Rot of Cherries. 883 
weather at picking time gives promise of being 
close and warm or muggy, then it is exceedingly 
important that the fruit should be picked early. In 
sweet cherries, a delay of a few hours will some- 
times result in the loss of an entire crop from the 
fruit-rot fungus. Cherries and plums should always 
be picked, if possible, when they are perfectly dry. 
This is especially true of the sweet cherries. If 
they are picked when they are wet, and put into 
boxes or baskets in this condition, they will be 
almost certain to decay before reaching the market, 
unless the weather remains very cool. 
This fruit-rot fungus is very serious upon many 
stone fruits. In cherries, “the losses from this dis- 
ease which have come under my observation are 
invariably the result of letting the fruit hang on 
the trees till ripe, and then the rot is very active; 
but cherries should be picked a few days before 
ripe, before they soften, and then the rot does not 
seriously affect them. An illustration of this point, 
which is a most important one, was brought to my 
notice the present season. The last week of June, 
in eastern New York, was very hot and _ close, 
with showers every day or two. The cherries ‘were 
then ripening, and the conditions were favorable for 
the rot to spread. In one orchard, from which 
several tons of cherries were shipped that week, 
there was not more than one hundred and _ fifty 
pounds destroyed by the rot, while in another or- 
chard a few miles distant at least ten tons of the 
game varieties were ruined on the trees. In the first 
