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Mae CON Ol Or VAP BIER ROT, 
INTRODUCTION. 
Accounts of severe losses of the apple crop of the United States 
caused by bitter-rot (Glomerella rufomaculans (Berk.) Spaulding & 
von Schrenk) date back to 1870, and since that time destructive out- 
breaks of this disease have occurred at frequent intervals with appar- 
ently increasing severity until a loss of several million dollars in a 
single season is not uncommon. An epidemic occurred in 1900, when 
it was estimated that the damage to the apple crop of the United States 
~ was $10,000,000,“ and in 1902 the attacks of the fungus were again 
exceedingly severe. 
Although the fungus causing this disease occurs in nearly every 
apple-growing State in the eastern part of the United States, severe 
losses from it have been confined to the southern half of the apple belt, 
Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky 
suffering especially in recent years. 
This disease has had. the attention of the Department of Agriculture 
for a number of years. In the Report of the Chief of the Section of 
Vegetable Pathology for 1887’ appeared the first economic discussion 
of the disease by an American writer, followed in 1891° by a more 
extensive account of the fungus by Miss E. A. Southworth. In 1903 
Messrs. von Schrenk and Spaulding,” of the Mississippi Valley Labora- 
tory of the Bureau, published a general account of the bitter-rot dis- 
ease with a description and life history of the fungus causing it. 
In 1903 the attention of the Bureau of Plant Industry was called to 
an outbreak in Virginia and West Virginia, and the writer was detailed 
to investigate the trouble and arrange for remedial experiments. 
During the months of August and September (1903) a number of 
orchards in each of these States were visited, and it was found that, 
although several other good varieties were affected, the highly prized 
Yellow Newtown (also known as Albemarle Pippin) was, as usual, the 
greatest sufferer. In some cases the destruction was complete, and to 
«Woods, A. F. Annual Reports, Department of Agriculture, 1901, p. 47. 
6 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1887, pp. 348-350, Pl. ITI. 
¢ Journal of Mycology, VI, pp. 164-173, Pl. XVI. 
@ Bul. 44, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1903. 
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