22 MISC. PUBLICATION 168, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



sections or anywhere along the routes taken by the shipments. The 

 injury has been found also on fruit removed from storage so late 

 in the spring that there was no possibility of its having been ex- 

 posed to freezing weather in transit. 



The following are the characteristics of transit bruising of ap- 

 ples. There are flat, bruised areas on the sides that were in contact 

 with the lower sides of the boxes as the latter lay in the car. The 

 bruised spots have a water-soaked, darkened appearance, are gen- 

 erally very firm, and may be 1 inch or more in diameter (pi. 10, A). 

 Occasionally the skin covering them is discolored in spots or 

 streaks. In cross section there is usually a water-soaked, glassy, 

 wedge-shaped area extending from the skin toward the center of 

 the apple (pi. 10, B). This area may be shallow or may extend 

 almost to the core. In some instances the inner edge of the area 

 appears as a fairly smooth curve, convex toward the core; in 

 others it is broken by strands or rays having the water-soaked 

 appearance just mentioned and extending radially for as much 

 as % inch beyond the main affected area. Small water-soaked 

 patches or streaks are sometimes seen also underneath bruises 

 produced by the pressure of one apple against another. 



Glassy, water-soaked bruises are not necessarily a sign of freez- 

 ing injury; nor are wedge-shaped injured areas that extend to the 

 core or brown bruised spots under the skin, in which vascular 

 browning has occurred. Investigations have shown that bruises 

 like those just described can be produced by subjecting apples to a 

 jolting similar to that they would receive while in transit by rail. 



In addition to the types of bruising just described, there are 

 ordinary bruises produced during the many handling operations 

 of loading, unloading, and removing the packages into retail 

 channels. These bruises are of various sizes, are soft, and may ap- 

 pear water-soaked at first; generally they become discolored. In 

 cross section definite fractures are evident, and the injured tissue 

 is somewhat pulpy (pi. 10, C). 



Transit bruises can be greatly reduced by not overfilling the 

 packages and by placing cushioning material, such as corru- 

 gated-paper liners, between the apples and the sides of the boxes 

 to absorb the vibrations that cause the bruising. 



(See US, 116.) 



Bull's-Eye Rot 



(Neofabraea perennans Kienh. and N. malicorticis Jacks.) 



CAUSE, OCCURRENCE, AND SYMPTOMS 



The name "bull's-eye rot" is applied in this publication to rots 

 caused by two fungi found on apples grown in the Pacific North- 

 west including British Columbia. One of them, Neofabraea peren- 

 nans, causes perennial canker, which is more or less prevalent on 

 apples grown in all the irrigated districts east of the Cascade 

 Range; the other, N. malicorticis, causes northwestern anthrac- 

 nose, which occurs principally on fruit grown in the more humid 

 districts west of the Cascade Range, but it has been also reported 

 in certain of the more humid parts of the irrigated districts east 

 of this range. These closely related fungi cause rots so similar 

 in appearance that an experienced pathologist has difficulty in 



