8 BITTER PIT INVESTIGATION: 



The largest yield hitherto recorded was that from a Stone Pippin in the Harcourt district, 35 years 

 of age, which bore a crop of 45 bushel cases, with over 17 cwt. of good, average-sized fruit. The 

 tree had been very lightly pruned and was practically free from Bitter Pit (see Report III., Figs. 34-37). 



The history of this Greensborough Rymer tree will throw some light on the phenomenal yield, 

 favoured, of course, by the season and its position in the orchard. 



It is about 26 years old, and the stock is said to have been a sucker, on which the Rymer was 

 grafted. For the first twenty years it never bore a full crop, and it was only on every other year 

 afterwards that it did so. 



Meanwhile it grew luxuriantly, being situated alongside an open drain. When the photograph 

 was taken in May, 1916, it had a height of 25 feet, a spread of 33 feet, and a girth of 3 feet 1| inches, 

 one foot from the ground. Add to this that the previous season it bore no crop and the heavy yield 

 is largely accounted for. 



The fruit was well distributed over the tree, as may be seen from Fig. 0, and the fruit-bearing wood 

 was well matured, there being very little young wood. The lateral system of pruning was adopted, 

 and the laterals, which were three to four years old, were shortened where necessary in order to secure 

 a normal as opposed to an abnormal growth. 



No manure was applied. The tree was sprayed twice with arsenate of lead for Codlin Moth, 

 but no Woolly Aphis was present. 



The fruit was picked on 4th May, and Fig. 7 shows a total of 401 eases, 17J of which were wind- 

 falls. Sixteen cases of windfalls had been previously removed, as the picking had been unduly delayed, 

 so that there were 561 cases in all. The average weight of fruit in each case was 40 Ibs., so that one 

 ton of apples was produced by this one tree. With such an excessive crop of average-sized fruit there 

 was no Bitter Pit to speak of, only two apples being found among the windfalls with slight traces of it. 



In this well-established orchard, there are six other old Rymer trees, which are also free from 

 Pit, and it is interesting to note the treatment of them in the orchardist's own words : "I prune very 

 little, only cut a bit out here and there if inclined to get too thick ; most of the fruit laterals and 

 spurs are many years old and well distributed over the tree ; hence no Pit." 



The ground in this orchard is on a river flat, and consists of an alluvial soil, so that the roots 

 of the trees can readily enter and spread freely, and the trees continue to bear to a good old age. 



OLD APPLE TREE. 



An old apple tree in the same orchard, planted about 1838, shows that different varieties growing 

 on the same stock may be differently affected as regards Pit. The girth of this tree at a height of 

 one foot from the ground was 5 feet 9 inches. It was re-worked to Rymer in 1891, and Rome Beauty 

 was grafted on to a limb which had been broken with the weight of the fruit in 1912 (Fig. 8). 



Rome Beauty was free from Pit, while Rymer was affected to the extent of about 40 per cent., 

 thus showing that in this instance the scion, rather than the stock, was the determining factor. 



BURNLEY HORTICULTURAL GARDENS. 



There are some varieties of apple which are so constitutionally liable to Pit that they are affected 

 continuously year after year, notwithstanding the varying seasons. The list of varieties given in 

 Report IV., Appendix II., showing the relative amount of Pit for four years in succession, bears this 

 out. While some varieties are invariably free, others are invariably badly pitted, and among the 

 latter stand out prominently Annie Elizabeth, Garden Royal, Lord Wolseley, Northern Spy, Shockley, 

 and Lord Suffield. 



It is sometimes observed that a variety may be badly affected while still young and growing 

 vigorously, and that it may grow out of it, as it were, when it reaches a mature age. But there are 

 instances where a variety is just as badly affected in its old age as in its youth. A striking illustra- 

 tion of this is seen in Lord Suffield. In these gardens there is an old tree of this variety, now 37 years 



