proper conditions to germ- 

 inate and produce their kind again. The apple pip 

 forms a good collector of the floating spores and from it 

 they are carried into the apple by the first worm that 

 enters, and once in they do the rest. Apples are sub- 

 ject to the attack of worms from the time the petals fall 

 away and the calyx begins to enlarge to its maturity, 

 and in especially wormy years it is not uncommon to 

 fiud 50 per cent or even more of the product of an or- 

 chard thus injured. Out of 100 apples without worm 

 holes, 99 showed no mould in the seed cavity, and one 

 with no opening that I could discover did contain it, 

 but I am quite sure in the light of subsequent results, 

 that with a more careful examination this seeming ex- 

 ception would have been no exception, but could have 

 been folded with the other ninety and nine that went 

 not astray. Twenty-five with worm holes by way of the 

 pip into the seed cavity all showed mould, six with pip 

 broken down and containing spores but no opening ex- 

 tending into the seed cavity showed no mould. I found 

 two that had been stung while quite young by some of 

 the curculio tribe but otherwise sound. The wound 

 made by the puncture showed a hardened, slightly dark- 

 ened tract, the center of which contained a white growth 

 but not extending to the seed cavity which was free 



