JANUARY 28, 1S9I.] 



Garden and Forest. 



43 



only the faintish acid reaction. The preventive' in this case is 

 to gather the fruit as fast as it matures. 



The cracking of apples and pears during growth is generally 

 due to the Fungus parasite (Fusicladium) that causes the scab 

 upon these fruits. It is, indeed, the advanced stage of this 

 disease. The preventive is to spray the trees early in the sea- 

 son and at intervals thereafter with a solution composed of 

 one and an eighth ounces of copper carbonate dissolved in 



circle often remains green after that of the remainder has 

 assumed the color of maturity. The growth of the ripening 

 part proceeding faster than that of the remainder, a rupture 

 takes place between the two portions. 



The cracking of melons often seems due to a similar cause. 

 The blossom end of the fruit ripens faster than the stem end, 

 and the expansion of this part causes a bursting of the apex. 

 This difficulty appears to be characteristic of certain varieties. 



Fig. 10. — A Vase of Chrysanthemums. — See page 38, 



one quart of aqua ammonia and diluted with twenty-five gal- 

 lons of water. 



The cracking of ripe tomatoes in wet weather is probably 

 due, as in the case of ripe apples, to the absorption of water 

 through* the skin. But tomatoes sometimes crack in dry 

 weather and while still immature, which must be ascribed to 

 another cause. Sometimes this appears to result from an 

 unequal ripening of the fruit. In this case a circle of cracks 

 forms about the stem, and the portion of the skin within this 



In a large number of seedlings of crossed parentage grown 

 the past season some of the fruits burst from the blossom 

 end almost to the stem, and in some cases the parts curved 

 backward as if the fruit were being turned inside out. 



The tendency to cracking of the fruit is apparently due in 

 some cases to a pathologic condition of the plant. In an 

 experiment in breeding the Tomato, a strain of the Cook's 

 Favorite variety grown several generations from unripe seed 

 formed the past season seventy-four per cent, of cracked fruits 



