'7 

 was not to be distinguished from the characteristic " Blossom End 



'6 



Rot." 



Third, That the organisms causing the tomato rot are present in 

 the air and come into contact with the inner tissues of the tomato, 

 probably through cracks in the epidermis which occur about the 

 pistil. This seems to be the prevailing opinion in regard to the 

 infection of the fruit. Galloway advises a restriction of barnyard 

 manure as fertilizer, as he considers that it tends to increase the 

 cracking. Certainly the epidermis has become more tender with the 

 cultivation of the plant, and that certain varieties show this charac- 

 teristic more than others has been observed by the writer. 



A number of infection experiments have been tried by spraying 

 the fruit with the bacterial organism grown in bouillon. Two or 

 three spots occurred which may have been caused by this treatment, 

 but the numbers were not sufficient to give conclusive results. 



Fourth, That the quality of the fruit may affect the size, appear- 

 ance and position of the spot. This is demonstrated very nicely 

 in a greenhouse crop now under observation. On normal fruit the 

 rot is of slight depth, with collapsed tissue and clear boundary, as 

 found in 1902. However, the fruit in this crop is very largely lobed 

 and corrugated, and the rot in these cases extends almost to the 

 calyx before the surface begins to collapse, or even to change color. 

 On cutting open the tomato it is found that the carpels are imper- 

 fectly united at the pistil. In some cases quite a considerable open- 

 ing has been detected, through which the organism has reached the 

 watery and air exposed pulp. The pulp is often entirely dried and 

 blackened before the pericarp begins to be affected. 



This may account for some differences in the records of previous 

 writers. The " seared " spot of Earle 4 has been described by him 

 as occurring only on nearly matured fruits, to the ripening of which 

 he ascribes the arrest of the rot. (The spot referred to extends 

 through the epidermis only, turning it a light brown color.) We 

 have had many cases of the kind, which occurred quite as often on 

 the small as on the large fruit, but always on smooth, normal speci- 

 mens with no crack visible to the naked eye. Cases of entire rotting 

 have been found by us only on irregular fruit, as was also often 

 found by Earle and Galloway. 



