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fruit of the apple tree is a thickening, hardening, and 

 discoloration of its skin in a patch or patches, attended 

 by a roughness of its skin. A distortion of the fruit 

 and a diminution of its pulp or flesh is the conse- 

 quence. Similar blotches occur upon the peach, as 

 mentioned in our volume on that fruit, p. 176. The 

 cause appears also to be the Same in both instances, 

 viz. exposure to sudden transitions of temperature. 

 Mr. Williams, of Pitmaston, concurs in this opinion. 

 He says that the alternating temperature, light, shade, 

 dryness and moisture, which occur many times in the 

 course of a day, when July and August are showery, 

 are the causes of apples becoming bronzed with russet, 

 an opinion to which he arrived after lengthened obser- 

 vations during many seasons. Continued rain, pre- 

 ceded and followed by a cloudy sky, does not seem to 

 produce the same effect ; but the sudden intense 

 light which commonly succeeds a shower at the time 

 when the fruit is wet, injures the skin, and occasions 

 small cracks, which, when viewed through a magnify- 

 ing glass, resemble the cracked surface called the net- 

 work of the melon. If the injury is greater, the sur- 

 face turns nearly black in spots or patches. A further 

 injury occasions the crack to become deeper, and 

 enters the solid flesh of the apple ; but if this happens 

 in an early stage of growth, the surface of the crack 

 becomes dry and hard; and if the injury is done when 

 the fruit is nearly ripe, it rots. These accidental 



