B. T. I.— 431. 



APPLE BLOTCH, A SERIOUS' DISEASE OF 

 SOUTHERN ORCHARDS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Following the successful treatment of bitter-rot in Virginia in 

 1905 by the Department of Agriculture, demonstration work for 

 this and other diseases was instituted in the Middle West in the 

 spring of 190G. The demonstrations were primarily intended to 

 show the best methods of controlling the apple scab and bitter-rot. 

 both of which had been reported as very destructive throughout that 

 region in previous years, but as the season progressed it was found 

 that apple blotch was far more destructive than apple scab and bitter- 

 rot combined. The writers, who were in charge of this demonstra- 

 tion work, naturally turned their attention to an investigation of the 

 blotch disease. 



The attention of the Department was first called to this disease in 

 1897. when specimens of it were received from Maryland and Texas. 

 Mr. M. B. Waite photographed the affected fruits and determined the 

 fungus to be a species of Phyllosticta. Since that time specimen- of 

 it have been received frequently from various part- of the eastern 

 United States, but in no case was it reported as a serious pest. Upon 

 inquiry, however, it was found that it must have been prevalent to an 

 injurious extent in the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri for the 

 past >ix or seven years. It has been commonly confused with apple 

 scab and the damage done by it attributed to scab, which probably 

 accounts for its serious nature having been overlooked until recently. 



The disea>e is well distributed over the eastern half of the United 

 States, having been recorded at the Department of Agriculture from 

 Alabama. Arkansas, Georgia. Illinois. Kansas, Kentucky. Maryland, 

 Michigan. Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina. Ohio. 

 Oklahoma. Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas. Vir- 

 ginia, and West Virginia, but it reaches the height of destructiveness 

 in the southern portion of the Ozark plateau. In northwestern Ar- 

 kansas and portions of southern Missouri 7"» per cent of the crop is 

 commonly affected, and the disease i- almost as bad in portion- of 

 southern Illinois. During September. L906, the writers visited many 

 of the orchards of Benton County. Ark., and found that fully 50 per 

 cent of the fruit in these orchards was rendered unfit for barreling 

 60103— Bull. 144— 01) 2 7 



