DECAY IN THE APPLE BARREL. 81 



absent, the skin is unbroken except in a peculiar, almost regular 

 manner. There is an evident central point where the fungus 

 started, and, as it has spread, numerous pimples have formed just 

 under the skin, and sometimes in eccentric circles. From these 

 minute light-colored pimples spores ooze out and are ready to 

 find their way to some other specimen. The affected portion of 

 the apple has a bitter taste, and, on account of this, the term 

 "bitter rot" has long been given to this form of decay. This 



FIG. 5. APPLE BITTER EOT. 



same fungus causes the rotting of the grapes, and, if all the facts 

 were known, this Glmosporium fructigenum, Berk., might be 

 definitely charged with a large percentage of the decay of other 

 fruits. An apple badly affected with the bitter rot is shown in 

 Fig. 5, but one regrets that many of the details are lost in the 

 photo-engraving process by which the engraving was made. 



This form of rot while it may be met with upon the tree or 

 in the windfalls beneath it in late summer, is most abundant in 

 the storeroom and is decidedly contagious that is, an apple that 

 is decaying with the bitter rot is able to communicate the decay 

 to other fruits by means of the myriads of spores which are 

 borne upon the surface of the ruptured pimples. These facts sug- 

 gest the precaution of discarding any rotting fruits whenever 

 found. There is little room for doubt that were the harvested 

 fruits themselves sprayed with a fungicide, it would aid mate- 

 rially in preserving them. Thus, if a thin coating of the Bor- 

 deaux mixture was applied, the spores of bitter rot and other 

 decay germs would not so readily germinate. But there is the 



VOL. XLIII. 7 



