HITTER PIT AND ITS CONTRIBUTING FACTORS. 



73 



of the core and the skin, the moisture in each was determined. The first results were obtained by 

 drying in a water bath at 100° C, and of duplicates to those sampled after eight days results 

 were obtained by the use of the vacuum oven. 



Similar apples from the same tree, and plucked at the same time, were kept for eight days 

 in a cool moist chamber, and similarly treated (table). Dr. Zschokke (98) had previously carried 

 out similar experiments in 1897, and his results are also given for comparison— 



Table XII— Analysis of Apples for Moisture in Tor, .Middle, and !>otto.m Sections. 





Freshly Plucked. 



After 8 Day-. 



i n Vacuum Oven-. 





Top. 



Middle 



Bottom. 



Top. 



Middle. 



lini torn. 



Top. 



Middle 



Bottom. 



Annie Elizabeth — clean 



0 



/o 

 85-50 



0 



/o 

 8(1-23 



0 



/o 



86*12 



0 



/o 



85*68 



0 



/o 

 86*7-1 



0/ 



86*92 



o 



0 



81 *89 



0 



/o 



85*62 



0 



/o 

 85*67 



pitted .. 



85-49 



87-0-1 



87-58 



8(>'13 



86*51 



86*17 



85*09 



85-90 



85-50 



Champ&igne Rcinettc— clean 



85-18 



85-39 



85-82 



8-1*79 



85*14 



85*28 









Yellow Bellflower — clean . . 









86*48 



1 87-46 



87-44 









The water content of the apple is seen to diminish from below upwards, both when picked 

 direct from the tree and after keeping in a cool place for eight days. On an average the difference 

 in moisture between the lower and the upper section is from '5 to 1 per cent., and that difference 

 is sufficiently great to favour the development of pit at the crown end. In Annie Elizabeth, when 

 freshly plucked, there is a greater difference between the moisture of the lower and the upper 

 section in the pitted than in the unpitted, but after keeping, the distinction between the top and 

 bottom disappears. 



HOW IT ORIGINATES. 



Its origin directly beneath the skin and its occurrence towards the eye end of the apple, where 

 transpiration is most active, point to the vessels as being concerned in it, and we shall see that it is 

 only when the vessels fail to supply the pulp-cells with the necessary moisture that they collapse 

 and die, turn brown and toughen. 



If we take, for illustration, a young and vigorous growing apple tree in bearing, as long as 

 nourishment is supplied regularly and there is not too great a rush of sap, as well as no interference 

 from pests, the growing fruit will develop properly. But if the weather is intermittent, or a spell 

 of dry weather followed by heavy showers, especially when the fruit is approaching maturity, then 

 there is a danger of the rapidly-growing pulp-cells becoming overgorged. It must be remembered 

 here, as already pointed out, thai the pulp-cells of the apple, when approaching maturity, only 

 develop new cells to a limited extent, so that the increase in growth is largely due to the enlargement 

 and development of the individual cells already existing. Also, the most rapid and the greatest 

 amount of growth is necessarily taking place towards the periphery, and it is here that the vascular 

 network envelops the pulp, so as to regulate and distribute evenly the water supply among the 

 constantly and rapidly enlarging cells. The net must keep pace with the growing and expanding 

 apple or the commissariat will become disarranged, and the stretching must not be too violent nor 

 too sudden, otherwise all the meshes of the net may not be completely formed. 



From the description already given of the structure and functions of the vascular network, 

 it will readily be understood that when the pulp-cells are being suddenly enlarged by the rapid 

 absorption of water, the net may not be able to form sufficiently fast to keep pace with the growing 



