11 



Mx. Dicey, Manager of the Cape Orckard Company, has written me 

 as follows regarding the Wenmiers Hoek apple : " I have bought many 

 thousands of bushels of this apple, grown in this valley, and from all parte 

 of the Western Province, and I have discovered so Uttle bitter-pit in them 

 that I look upon them as being practically immune. This peculiarity in 

 this special variety (Wemmers Hoek) seems worth investigating. I cannot 

 call to mind any other apple which has shown similar immunity." 



The Wemmers Hoek apple is said to have arisen from seed sown on 

 the farm Wemmers Hoek, of the late Johannes Haumann, of French Hoek, 

 in the Paarl District of Cape Colony, over a hundred years ago. The 

 original tree is, I understand, still standing there to-day, and is propagated 

 by in-layers. 



For information regarding the Koo apple, I am indebted to Mr. S. G. 

 Burger, of De Dooms, Cape Colony. This gentleman says : " The Koo 

 apple is a tree known for the last fifty years on the farm Concordia, near 

 Montagu, Cape Colony. As far as I can trace it back, it originated from 

 seed, and was not imported, as the places at that time were inhabited by 

 simple Dutch families ; old inhabitants told me that they originated 

 from seed." 



Both these varieties are said to be blight-proof. 



There is one other variety of apple in South Africa which I am in- 

 formed on rehable authority remains free from bitter-pit, but as I am 

 unfamiliar with it I give it with some diffidence, although, it is worthy of 

 special note that this variety also — the Bokveld — has undoubtedly arisen 

 as a Cape seedling. 



My observations on apples grown in the Transvaal are similar to those 

 ill Cape Colony — all introduced varieties are subject to bitter-pit, and 

 perhaps much more so than those grown at the Cape, for it is no uncommon 

 thing to see the total crop affected, whereas no trace of the spotting can 

 be found in such apples as the Wemmers Hoek or unnamed South African 

 seedlings growing alongside. 



Characteristics of the Disease. 



Although bitter-pit is commonly regarded as a trouble associated with 

 stored apples, it is by no means infrequently found in the orchards before 

 the fruit is ripe, or even full-sized. Its appearance amongst the fruit 

 •on a tree is very erratic. In some cases, one apple out of a bunch only 

 is affected, while in others all the apples in a cluster are spotted. No 

 hard and fast rules can be laid down as to calculations made regarding 

 the size of the fruit that are affected, for both large and small apples 

 develop the spots, although most frequently it is the larger fruits that first 

 show the trouble. 



Externally, bitter-pit may be recognised by the presence of dark- 

 coloured depressions — varying in size from one-eighth to half an inch 

 across — on the surface of the apple, and especially towards the apical 

 end of the fruit (see Plate I). On slicing the fruit across, these dark 

 depressions of pits are found to be composed of brown patches of tissue, 

 which are considerably tougher in texture than the surrounding healthy 



