STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 89 



been described from any country. This fungus does not cause 

 much decay of apples but is mentioned as a matter of interest as 

 showing that it is possible to find new and interesting things in 

 this study. 



One of the worst of our decay fungi is the black-rot fungus, 

 Sphaeropsis malorum which I mentioned earlier as a cause of 

 leaf-spot, canker, and decay. This fungus may cause decay of 

 fruit either on the tree or in storage. I have seen trees on which 

 practically the entire crop of fruit was destroyed by this fungus. 

 In some cases the spores of the fungus may be either on the 

 stem or calyx end of the apple and when the apple is placed in 

 storage if the temperature is not so low as to prevent growth, 

 the fungus begins to grow and causes a rather rapid decay of 

 the fruit. On October 5, 1909, I purchased 12 Rolfe apples 

 from a grocery in Orono and placed them in glass jars in the 

 laboratory. Within 3 weeks all but one of these apples had 

 decayed, the cause being the black-rot fungus. In each case 

 the fungus entered at the stem end. 



Another bad decay fungus is the ordinary blue mold. This 

 fungus, however, is not able to do much damage to uninjured 

 apples. It must enter in most cases through a wound of some 

 kind, it may be through an insect or fungous injury or it may be 

 through a bruise or cut which has resulted from careless hand- 

 ling. The blue mold fungus is a very common saprophyte. It 

 will grow on almost any dead organic matter. It may be seen 

 on jelly glasses, on old bread, even on old leather. The spores 

 are practically everywhere present and are ready to fall into or 

 upon injured places on apples where they begin to grow and 

 cause decay. This fungus causes a great part of the soft rots 

 of apples in storage. 



Another fungus which is a very common saprophyte and 

 which does not do much damage under ordinary conditions, 

 causes pink rot when the conditions for its development are 

 favorable. This fungus usually enters at places injured by 

 apple scab. Here we see that if the scab were prevented by 

 proper spraying the pink rot fungus would not be able to do 

 much damage. 



The bitter rot is present in Maine but has not been found to 

 be common. 



