4 



62 cents per barrel. If free from spot the same variety would have 

 sold readily for 75 cents per bushel. Out of 15 barrels he had : — 



First-cla^s bbls. 



Second-tlaes 1 " 



Third " 4 " 



Fourth " 10 " 



The reduction in value in the selling price is only one side of 

 the question. When the loss resulting from diminished size is con- 

 sidered it fully equals the first source of loss, making a total direct 

 and indirect depreciation of value, which, when compared with first- 

 class fruit, would stand as about 1 to 4. 



The importance of gaining a practical knowledge of the habits of 

 this fungus is manifest, and it is a matter of immediate and vital 

 interest to all fruit-growers to know that a treatment which pro- 

 mises to be entirely successful has been discovered, and is already 

 being used to a considerable extent. 



CAUSE OF APPLE SCAB. 



The apple scab is caused by a minute parasitic fungus, a low 

 form of plant life, which, by living on the leaf and fruit of the apple, 

 prevents assimilation in the former and the development of the 

 latter. It is not so generally known that the same fungus attacks 

 both the leaves and the fruit. Prof. Scribner * says :, "On the 

 leaves the first manifestations of the presence of the parasite are the 

 appearance here and there over the surface, of smoky olive green 

 spots, rounded in outline. The older spots range from one-eighth to 

 one-half an inch in diameter, or they may appear as lai-go irregular 

 blotches, by the running together of several of the spots first 

 formed. They are for the most part confined to the upper side of 

 the leaf, which often becomes much distorted through the unequal 

 development of the two surfaces. The colour of the older sj^ots is 

 nearly black and their surface somewhat velvety. The growth of 

 the young shoots is often seriously checked through the direct 

 action of the fungus upon them, and when the foliage of a tree is 

 much affected its nutrition must be seriously impaired. The tree 

 is rendered less liable to withstand the severe cold of the winter 

 season, and is rendered more likely to injury from early and late 

 frosts." Cool damp weather is especiall}' favourable to the develop- 



' Scribner, Fungous Diseases. 



